I think we probably all cheered when Brian Stelter got the boot the other day from CNN.
When Warner Media merged with Discovery, it made the new entity Warner Bros Discovery. One of the biggest investors in that new company, now the parent company of CNN, is John Malone. Malone indicated that they want to get back to the “journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists.” That of course would be incompatible with Stelter, which is why he’s gone.
But the word is they’re not done with the purge yet. Stelter was one of the worst, so that’s why he’s out the door first.
According to Jon Nicosia of News Cycle Media:
Stelter was a ‘go’ because “he was seen as working against current management’s goals. Leaking, stirring disatisfaction internally.” One CNN source went on to say “He started believing he was the only thing between ‘democracy’ and anarchy”
But CNN’s chairman and CEO Chris Licht clearly isn’t finished.
“This is a time of change, and I know that it’s unsettling,” Licht said, addressing what the Daily Beast described as “outrage” at the network over Stelter’s ouster. “There will be more changes and you might not understand it or like it all.”
“No one is safe or secure right now,” a CNN staffer declared on Friday.
While Nicosia said that the ultimate list of folks who might be shown the door hasn’t been finalized yet, there are some folks, according to his source, who are likely not to be there anymore-or at least, not in their current show assignments, including John Berman, Alisyn Camerota, Jim Acosta, Brianna Keilar, Jake Tapper, John King, and Don Lemon.
I think there are a few names on there that people will have more celebration over when they are shown the door, particularly Jim Acosta and Don Lemon. That’ll be like Christmas in August.
But just dumping people isn’t going to change the image and bring anyone back to the network, if it doesn’t change being the mouthpiece for the Democratic party. If you write crazy things like gas prices going down a little is like getting a “raise,” as CNN did — parroting the talking points of the Biden Administration — people are going to doubt the sincerity about wanting to change. It isn’t about just changing the ridiculous anchors, but delivering journalism across the whole network. That’s going to take a lot more housecleaning.