With the appointment of Chris Licht as the new head of CNN, the hope in the American media landscape is that the traditional news channel could return to its old form.

The 50-year-old, who previously produced Stephen Colbert's "Late Show" at CBS, is considered a "cleaner" who helped raise the profile of various political programs and improve ratings.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Licht is said to have already told confidants that he relies more on hard news and less on opinion journalism at CNN.

What CNN can do is shown in its coverage of the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Clarissa Ward, who appeared with her reports from Afghanistan during the chaotic withdrawal of American troops last August, reported, among other things, from a subway station in Kharkiv to which citizens had taken refuge.

Matthew Chance approached a group of what he believed to be Ukrainian soldiers, who turned out to be Russian forces, at Antonov airport in north-west Kyiv at Antonov airport and almost got caught in a shootout between the soldiers and an unseen enemy.

As Chance described on CNN's Reliable Sources program, the broadcaster combs through social media to locate hot spots of the conflict and get an on-the-spot picture of it.

Backgrounds and correspondents on site

Even when classifying the events, CNN can rely on its international infrastructure, which includes eleven American and 28 international offices, which has recently been neglected in favor of domestic political opinion-mongering.

For example, Christiane Amanpour, who has hardly been present on CNN in recent years, shed light on the background, including in an interview with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the assessment of Russia's war in Ukraine, the importance of the invasion for Europe and how to deal with it Putin's threats.

Hours before US President Joe Biden's address to the nation, CNN ran a joint Reuters interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi in his bunker in Kyiv, who said it was "wait and see" whether the Russians were serious about peace talks.

The Poynter Institute found CNN to be “essential” television again, looking at current reporting.

With the upcoming takeover by Discovery, there are also increasing signs of a long-term change of course for the news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner.

According to media reports, Discovery boss David Zaslav is being pushed by his mentor John Malone, who heads Discovery's largest shareholder at Liberty Media, to represent the journalistically solid concept of the early days at CNN.

According to the "Wall Street Journal", the new CNN boss will not be put on the spot by Zaslav under cost pressure.

Chris Licht is best known as the creator of the hit morning news-talk show "Morning Joe" on MSNBC and as the producer of Stephen Colbert's "Late Show" on CBS.

He is attested to be a sovereign leader of the editorial team.

With her, he made sure that political issues played a bigger role in Colbert's show than celebrity jokes.

Under Jeff Zucker, CNN, a corporation with more than four thousand employees, has turned to an emotional journalism of the kind Fox News practices with great success for its target group of angry, older conservatives.

Under the impression of Fox News' dominance in ratings, Zucker followed suit and positioned CNN, with always partisan moderators such as Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo, as a left-liberal counterpart to Fox News' right-wing conservative opinion makers.

CNN's journalistic reputation suffered as a result.

The Cuomo affair is characteristic of the Zucker era: last year, CNN, disregarding journalistic principles, became embroiled in an embarrassing affair involving its star presenter Chris Cuomo and his brother, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo,

who lost his post following allegations of sexual assault.

Andrew Cuomo had a nice chat on his brother Chris' show.

After initial hesitation from CNN, Chris Cuomo lost his job when it was revealed that Chris Cuomo had advised his brother on his ultimately futile efforts to stay in office.

That Zucker resigned from his post barely two months later because of a widely publicized relationship fueled speculation that it might have been connected to the Cuomo affair.

As the new CNN boss, Chris Licht has to make up for the loss of credibility that the broadcaster suffered as a result of this affair.

Coverage of the war Putin is waging in Ukraine could prove a catalyst for that task.

Licht is scheduled to take up his post in early May, after Discovery completes its acquisition of Warner Media, which owns CNN.