Remembering Brian Stelter.
At this point it’s almost cliché to say so, but what Stelter meant when he used words like “misinformation” was right-wing. For all the Reliable Sources anchor’s garment-rending about declining trust in the media, he spent a disproportionate amount of time covering for his industry’s egregiously biased, activist behavior over the course of the past few years. He defended his colleague Chris Cuomo’s unethical role as an adviser to his brother, the disgraced former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. He regularly offered up his show as a platform for Biden officials to repeat White House propaganda. On Jussie Smollett, he argued: “We may never know what happened.” And he himself regularly engaged in “misinformation,” including championing the fraudulent “Steele dossier” narrative. (When new details about the dossier’s fraudulent nature emerged, Stelter protested: “I’m a media reporter, and I’m not a Steele dossier reporter.”)
Via Jon Nicosia: “Once the coming shakeup at @CNN is done, don’t expect John Berman, Alisyn Camerota, Jim Acosta, Brianna Keilar, Jake Tapper, John King, and Don Lemon to still be at the network OR have their current show assignments.” (Sorry, forgot the link)
Steve Krakauer: A change is coming…
In the Trump years, Brian and his show, Reliable Sources, became emblematic of the Jeff Zucker Era of CNN. The office politics subsided, overtaken by the national politics that slowly, then rapidly, became intertwined with the media coverage. Fairly or unfairly – and, in reality, probably somewhere in between – Brian became a stand-in for Zucker himself, both in criticism of the network by places like Fox News, and internally among those who viewed the output as directly from Jeff’s brain.
When Jeff Zucker ran the network, that meant there was no one more untouchable at CNN. But Jeff was fired, and Chris Licht took over. In the new regime, being a stand-in for the old boss was perhaps the worst place to be. Yesterday it was announced Stelter would be leaving CNN, and Reliable Sources was canceled. The last episode airs Sunday, and Stelter’s last newsletter was sent last night. (Longtime media watcher Jon Nicosia’s sources said it was happening back in June.) […]
His exit marks a perception shift at the network, but is also quite obviously a reality check to those still in the building – the rumors about what Chris Licht, and David Zaslav, and John Malone plan to do with CNN are in fact true. The network will not be making small changes. It’s a full-scale overhaul. Jeffrey Toobin was gone last week. Brian Stelter is gone this week. Jim Acosta, Don Lemon, Brianna Keilar, Alisyn Camerota – you are on notice. The changes may have started small and subtle, but then the floodgates open and start coming all at once. (Licht signaled as much in his 9am comments this morning.)
New CEO Tells Employees, ‘You Might Not Like or Understand’ What’s Coming
