Farewell Reliable Sources!

 

For 20+ years, CNN's show Reliable Sources has been a reliable staple of my Sunday routine. The show debuted in 1993, and for most (maybe all) these years it has had the Sunday morning 11:00 a.m. time slot. (Of course, since that has usually been my busiest time of the week, more often than not I have watched it later in the day, seldom however missing it however.) 

Long-time network journalist Bernard Kalb was the program's original host. Then, for many years, Howard Kurtz hosted the show - until he left CNN to join to join (ugh!) Fox in July 2013. In December 2013, New York Times reporter Brian Stelter became the program's permanent host. The show has been all about reviewing the media's coverage of the news ("a critical lens on the media"). Especially since Stelter took over the chair, its format has evolved along with the dominant technologies from the simpler panel show it started out as. This past week, however, CNN canceled the program, and Stelter announced his departure from the network. So, sadly, I will watch the show's final episode today. Sic transit gloria mundi!

Born in 1985 (when I was already in my last year of seminary, not to mention eight years out of grad school), 18-year old Brian Stelter started an anonymous blog about the cable-new industry in 2004, that quickly became a must-read for many. In his 20s, he was a NY Times reporter, from which perch he eventually made his leap to CNN and Reliable Sources host. Single and typically tie-less then, in 2014 he married Jamie Shupak, a traffic anchor for NY1 and now has two children and usually wears a tie. All to be applauded! 

Also to be applauded: Stelter and Reliable Sources soon became increasingly focused on the threat to the press and the overall damage done to democracy by both Trump and the right-wing media. In 2020, he published Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth (Simon and Shuster).

Stelter's stance fit in well with CNN's anti-"Big Lie" approach under Jeff Zucker, who was the president of CNN Worldwide. Zucker, however, was forced out earlier this year, to be replaced by Chris Licht, formerly executive producer of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, as well as CBS's executive vice president of special programming. At the time, Stelter expressed the worry that CNN's parent company Discovery "might stifle CNN journalists and steer away from calling out indecency and injustice."

What news I watch nowadays I watch on PBS and MSNBC. Reliable Sources was the only CNN show I still watch. It will be missed - not just by me but I suspect by many who have come to appreciate its unique focus on media matters and its vibrant critique of what has been happening in these United States of Trump.