I know that there is a large swath of our readers here at RedState that have always been clamoring for Brian Stelter news during his long strange trip of employment at CNN. I also know that since his departure from the former worldwide leader in the news that occurred just last Sunday, there has been an emptiness in the hearts of those who followed everything Stelter.
This, of course, includes our very own media watcher Brad Slager who has been in a bit of a funk since the diminutive bald one lost his sweet gig blathering about how bad Fox News was at 11 am every Sunday Morning on his former show, Reliable Sources. I know Brad just wrote this excellent article last week about Stelter called The Biggest Indictment of Brian Stelter? His Departure Does Not Leave a Void but trust me, I know Brad misses him.
If you don’t believe me here is a clip from Brad’s piece above…
That outright admission that CNN was a biased source of slanted news was the primary threat to Stelter’s future. His was the kind of myopic coverage one comes to expect from news outlets; to have him positioned as the network’s self-professed media guru only heightened the appearance of that bias.
One of Brian’s recent monologues had him impugning the character of some conservative news outlets by suggesting they were too focused with their news content – “Is it produced by reporters, or by repeaters?” Pithy, but also projection. It is amusing for Stelter to try mocking the focus of other journalists when he had an unhealthy and pathological obsession with Fox News. He, and his ward, Boy Wonder Oliver Darcy, were consumed with Fox and the personalities there.
This was hardly an isolated case of oblivious hypocrisy. Last July, the Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily was forcibly shut down by Chinese authorities for posing as an opposition threat publication. Stelter covered this and rightfully condemned the acts as a threat to journalistic integrity. But while taking this correct stance, he and his ward, Boy Wonder Oliver Darcy, were both lobbying to have conservative news outlets taken down from the channel lineups of cable and satellite providers. This was being pushed in the name of battling misinformation and preserving democracy.
You can’t write that eloquently and call Oliver Darcy a ward of Mr. Potato Head if there is no love.
Well now comes news that CNN in its first post-Brian Stelter Reliable Sources slot at 11 a.m. on Sunday decided to run a rerun of a show shown earlier in the day. According to Washington Examiner:
CNN aired a rerun in place of Brian Stelter’s show on the first Sunday since its cancellation.
Reliable Sources was replaced at 11 a.m. by a rerun of Inside Politics Sunday with anchor Abby Phillip, which originally aired during the 8 a.m. hour. This comes after The Wrap reported last week that CNN has no plans at the moment to replace Reliable Sources.
“There are a number of programs in the concept and development phases, and it’s possible media coverage will be an element of a show,” a network insider told the news outlet, “but no indication that an exclusively media beat show is part of the plan.”
Reliable Sources was a media-focused news program that had been on CNN since 1993. It had multiple hosts over the years, including Bernard Kalb and Howard Kurtz.
I can’t believe that CNN thought it was an equitable trade to do a rerun of Abby Phillip’s show instead of having Brian Stelter spittle on himself about how evil everyone at Fox News was. Actually, I can believe it but I don’t want to because watching Brian get himself all worked up and hyperventilate every Sunday was one of those few joys those of us in media treasured.
Look at me, I just made it about moi instead of the story.
Just like Stelter used to do.
For those of you worried about Brian you need not worry all that much. Rumor has it that he still had about three years left on his deal when he was shown the door. What that means is that yesterday Brian was able to sleep in his favorite “I Love Chris Cuomo” jammies and he got paid for doing so.
Only in America.
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