CNN Business investigating culture of how it treats women: report

CNN Business is investigating its internal culture and how it treats female staff, Insider reported Tuesday.

The probe is being called a “work environment assessment,” said three sources who spoke with Insider anonymously. Reportedly, human resources employees from WarnerMedia, the AT&T division that houses CNN, are conducting the investigation.

The probe is not specifically looking into any one person’s actions but rather the overall culture of the CNN unit, Insider reported.

CNN did not immediately respond to The Hill’s requests for comment and declined to speak to Insider about the matter.

The investigation began in response to the departure of CNN reporter Annalyn Kurtz, Insider said, who was senior editor for CNN Business until February, according to her LinkedIn profile. Kurtz is now an adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.

Kurtz did not immediately respond to The Hill’s requests for comment and declined to comment to Insider.

The role of women at CNN was recently criticized publicly by Brooke Baldwin, the former host of “CNN Newsroom,” in an interview she gave to Ms. magazine a few weeks before leaving the network.

“The most influential anchors on our network, the highest-paid, are men,” Baldwin told Ms. “My bosses, my executives are men. The person who oversees CNN dayside is a man, and my executive producer for 10 years is a man.”

However, Baldwin added, women are slowly making inroads at CNN. 

“We have a woman who is in charge of CNN Digital, CNN.com. We have now a woman who is in charge of most of domestic news gathering. So, like, little by little, by having women in places of power,” she told Ms.