“My last day on Twitter … I’m logging off.”
What sane Twitter user hasn’t said this a hundred times?
But on Monday, it came from the unlikeliest of sources: Chris Licht, who is about to take over Jeff Zucker’s old role as head of CNN.
Though Twitter has long become the go-to for journalists both absorbing and distributing information, the new honcho at one of the nation’s top outlets seems to believe the echo-chamber nature of the platform has become too much of a downside to carry on.
“May 2 will be my first official day in the office at CNN & my last day on Twitter,” he tweeted Monday morning. “Twitter can be a great journalistic tool, but it can also skew what’s really important in the world. I’m logging off & looking forward to working with the incredible team at CNN.”
If he makes good on his promise, Licht — who most recently ran “Late Night With Stephen Colbert” before taking over for Zucker — will leave behind 26.9K followers, 2,700+ tweets, and tens of thousands of exclamation points.
Licht announced his Twitter retirement while Elon Musk is in the middle of a bid to buy the social media giant, made less likely when the platform adopted a poison-pill strategy to avoid hostile takeover. It also comes as the New York Times’ top leadership encouraged its journalists earlier this month to spend “meaningfully less time” on the platform.
Will Licht make his new reports do the same?
Stand by for news …
