CHRIS GETS LICHT: Jeff Zucker’s inmates still run the CNN asylum.

The irony of so many at CNN still dedicated to Jeff Zucker’s shadow campaign is that there is no other human being alive on the planet more responsible for Donald Trump’s cultural resurrection, and political career, than Jeff Zucker. He leaned into the political war and attempted to position CNN as Trump’s heel, just as he did with guiding Trump to the number-one-rated television show in the country with The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice. Jeff Zucker knows how to make stars — and that’s what network infotainment “journalists” fancy themselves to be these days. Jake Tapper will yuk it up with Stephen Colbert. Anderson Cooper will get completely shitfaced on New Year’s Eve and Jim Acosta will cry at the border wall.

Everyone Jeff Zucker hired at CNN was playing a part that he wanted them to play — and it led to record ratings, book deals and talk show appearances. Under Licht, that all sort of disappeared, and it’s back to reading the teleprompter with cause. Much was made of CNN’s decision to host former president Donald Trump in a town hall format, and the usual theatrics followed. CNN, however, needs Trump, now more than ever. That is why Chris Licht is out of a job, and why Jeff Zucker’s inmates are still running the asylum.

Related: CNN Honcho Chris Licht Is Out. Will His Corporate Overlords Now Clean House?

It demonstrated Licht’s biggest problem, as reported by former CNN anchor Brian Stelter and nearly every other media reporter eager to jump on the — mostly correct — narrative that the boss had “lost the room.” But there are a lot of very unpopular CEOs that don’t get written up in their own company’s newsletter.

So while CNN’s rank and file are likely thrilled that their nemesis is out as CEO, it doesn’t change the WBD mission for the network. WBD CEO David Zaslav and lead shareholder John Malone have made abundantly clear that they see CNN as a nonpartisan news outlet willing to treat all news as nonpartisan.

Good luck with that in 2023 — viewers want to know the worldviews of who they’re watching on TV; and it’s impossible for journalists not to express those worldviews when preening on Twitter.