CNN boss Jeff Zucker was sucker-punched at a CNN town hall meeting last month when a staffer offered a brutally honest critique during a Q&A with Anderson Cooper.
“How do we stop managers . . . from being afraid of you?” asked brave Atlanta-based producer James Curry in a question read by Cooper at the session in New York seen by all bureaus. “It seems that everyone is on pins and needles whenever you give guidance . . . The bottom line is managers seem to fear you and act very strange when you’re around.”
“I thought that was going to be Piers Morgan’s question,” a shocked Zucker joked before telling staff to “ignore” half his “crazy” ideas.
“I don’t want people to feel like that,” he said. “What I want is for people to push back . . . What I like . . . is for people to tell me I’m wrong. I throw out a lot of ideas, and honestly half of them are crazy.”
He then mock ordered Anderson, who pretended to be afraid of him, “OK, do the next question.”
A CNN source wondered, “All the questions were pre-screened. How did that one get through?”