CNN network bosses have reportedly pulled veteran anchor Jim Sciutto off the air and ordered him to “address a personal situation” following a bad fall in Amsterdam.
The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday that Sciutto, 52, had not been on the air on Tuesday or Wednesday to host “CNN Newsroom” with his co-anchor Poppy Harlow — and that he had been placed on personal leave by the higher-ups.
The report tied Sciutto’s apparent personal leave to an internal CNN investigation into a “serious fall” he suffered in Amsterdam on the way home from one of three trips to Ukraine. Sciutto, who is also the network’s chief national security correspondent, traveled to the Eastern European nation three times — in February, March, and April — to cover to ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
According to a report published last week by The Daily Beast’s Confider, on at least one of those trips — despite the fact that CNN offered a more direct flight back from Poland to the United States — Sciutto and his producer apparently opted to make a stop in the Dutch capital on his way home. While there, he suffered what was described as a “serious fall.” Confider noted that the anchor had “since recovered,” but was then “directed by CNN to address a ‘personal situation.’”
Neither CNN nor Sciutto has publicly addressed his absence from the airwaves.
The network has appeared to struggle in the weeks and months since it merged with Warner Bros. Discovery and new head honcho Chris Licht took the reins. Licht has repeatedly and explicitly declared his intention to bring CNN back to a more balanced approach to reporting the news — and he has already presided over a number of shakeups within the company.
Among the casualties so far are veteran media reporter Brian Stelter, former chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, and longtime White House correspondent John Harwood. And prior to the merger, former network chief Jeff Zucker resigned over a consensual but undisclosed relationship with Allison Gollust (she left CNN a short time later). Popular anchor Chris Cuomo was fired just weeks earlier over reports that he advised his embattled brother, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, amid multiple scandals regarding sexual misconduct allegations and concerns that he had mishandled his state’s response to COVID.