It looks like there might be another shake-up at CNN in the offing, this time involving Jim Sciutto.
It sounds like there’s a juicy backstory, from what has been revealed so far.
According to the Daily Mail, Sciutto was ordered to take leave to deal with a “personal situation” after a “serious fall” that he had when he was in Amsterdam earlier in the year. The last Newsroom show he co-anchored with Poppy Harlow was on Monday and CNN isn’t responding to questions about what it is all about. He also published an article on CNN on October 3 about possible nuclear escalation by Russia in Ukraine.
Earlier this week, The Daily Beast’s Confider newsletter reported that Sciutto “was the subject of a CNN internal investigation earlier this year…after he had a serious fall in Amsterdam enroute home from a reporting trip to the Ukraine” with a unidentified producer even though CNN had their teams “taking direct flights home from Poland.”
The question: what was he doing in Amsterdam with the “unidentified producer” if the CNN people were flying directly home from Poland? Confider says Sciutto has since “recovered” from the fall. So the further question would be what did he do that they are taking issue with here?
Sciutto is married to former ABC News correspondent Gloria Rivera. He took three trips to Ukraine earlier in the year in February, March, and April.
Sciutto’s mysterious leave is only the latest in the continuing CNN drama.
Since CEO Chris Licht has taken the helm with a reported aim to focus CNN back on news again, he’s dumped Jeff Zucker, Brian Stelter, and John Harwood. He’s also moved Don Lemon to the morning slot, with his last evening show being on October 7. He will co-anchor the morning program with Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins, while Alysn Camerota and Laura Coates take over his nighttime spot.
Sciutto was a former Obama chief of staff and he was horrible in his spot, so he’s not going to be missed anytime soon. It’s not clear how long this “leave” (or should we say suspension?) is going to be. There’s more here not being said about what went on in Amsterdam. We can hazard a guess when it seems to involve an unidentified producer and they’re upset about it. More is likely going to start spilling out, now that this has come out. Neither CNN nor Sciutto is talking about it right now. But you know it’s going to leak.