Brian Stelter & Reliable Sources Have Been Axed

[Me.]

He was told yesterday that today would be his last show

“CNN is canceling its Sunday media affairs show Reliable Sources, and host Brian Stelter is departing the network, Stelter tells NPR.

CNN chief Chris Licht informed Stelter of the decision yesterday. Licht has been making cuts throughout the network since taking the helm as part of Warner Bros. Discovery's takeover of the old Time Warner company.

The network pulled the plug on its standalone digital platform, CNN+, for which it had hired former NPR host Audie Cornish and former Fox News host Chris Wallace, before it had been launched. (Both stars have stayed on at CNN.)”

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/18/1118197553/brian-stelter-cnn-canceled-show

“Still, the sudden departure of longtime media reporter Stelter and the decades-running Reliable Sources has left both on-air and behind-the-scenes talent at the Warner Bros Discovery-owned cable newser worried about both the direction CNN is going and their own jobs.
Reliable Sources’ Oliver Darcy announced on social media Thursday that he would remain at CNN, a statement he reiterated in Thursday’s newsletter. To quell concerns, Licht made a point of noting Darcy’s role and future plans in today’s meeting. “Oliver Darcy will be working on a reimagined ‘Reliable Sources’ newsletter,” he told staff. “We will be expanding. We hope to relaunch in the next few weeks.”

As the merger was being examined by the Justice Department, Malone in November told CNBC that he wanted CNN to “evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists.” Then, after Jeff Zucker’s exit from the network in February, Stelter wrote in his newsletter about Malone’s potential influence and examined it on his show. He wrote that Malone’s comments had “stoked fears that Discovery might stifle CNN journalists and steer away from calling out indecency and injustice.”

https://deadline.com/2022/08/cnn-firings-brian-stelter-chris-licht-john-malone-warner-bros-discovery-1235096292/

[PortTack]

1. Worried about the direction they are going??? Na...the RW backers will prop them up

Since when did the truth or good journalism matter with these yahoos?!

[jimfields33]

2. If you can't get the eyeballs, your going to get fired. Period.

You need viewers to keep your job. Stelter clearly didn’t get enough. CNN+ was a disaster. The network to start over. What they are doing the last decade was not interesting enough to hold viewers.

[UTUSN]

3. STELTER went out with class today, while also setting off non-stop blasts - UPDATED with video

Last edited Sun Aug 21, 2022, 01:40 PM - Edit history (1)

He and his guests (Carl BERNSTEIN, Brian KAREM, others), while allowing that "centrism" isn't a bad word, pinpointed Drumpf and "the (Drumpf) years" about "one party" being extreme in calling the press "the enemy of the people" and lying lying lying. There was a long segment about "the future of CNN" in which there was a blunt calling out of MALONE, who was noted as saying he had nothing to do with the cancellation of Reliable Sources, but the female guest with a Brit accent called him out as being a Libertarian. In the next to last segment he had the first guest of 30 years ago as the last one, KAREM who is quite the bomb thrower, who reinforced the points made throughout. Yet throughout said that he loves CNN forever and that it will go on.

In his last segment he said "nobody knows" what he's going to say, is not edited/censored, but it was a litany of thanks to wife, children, mentors, coworkers, and I think LICHT.

Note to Stephen COLBERT: Lay some whoop and influence on your former producer, LICHT.

********QUOTE*****

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Karem

Brian KAREM

.... During the Gulf War, he was one of the first reporters to enter Kuwait City after its liberation.[20] During the National Drug Summit in San Antonio, Texas in 1992, Karem asked then President George H. W. Bush to comment on claims referring to the event as a "joke".[21] Karem lost his job after the incident but later gained an interview with Sam Donaldson on ABC and a mention from The Tonight Show host Jay Leno.[22] ....

While covering the Trump presidency, Karem gained attention for his interactions with administration officials. On June 27, 2017, Karem confronted then deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on "inflammatory" comments about the performance of the press while covering President Donald Trump.[29] One year later, Karem confronted Sanders again on the Administration's policy of seizing children from their parents at United States border crossings, saying "Come on, Sarah, you're a parent! Don't you have any empathy for what these people are going through? They have less than you do. Sarah, come on, seriously."[30]

On July 11, 2019, following an event at the White House Rose Garden, Karem called conservative social media representatives in attendance "a group of people eager for demonic possession." The remark prompted Sebastian Gorka, a former deputy assistant to President Trump and now a radio talk-show host, to confront Karem, yelling across the lawn: "And you're a journalist, right?" Karem replied with what some consider a taunt saying, "Come on over here and talk to me, brother. We can go outside and have a long conversation."[31] Accusing Karem of issuing a threat, Gorka walked across the lawn yelling, "You're not a journalist! You're a punk!" in front of a row of White House media and cameras.[32]

Following the July 11 incident, the White House Press Office suspended Karem's press pass on August 2, 2019.[33] Karem filed a lawsuit in response before U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Rudolph Contreras blocked the suspension.[34][35] On June 5, 2020, Judge David S. Tatel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled the White House Press Office wrongly suspended Karem's press pass.[36][37] ....

********UNQUOTE*****

[Me.]

6. I REally Liked His Sign-Off Show

I had, in recent months, been watching more CNN than MSNBC and now I don't know. It seems like Discovery is taking over everything and I can't say I like their direction.

[Elessar Zappa]

4. The ratings for the show weren't good.

It might just be a $$$ decision.

[Samrob]

5. I wish I were a gazillionaire to launch a Truth Out network and hire all those good journalists

and punsters who have been fired by CNN and MSNBC.

[gulliver]

7. Stelter was one of the best on CNN

I'll miss him. I'm not sure CNN can find an audience of people who set objective journalism as a standard. Right now, they seem to have staked out the "downer" territory. Everything's dangerous; everything's violent/deadly; everything's scary; everything's emotional.

Jake Tapper can't mention Afghanistan without talking about the so-called catastrophic withdrawal. His whiny, critical tone grossly outweighs his intellectual underpinnings. We're supposed to accept his take on Afghanistan because, what, he has gravitas? Chuckle.

Good luck on journalism, CNN! You've still got a lot of great people.

Oh, and bring back Crossfire. Invite Tucker Carlson to participate. Paul Begala is still fantastic; Carlson is a broken mutant. But it would be great TV, imo.

[IcyPeas]

8. Jeffrey Toobin has been let go also

no great loss. I couldn't believe they rehired him in the first place.

[lark]

9. Wasn't watching CNN much anyway and now I will watch it even less than before.

When there was a big story, I'd often switch over to CNN to get their take, but would usually turn back to MSNBC quickly. Now I will turn them on a whole lot less. Think this will blow up in their faces.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. I am normally watching Jonathon Capehart during this show but taped it and watch the last show

It was okay.