Jeff Zucker, Trump’s Cable News Nemesis

On Sept. 28, Zucker got into bed at home and settled in to watch the season premiere of Saturday Night Live. It didn’t take long for the show to mention CNN, the cable news network he’s run since 2013. The opening bit featured a phone call between Rudy Giuliani (Kate McKinnon) and President Trump (Alec Baldwin) about covering up the Ukraine scandal. “Rudy, where are you right now?” Trump asked. “I’m on CNN,” Giuliani responded. Later, the show devoted a sketch to a CNN “Impeachment Town Hall.” “Good evening,” said anchor Erin Burnett (Cecily Strong). “The Democratic candidates have united together and decided to handle the impeachment the only way they know how—with a muddled, 10-person town hall debate.”

In real life, Giuliani’s wild-eyed CNN interviews, in which he’s jawboned with the likes of anchors Jake Tapper and Chris Cuomo, have been one of 2019’s most fascinating, spittle-flying sideshows. And the network’s town halls have given practically every candidate an opportunity—and some, multiple opportunities—for an extended Q&A with potential voters uninterrupted by rivals. SNL’s portrayals acknowledged the “great impact” CNN has played in a loony year in politics and its “part in the popular culture,” Zucker says a few days later in his office on the 17th floor of CNN’s new Manhattan headquarters.