CNN President Jeff Zucker ripped into his network rivals at Fox News on Thursday, accusing the company of being “state-run TV” and a “propaganda machine.”
“It is really state-run TV. It is a pure propaganda machine and I think does an incredible disservice to this country,” said Zucker while speaking at the FT Future of News conference in New York City. “There are a handful of really good journalists there, but I think they are lost in what is a complete propaganda machine and the idea that it’s a news channel is really not the case at all.”
Zucker dug the knife in further still, saying Fox News was even worse than the Russian state media organization TASS.
“TASS has nothing on them,” said Zucker. “I’ll get attacked all night tonight and tomorrow night for saying this but whatever, it’s the truth.”
A spokesperson for Fox News did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.
In his remarks, Zucker also addressed his years leading CNN.
“The last three years have been the best 3 years in the 38 year history of CNN,” he said. “We’ve made CNN relevant again, and it’s part of the national and international conversation.”
He also addressed Fake News and challenged President Trump’s contention that his channel is responsible for it.
“There is fake news. Fake News is a phenomenon and it does exist … It’s come to light especially on the Facebook,” he said. “”What [Trump] means is, news that he doesn’t like.That’s ok. We’re just reporting the facts, reporting the news.”