NEWS'Gaslighting, Manipulation, Bullying': Former 'Newsroom' Host Brooke Baldwin Reveals Why She Left CNN After 13 Years
Three years after hosting her final episode of CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin, the former anchor shared insights into her decision to leave the network, pointing to tensions she had with her executive producer and the network's former president Jeff Zucker.
Brooke Baldwin said she was 'bullied' at CNN.
Baldwin highlighted that her troubles began when she moved from Atlanta to New York in 2014, causing a shift to a long-distance working dynamic with the rest of her producing team.
“My producer made me feel as though I couldn’t do heavy-hitting interviews without him,” the former CNN host explained. “Or, maybe, I allowed him to make it feel like I couldn’t do heavy-hitting interviews without him. The word gaslighting has become so cliché, but that’s what it felt like. Manipulation. Bullying.”
Tensions started after she moved to New York.
Despite enduring the situation quietly to uphold her "good girl" image, Baldwin eventually confronted Zucker in November 2019, expressing her desire to work with a different producer, but the request was denied.
The 44-year-old reportedly told Zucker, 59, that she no longer wanted to work with her producer in November 2019. “I didn’t want him punished – just moved with another anchor to start anew,” Baldwin told an outlet. “A male colleague had made a similar request with success. My request? Denied.”
This marked a turning point for her, leading to a series of events that culminated in her exit from the network.
Zucker's refusal to address the issue led to a sense of isolation and adversity for the TV host, impacting her professional trajectory.
Brooke Baldwin wanted to replace one of her producers.
“Had I inadvertently kicked a hornet’s nest?” she asked. “All because I had gone over my producer’s head to the big boss. It didn’t make sense. I wasn’t accusing this guy of any kind of misconduct. Just as I’d told Jeff, our working relationship had run out of track.”
Zucker told Baldwin that the network would not remove her producer from her show. She remembered him threatening, “I could give your show to someone in Washington tomorrow. [Long pause]. But I won’t because I believe you’re the best broadcaster on this network.”
Leading up to Election Day 2020, Brooke Baldwin was pulled off the air for two months 'with very little explanation.'
Leading up to Election Day 2020, Baldwin was pulled off the air for two months “with very little explanation” and told her Instagram followers it was "not my choice."
“So I got slapped again,” she wrote in an article. “When I got my show back, Jeff cut it in half. This time, I kept my mouth shut. ‘Be grateful,’ Jeff had once told me over lunch a year or two before while we were in contract negotiations.”
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In January 2021, Baldwin received the news of her exit from CNN through a call from her agent, revealing that Zucker had pushed for her departure without providing an explanation.
The subsequent lack of communication from Zucker and her former producer signified a cold and abrupt end to her 13-year tenure at CNN. Despite negotiating her exit, Baldwin faced challenges and obstacles, ultimately bidding farewell to the network in February 2021, with her final show airing in April.
“Life is unfair. People are s-------. Bosses are bullies,” she wrote. “This is not news.”
Vanity Fair provided quotes and sources used in this article.
