According to Brian Stelter of NPR, CNN is discontinuing its Sunday media affairs program Reliable Sources, and Stelter himself is leaving the network.
Stelter thanks the program for examining "the media, reality, and the stories that define our world" in a statement to NPR.
Stelter added, vowing to further on the subject on Sunday's broadcast, which was the show's final installment, "It was a rare opportunity to headline a weekly show focused on the press at a moment when it has never been more vital."
Stelter began writing about cable news while still a student and then worked for The New York Times as a media writer. The longest-running CNN program is Reliable Sources, which Stelter has presented for the past nine years. In March, the program celebrated its 30th birthday.
Chris Licht, the president of CNN, yesterday notified Stelter of the choice. Since taking over the network as part of Warner Bros. Discovery's acquisition of the former Time Warner corporation, Licht has been making changes across the board.
The network terminated CNN+, a stand-alone digital program for which it had hired Chris Wallace from Fox News and Audie Cornish from NPR before it had ever been established. (Both celebrities continue to work at CNN.)
Stelter was one of the CNN anchors who frequently came under fire from conservatives for his portrayal of the media during the Trump administration and frequently bragged about the show's numbers on Twitter.
John Malone, a significant financial stakeholder in the new WarnerDiscovery conglomerate, was one among the investors who publicly joined in on the criticism of CNN that it had become politicized. Stelter expressed some concern about the investor's influence during an episode in February when he cited Malone more than a dozen times in his coverage of the Discovery merger for CNN and its sibling companies.
"As the leading media reporter in the country, Stelter joined CNN from The New York Times. He leaves CNN as a flawless broadcaster "CNN's executive vice president for talent and content development, Amy Entelis, remarked. "We are proud of the work Brian and his colleagues have done over the years, and we're convinced that their influence will last far beyond the program," they said.
During the presidency of former President Donald Trump, Stelter increased the frequency and intensity of his regular commentary, chronicling the rhetorical battles over politics, it's reporting, and even its facts. He received persistent criticism from Trump supporters for it as well as snide remarks from Greg Gutfeld and Tucker Carlson, two Fox stars.
Stelter, who also addressed CNN's flaws, was respected by former CNN president Jeff Zucker for being a devoted team member. Chris Cuomo, a former CNN star, raised serious ethical issues when he counseled his brother, the then-governor of New York, on how to respond to allegations of sexual harassment, as Stelter subsequently acknowledged.
A corporate representative acknowledged the end of the program and expressed the network's best wishes for Stelter's future pursuits. Bernard Kalb, a seasoned Washington journalist, launched the program, and Howard Kurtz, a senior media reporter, carried it on. As of right now, Kurtz is the only major national television host of a program with a comparable style, called MediaBuzz, which airs on Fox News. This program analyses the news industry and journalism. Kurtz has seldom called Fox to account throughout his tenure there.
CNN says it will continue the popular Reliable Sources newsletter.
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