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Amanpour Leaving CNN: The Expert Who Predicted Both Outcomes

CNN's Amanpour to leave network next June after 43 years. The whole segment, as it aired. Guests who wandered in, and the anchors who let them.

On air
Hank Ledger, with Winston Abernathy Tagg (Professor of Departure Studies)
Aired
on Late Night BBN
Length
1:45
“I predicted that in nineteen eighty-four.”
Winston Abernathy Tagg

The story behind it, and the real reporting →

Transcript

What BBN said on air. Comedy, with fictional anchors.

  1. Hank LedgerChristiane Amanpour says she is leaving CNN at the end of June, after forty-three years. Joining us is Winston Tagg, author of Don't Say Why.

  2. Hank LedgerProfessor, did you see this coming?

  3. Winston Abernathy TaggYes. I predicted it in twenty nineteen. Well, twenty seventeen.

  4. Winston Abernathy TaggI also predicted she would stay, so I'm covered both ways, and I have a chapter for each.

  5. Hank LedgerBoth chapters. In one book.

  6. Winston Abernathy TaggChapter four is the leaving, chapter five is the staying, and chapter six says it was always about the lighting.

  7. Winston Abernathy TaggI'm testing this travel pillow for the tour, by the way.

  8. Hank LedgerShe said she had a few sleepless nights, and then decided to separate from CNN, her partner of forty-three fantastic years.

  9. Hank LedgerIs that a breakup or a retirement?

  10. Winston Abernathy TaggNeither. It's a transition. I said so in twenty fifteen. Actually, twenty twelve. People forget that I was early.

  11. Hank LedgerThe exit comes weeks after Paramount Skydance took over CNN's parent company, and she raised concerns about that takeover in May.

  12. Hank LedgerShe hasn't said why she's leaving. Do you think the two are connected?

  13. Winston Abernathy TaggI can't say. But I predicted the takeover in two thousand nine, and I predicted the weeks after it, which is where we are now.

  14. Hank LedgerCNN's chief executive, Mark Thompson, says he's very sorry to see her go but accepts it is the right time for her.

  15. Hank LedgerIs that what a new owner says about the old tenants?

  16. Winston Abernathy TaggYes, it's page ninety in the book, and I wrote it in nineteen ninety-eight. That's before the pillow was invented.

  17. Hank LedgerNineteen ninety-eight.

  18. Winston Abernathy TaggI also predicted her podcast with her ex-husband goes on. I'm good with exes. The book covers that too.

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