Brain stelter dismissal: The secret behind Brian stelter's show cancellation and dismissal, page 1
BRIAN STELTER DISMISSAL:
The secret behind Brian Stelter's show cancellation and dismissal
William K. Gray
Copyright
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Copyright © William K. Gray, 2022.
Table of contents
CHAPTER 1: Brian Stelter Profile
CHAPTER 2: Reason why CNN cancelled Brian Stelter's show “Reliable sources”
CHAPTER 1: Brian Stelter Profile
American former TV news anchor Brian Patrick Stelter was the chief media correspondent for CNN and the host of the CNN program Reliable Sources. He was born on September 3, 1985. Stelter previously served as the editor of TVNewser and as a former media reporter for The New York Times.
As a first-year student at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, Stelter started TV Newser in January 2004. It is a blog devoted to reporting on the television news business. Although he continued to edit and write for the blog for the next three years until he earned his bachelor's degree in mass communications with a specialty in journalism, he sold it to Mediabistro.com in July 2004. He is on the governing body of Baltimore Student Media, a nonprofit organization that produces The Towerlight, the independent student newspaper at Towson.
Stelter, 2009
The son of Donna and Mark Stelter, Stelter was born on September 3, 1985, in Damascus, Maryland. He graduated from Damascus High School in 2003 and went on to Towson University, where he was The Towerlight's editor-in-chief from 2005 to 2007. He founded TVNewser while still a student, a blog on cable news and television that he eventually sold to Mediabistro and integrated into the Adweek blog network.
Career
Stelter, then 22 years old and a recent college graduate, began working as a media reporter for The New York Times in July of the same year. He began reporting on television and online media in 2007 for the Business Day and Arts sections of the newspaper. He also played a key role in the blog "Media Decoder." In the autumn of 2020, Stelter released the best-selling book "HOAX: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth," which chronicles the twisted tale of the association between the two media outlets. In an attempt to comprehend the inner workings of Rupert Murdoch's multibillion-dollar media empire, Stelter met with over 250 current and former Fox executives throughout the course of the book's two-year writing period.
The cutthroat world of morning news broadcasts was the subject of his 2013 New York Times best-selling book, "Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV." On Apple's drama "The Morning Show," which is based on his novel, he serves as a consulting producer.
Andrew Rossi, who also included Stelter in his 2011 documentary "Page One: Inside the New York Times," directed the HBO documentary "After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News," which he executive produced. Stelter was also recognized in Fortune Magazine's "40 Under 40: Media & Entertainment" and Forbes Magazine's "30 Under 30: Media" for three years running.
Personal life
Methodist by upbringing, Stelter is atheist. In 2011, Stelter dated Nicole Lapin, a CNBC anchor. He said he had to tell his editor about their connection, and he agreed to refrain from writing about CNBC while they were together. He wed Jamie Shupak, an NY1 traffic anchor, on February 22, 2014. The children of the couple are being brought up in Shupak's religion and were married in a Jewish ceremony. They have a boy who was born in August 2019 and a girl who was born in May 2017. They reside on Manhattan's Upper West Side in the Lincoln Square area.
CHAPTER 2: Reason why CNN cancelled Brian Stelter's show “Reliable sources”
Brian Stelter of CNN lost his job, was it due to politics or money?
Two hypotheses have been put up regarding the departure of CNN's top media reporter and what it reveals about both CNN and its parent business.
There are two competing hypotheses both inside and outside of CNN.
But first, let's discuss why we are talking about Brian Stelter in the first place: Yes, there is an excessive amount of concern about other media professionals. And journalists like myself are even more guilty of this. But in this instance, what happened to Stelter is important because it might reveal a lot about the future of CNN, one of the most influential news organizations in the world, as well as Warner Brothers Discovery, the corporation that owns CNN and some of the most priceless cultural treasures in the world.
That's the introduction. These are the hypotheses. Importantly, they don't conflict with one another.
Was it all about politics?
The juicy one is this: According to this version of events, Stelter was the victim of John Malone, the influential investor and wealthy cable tycoon who controls Warner Brothers Discovery Inc., the company that currently owns CNN and the remainder of what was once known as Time Warner.
Malone has a very right-leaning, libertarian political stance, yet he has also criticized Donald Trump while in office. What's more important, according to current and former CNN staff, Malone's perception of CNN is wholly influenced by Fox News. John Malone is not a CNN viewer. According to a CNN staffer, John Malone exclusively watches CNN through Fox News. "I would despise CNN too if I viewed it via Fox News."
And Stelter was already a target of Fox News personalities like Tucker Carlson, who took great pleasure in making fun of him. Stelter spent most of the Trump period denouncing the American right's embrace of misinformation. Stelter then went after Malone, who had claimed he wanted CNN to be more like Fox News because Fox News had "real journalism," after Stelter's boss, Jeff Zucker, was fired in February.
Malone provided one of the bluntest denials you'll ever see a prominent figure give when asked about this hypothesis by the New York Times: "Mr. Malone said he wanted "the 'news' side of CNN to be more moderate, but I am not in charge or personally engaged."
According to this view, Stelter stands for the excesses of CNN's reporting, according to Malone. Malone and his managers, Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Chris Licht, the executive Zaslav chose to replace Zucker, are likely to identify more CNN reporters to oust off the air as well. Alternative theory: Since they've humiliated Stelter, they won't need to let rid of anybody else. However, idea No. 2 suggests that they may have to let go of a lot of employees.
Was it because of money?
Warner Brothers Discovery is heavily indebted, as I noted earlier this week, but Zaslav has assured investors that this won't matter since he will find $3 billion in savings. The company's entertainment holdings have already shown symptoms of budget-cutting, such as delaying a Batgirl movie rather than releasing it and HBOMax layoffs, but there will be many more this autumn. Stelter, who allegedly earned close to $1 million a year, was thus a simple target: Although his program and daily media email were well-received in the media world (see this "Pet of the Day" entry from... David Zaslav), they weren't very popular with regular people.
Disclosure: My editor and I are producers on a program Vox Media created for CNN+. Under Zaslav/Licht, CNN has already made one huge cut: killing off CNN+, its brand-new streaming service, weeks after it started.
However, it could not even come close to being sufficient to assist the parent firm in meeting its goals. In that situation, we may be more concerned about CNN's capacity to provide top-rate news coverage and less concerned about Stelter's departure as the first of many.
Both of those notions, according to CNN, are false: Because it wanted alternative programming on Sunday mornings, it claims Licht fired Stelter and Reliable Sources. Additionally, CNN spokesperson Matt Dornic informed me that the news organization is not being pressured by its new owner to cut staff, pointing out that Licht has stated his desire to employ additional journalists.
However, there is a solution to save expenses while increasing the workforce: you may fire costly employees and bring in less expensive ones in their place. I detest concluding such tales with the phrase "wait and see." But in this case, it's important to wait and see how things turn out. To begin with, Stelter's last program is on Sunday. The only thing I know for sure is that he wants to use his farewell speech to discuss everything.
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Stephen Stelter leaving CNN Chris Licht, the new chairman of CNN, has informed staff that he is revamping the network's programming after the cancellation of "Reliable Sources."
As a result of management choosing to axe his Sunday program, "Reliable Sources," in one of the first significant programming decisions made under the new business leadership, Brian Stelter, CNN's top media correspondent, is quitting the network.
Stelt
An uncommon broadcast venue for media reflection, "Reliable Sources" and Stelter's work, in particular, were complimented by Jeremy Littau, an associate professor and media sociologist at Lehigh University. He belongs to a fading breed of institutional self-criticism, according to Littau. "He wasn't hesitant to criticize his own network and be self-critical of the network at times."
According to a CNN representative on Thursday, the program's last episode will air on Sunday.
A notable decision made by Chris Licht, the new chairman of CNN, who assumed control this spring after Jeff Zucker's abrupt retirement, is the discontinuation of "Reliable Sources," a program that has been broadcast for over three decades. After failing to reveal a romantic connection with a senior CNN executive, Mr. Zucker resigned.
Under Mr. Licht, CNN stopped using the "breaking news" banners that traditionally announced major and minor items, and political news programs made an effort to hire more conservative commentators. Few additional public hints regarding potential further changes in the cable network have been provided by him.
However, executives at Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN's new corporate owners, have made it known that they want the network's programming to have more objective news reporting and fewer host opinions. The company's CEO, David Zaslav, has said that he wants a network that caters to both Republicans and Democrats. In an interview with CNBC last year, John Malone, a significant stakeholder in Warner Bros. Discovery, expressed his desire for the network to "develop back to the sort of journalism that it began with."
With this new emphasis, Mr. Stelter, who has criticized the previous president Donald J. Trump and his handling of the press, seemed to be in danger. According to Nielsen statistics, in recent years, more people watched Mr. Stelter's program than MSNBC on average during that time slot, but fewer people watched it than Fox News.
Mr. Malone said in an email to The New York Times that he had "nothing to do with" Mr. Stelter's program being canceled. The "news" section of CNN should, according to Mr. Malone, "be more centrist, but I am not in charge or directly engaged."
According to a corporate representative on Thursday, CNN's "refreshed Sunday schedule" includes the decision to terminate the program. The schedule will include a variety of new shows, such as the interview program "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace," which will feature the seasoned Sunday show interlocutor. More modifications should come. During a town hall meeting, Mr. Licht, a seasoned producer who helped create MSNBC's well-liked "Morning Joe" round table, informed staff members that he plans to participate in the network's morning programming. Additionally, he has said that he intends to redesign parts of the evening programming, particularly around 9 p.m., where Chris Cuomo's departure has created a significant vacuum in prime time.
Ryan Kadro, formerly the executive producer of "CBS This Morning," was recently recruited by Mr. Licht to assist in creating new programs. The hiring was previously covered by the news website Puck. For his performance at the network, Mr. Stelter received appreciation from the firm.
The CNN spokesperson stated, "We appreciate his services to the network and wish him well as he starts new projects.
Mr. Stelter will go from CNN as "an outstanding broadcaster," according to a statement from Amy Entelis, executive vice president of CNN for talent and content development.
We are proud of what Brian and his colleagues have done over the years, and we have no doubt that their influence will last well beyond the end of the program, according to Ms. Entelis.
In a statement, Mr. Stelter expressed gratitude for his nine years at CNN and for the fans who came to watch.
As Mr. Stelter said, "it was a unique opportunity to head a weekly program focused on the press at a moment when it has never been more significant." On Sunday, I'll have more to say.
The network will keep covering the media business, as will its website. Leading CNN's Reliable Sources newsletter will be senior media correspondent Oliver Darcy. The network has extended an invitation to the cast of Mr. Stelter's program to audition for other positions.
NPR first announced the discontinuation of the program. It placed Mr. Stelter, 36, a devoted media reporter who maintains a constant presence on Twitter, in the peculiar position of being at the center of a story in a field he covers.
Mr. Stelter spent six years at The New York Times before joining CNN, where he made a name for himself by breaking significant stories about the TV news business. After establishing TV Newser from his dormitory at Towson University, he was employed by The Times. Between August 2021 and late July, "Reliable Sources" had an average of 748,000 viewers overall, the most of any CNN program on Sundays and more than any other program on MSNBC at 11 a.m., but less than Kurtz's Fox News program.
According to four people with knowledge of the negotiations, Mr. Stelter signed a contract last year for a further four years at a salary of nearly $1 million annually for his work on TV, as well as the Reliable Sources newsletter, his podcast, and a daily show for the now-defunct CNN+ streaming service. Other prominent CNN personalities with contracts that bind them in for at least another two years include Don Lemon and Jake Tapper.
Two of the individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to convey private conversations, said that Mr. Stelter was informed of the discontinuation of his program during a meeting with Mr. Licht on Wednesday. Less than a week after Jeffrey Toobin, a seasoned legal affairs pundit at the network, made his exit announcement, Mr. Stelter's resignation from CNN was made public.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Stelter said he was "grateful for my nine years with CNN, proud of what we accomplished on Reliable Sources, and so thankful for the viewers who tuned in every week for our examination of the media, truth, and the stories that shape our world." Stelter also said that he was "proud of what we accomplished on Reliable Sources." At a time when the press has never been more important, he said, "it was a unique opportunity to head a weekly program centered on the press."
According to CNN spokesperson Dornic, senior media correspondent Oliver Darcy will remain on staff and continue to oversee the network's nightly media bulletin. The small group of people devoted to producing the weekly television program will be given the chance to apply for new positions at CNN.
The selection of a new 9 p.m. host to take Chris Cuomo's position, who was ousted in December, will be Licht's next significant choice. Additionally, he said that he intended to revamp "New Day," the network's morning program. Other recent changes made by Licht to CNN's weekend schedule include the choice to give former Fox News anchor Chris Wallace the 7 p.m. slot on Sundays.
Wallace joined the network to host a program on the CNN Plus streaming service, which was terminated only a few weeks after it launched. Before it was discontinued, Stelter presented a daily edition of "Reliable Sources" on CNN Plus.
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