That’s the headline currently up on Drudge, as Jonathan Klein of CNN, and Jeff Zucker of NBC walk the plank today, leaving Roger Ailes of Fox “the Man Standing,” as Drudge notes:
As those headlines illustrate, Zucker was somewhat circumspect. Klein though, was a bit more melodramatic:
CNN president Jonathan Klein didn’t come into work this morning.
“I didn’t want to put people in an awkward situation,” he told me. Two days ago, he learned he was out of a job.
On Wednesday afternoon, CNN Worldwide president Jim Walton, who was in New York visiting from Atlanta, called a meeting with Klein, but ominously didn’t tell him what it was about. When Klein arrived, Walton cursorily told him he was being removed, to be replaced by HLN chief Ken Jautz. It was a brief conversation.
“People get shot in our business. I got shot,” Klein said in a phone interview.
Which dovetails remarkably well with the sort of rhetoric that caused Klein’s predecessor to be shown the door.
Back in April, I explored the “Twilight Of The Gods: CNN’s Current, Pitiful State,” linking to post at the Wizbang blog that headlined, “From Crossfire To Tea Bagging Jokes: How Jonathan Klein Destroyed CNN.”
Klein of course gave PJM its name in 2004. As a blogger at Red State notes, “The Pajamahadeen Gets the Last Laugh on Jonathan Klein at CNN:”
Klein is out as head of CNN. We all remember his rant during the Dan Rather “fake memo” episode:
“It’s an important moment, because you couldn’t have a starker contrast between the multiple layers of checks and balances, and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing what he thinks.”
Jim Geraghty of NRO online said it best back in 2004:
“From his comments before and after his “apology” — a thin gruel of legalistic weasel words that stretches the definition of that word — Rather has made clear he believes that those clad in pajamas and typing on computers are in no position to judge him. Our role, in his vision, is to passively imbibe his disinformative propaganda the way geese receive cornmeal to make fois grae. He sits behind his anchor desk, confident that his status is impenetrable and that any attack made by the Pajamahadeen against his position would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical errors we may have proved. He steadfastly believes that CBS television stations remain the ultimate persuasive power in the news universe, and he intends to use it.
Sadly, that mindset is still remarkably pervasive among those who fancy themselves members of the Ruling Class Media.
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