Brian Stelter: A retrospective of CNN's ousted media reporter

There was an earthquake in the media landscape when CNN announced that it had canceled "Reliable Sources" and host Brian Stelter was being shown the door. 

Stelter was known among his critics as the media's "hall monitor" for being a staunch defender of the liberal media throughout the Trump era, all while being accused of turning a blind eye toward various controversies that reflected poorly on the industry. 

Here are some of Stelter's most defining moments at CNN that ultimately led to this week's abrupt dismissal.

Questioning Trump's mental fitness, dismissing concerns about Biden

In a report published in June by Axios, Stelter was singled out – along with CNN weekend anchor Jim Acosta –as being the "face of the network's liberal shift" in the eyes of conservatives as new CEO Chris Licht evaluated what to do with his "partisan talent."

During Zucker's reign, CNN's entire lineup adopted unabashed antipathy towards Donald Trump, and Stelter became a loyal soldier in the war. 

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Stelter was an early pioneer in suggesting Trump was not fit to serve, beginning as early as 2017 following the events in Charlottesville, Va.

"Usually after the microphones are off, or after the stories are filed, after the paper has been put to bed, people’s concerns, and fears and questions come out," Stelter told CNN viewers at the time. "... Questions like these: Is the president of the United States a racist? Is he suffering from some kind of illness? Is he fit for office? And if he’s unfit, then what?"

In 2019, Stelter kicked off a show by saying, "The story that's playing out every day on our TV screens and our Twitter feeds- he's getting worse, we can all see it. But it's still a very hard, a very sensitive story to cover. I'm talking, of course, about President Trump, about his behavior, about his instability.The contradictions, the lies, the complete rejection of reality." He then appeared to agree with a tweet from anti-Trump attorney George Conway, who said the president was "mentally unstable and psychologically unfit."

Stelter allowed his "Reliable Sources" guests to lob incendiary attacks against Trump without any pushback. CNN analyst Carl Bernstein referred to Trump as a "neo-fascist sociopath." Liberal historian Douglas Brinkley said Trump was "a sick man in the White House."

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He even invited psychiatrist Dr. Allen Frances to call Trump "as destructive a person in this century as Hitler, Stalin, Mao were in the last century," adding "he may be responsible for many more million deaths than they were," none of which was challenged by Stelter. 

After facing intense backlash from critics, Stelter blamed "tech difficulties," claiming he did not hear the guest's full comments while on-air but insisted he "should have interrupted after that line."

Stelter Calls Michael Avenatti a 'Serious’ Presidential Contender

In 2018, the mainstream media gushed over Michael Avenatti, the liberal attorney portrayed as the knight in shining armor aiming to finally slay the orange dragon that was President Trump. Stelter was no exception.

After asking him if he was considering a 2020 run for president, Stelter touted Avenatti's "star power and TV savvy," comparing it to Barack Obama as well as Trump. 

"Looking ahead to 2020, one of the reasons why I'm taking you seriously as a contender is because of your presence on cable news," Stelter told Avenatti. 

Avenatti rose to prominence representing adult film star Stormy Daniels and became a ubiquitous cable news presence that year, earning media adoration with his constant promises of bringing Trump down. However, he ultimately faced charges for multiple financial crimes, including defrauding Daniels, and his career and life collapsed.

Ted Koppel pummels CNN's Trump dependence to Stelter's face

Veteran journalist Ted Koppel had some fun at the expense of CNN appearing alongside the "Reliable Sources" host during a 2018 panel discussion about the media. 

Koppel argued that Trump was "very good" for the industry, citing Jeff Zucker as someone who's acknowledged networks like CNN have profited because of the president, something Stelter refused to concede.

"That means what? If ratings are up, that means what?" Stelter asked.

"Ratings are up, it means you can’t do without Donald Trump. You would be lost without Donald Trump," Koppel responded. 

"Ted, you know that’s not true," Stelter said.

"CNN’s ratings would be in the toilet without Donald Trump," Koppel doubled down the audience laughed.

"You know that’s not true. You’re playing for laughs," Stelter shot back before saying it would be "OK" if CNN lost significant viewership during the next administration. He later added, "I reject the premise that these networks are making so much money off of Trump, and thus we benefit from him."

As Koppel predicted, CNN's ratings did indeed go into the toilet following the Trump presidency. In July, CNN averaged a measly 541,000 total day viewers, a devastating fall from the network's 1.2-million total day average in February 2021, the first full month without Trump in the White House. 

A ratings bump for 'Reliable Sources' – without Stelter

The viewership of every CNN program has suffered greatly in the Biden era, "Reliable Sources" among them.

In August, the show is down a staggering 41% among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54 compared to the same month last year. For the year, Stelter’s program shed 26% of its 2021 total audience and 34% among the key demo. 2022 was also the lowest-rated year among the demo for "Reliable Sources" since before Trump took office.

Things got so bad for Stelter that his fill-in host earned more viewers than he did during his rare absence.

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It is widely expected in the cable news biz that a show's ratings tend to dip whenever a host is away on vacation as viewers are often loyal to the network's star. 

That wasn't the case for "Reliable Sources" when CNN's John Avlon filled in for Stelter in late April 2021. The weekend prior, Stelter averaged 885,000 viewers. When Avlon hosted, "Reliable Sources" viewership went up to 907,000 viewers. The following Sunday, Stelter's audience shrank upon his return, averaging just 810,000 viewers. 

Stelter's untimely penultimate installment of "Reliable Sources" last Sunday averaged just 693,000 viewers.

Stelter asks the Biden White House what the media ‘gets wrong’

It was no secret that Stelter deeply admired Jen Psaki, a former CNN colleague of his who served as President Biden's first press secretary.

Right out of the gate, Stelter tweeted "(How refreshing)" in response to Psaki's vow in January 2021 of sharing "accurate info." 

But it wasn't until Psaki's June 2021 appearance on "Reliable Sources" when Stelter was accused by critics of "bootlicking."

"What does the press get wrong when covering Biden's agenda? When you watch the news, when you read the news, what do you think we get wrong?" Stelter asked. 

His political partisanship during his interview with Psaki only continued as he asked whether she feared for their children's futures because of GOP "craziness."

"You've mentioned your kids. You have a daughter going into kindergarten, I have a daughter going into pre-K, and I think to myself what kind of country is this going to be when they are our age?" Stelter began the exchange. "Do you fear that given the craziness we’re seeing from the GOP, do you fear that for our kids, your kids and mine?"

Psaki responded by saying she doesn't view issues "through a political prism" and listed off concerns like climate change, jobs, and LGBTQ rights. But that response apparently did not register with the Trump-obsessed host.

"But when I hear the former president talking about trying to get ‘reinstated,' thinking he's going to be back in the White House, I think to myself, ‘What kind of country are we creating?’" Stelter exclaimed. 

Stelter accused of ‘mansplaining’ following a tense exchange with Susan Ferrechio 

"Reliable Sources" was a media-centric show where its host and guests almost never offered any criticism about the media itself. 

So in a rare moment of blunt honesty during an October 2020 panel discussion on BBC Radio, he was confronted by journalist Susan Ferrechio, who took exception to Stelter's assertion that the Hunter Biden scandal that had just emerged was so "last season," referring to Trump's first impeachment. 

"The bottom line is, it deserves scrutiny by all media outlets and if they pick and choose and decide it's not worth their time, I think that's showing real bias," she said.

"This is not last year's news," Ferrechio added. "It's whether or not his son was coordinating to get him to talk to these Ukraine oligarchs, and he was benefiting from it. It's really dirty and it needs to be looked at."

Stelter responded by telling Ferrechio "we don't know what is real and what is fake in these emails," despite the fact that the Biden campaign had not claimed any of the emails or documents found on Hunter Biden's laptop were fake.

"Yeah, but that doesn't stop anybody reporting the Mueller and the dossier and all that stuff," Ferrechio responded.

"I understand that you have a lot of resentment – " Stelter began.

"'Oh, now we have ethics,'" Ferrechio mocked the CNN host. "OK, now we have ethics.'"

"How dare- don't you dare!" Stelter shouted at her. "Don't you dare act like newsrooms didn't have ethics in 2017 and 2018."

"Oh, I know they didn't. You can 'Don't you dare' me all you want, Brian. I've been doing this for 30 years," Ferrechio fired back. "Say whatever you want. It's my view and I have the right to say it."

Stelter was slammed on social media over the exchange with many of his critics accusing him of "mansplaining" to the female journalist. 

College freshman schools Stelter at so-called 'disinformation' summit

Stelter has long decried the sharing of so-called "disinformation." However, critics have said Stelter is hardly consistent in calling it out, such as when he didn't question Nina Jankowicz, the executive director of the Biden administration's now-defunct "Disinformation Governance Board" about the various falsehoods she had peddled, or his repeated invitations to disgraced former CBS News anchor Dan Rather to appear on his program.

So it was up to a college freshman to shine a light on Stelter's "disinformation" blindspot. 

During an April panel discussion at the "Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy" conference, University of Chicago student Christopher Phillips confronted the CNN star for accusing others of pushing "disinformation." 

"[CNN] push the Russian collusion hoax, they push the Jussie Smollett hoax, they smear Justice Kavanaugh as a rapist, and they also smeared Nick Sandmann as a White supremacist. And yes, they dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop affair as pure Russian disinformation," Phillips told Stelter. "With mainstream corporate journalists becoming little more than apologists and cheerleaders for the regime, is it time to finally declare that the canon of journalistic ethics is dead or no longer operative?"

Phillips continued, "All the mistakes of the mainstream media and CNN, in particular, seem to magically all go in one direction. Are we expected to believe that this is all just some sort of random coincidence or is there something else behind it?"

"There's a clock that says 30 seconds, but I think my honest answer to you, and I will come over and talk in more detail after this… I understand that that is a popular right-wing narrative about CNN," Stelter said. "I think it's important, when talking about shared reality and democracy, all these networks, all these news outlets have to defend democracy. And when they screw up, admit it."

Dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop scandal

As other outlets worked to suppress or downplay the New York Post's reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop in 2020, Stelter accused conservatives of "whataboutism," even peddling the unsubstantiated claims that the laptop's contents were "tied to a Russian disinformation effort" attacking his father.

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He then attempted to cast doubt on the Post's reporting by stressing the involvement of Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani, as well as questioning the legitimacy of John Paul Mac Isaac, the Delaware computer repair store owner who first obtained Hunter Biden's laptop.

"There's a lot about this story that does not add up," Stelter told his viewers at the time. "And, I mean, for all we know, these emails were made up, or maybe some are real and some are fakes, we don't know. But we do know that this is a classic example of the right-wing media machine."

After complaining about the coverage of the emerging scandal that was virtually ignored by the liberal media, Stelter went on to call the Post's reporting of Hunter Biden's laptop a "manufactured scandal," a "so-called scandal" and suggested the newspaper is not a "fully reliable source."

In April, Stelter defended the media's collective decision to not cover the Hunter Biden scandal when it first emerged in the final weeks of the 2020 presidential election. 

"I think there's a tension between big American newsrooms that want to check something out themselves that don't want to rely on other outlets, that don't want to just repeat and regurgitate, but then there's an audience expectation of being able to instantly cover every story and have every answer," Stelter said at the "Disinformation" conference. "And so in September or October of 2020, when the New York Post has something, other outlets can't match it, there's this pressure – 'Why aren't you confirming this? Why aren't you focusing on this? Why aren't you leading on this?' Because we haven't matched it, we haven't confirmed it."

"Now lately, the [New York] Times and the [Washington] Post have and that's notable, and CNN had a story last week about the federal investigation into Hunter, but I think there's this tension between fast and slow journalism, perhaps, between people who know how newsrooms work and the vast majority of those who don't."

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Then earlier this month, Stelter declared the Hunter Biden scandal is "not just a right-wing media story.

"Hunter under federal investigation, charges can be coming at any time… This is a real problem for the Bidens… Could he decide not to run for re-election given his son?" Stelter asked Michael LaRosa, the former press secretary for first lady Jill Biden.

If the dramatic shift towards objectivity was a last-ditch effort to save his job and get in Licht's good graces, it was too little, too late. 

Stephen Colbert grills Stelter on CNN's handling of Chris Cuomo 

In addition to being CNN's "chief media correspondent," Stelter served as a de facto spokesperson for the network, particularly during the wrenching Chris Cuomo saga.

Cuomo, once CNN's biggest primetime star, was engulfed in the scandals that plagued his brother, Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The anchor allegedly misled his employer, as well as his viewers, about his involvement in aiding his brother as the governor faced mounting sexual misconduct allegations.

But it wasn't until Stelter appeared on "The Late Show" in August 2021, just hours after Andrew Cuomo shocked the nation by announcing his resignation, that he was grilled on how the controversy implicated CNN.

"In a small way, your network is involved in this story because, of course, the governor's brother Chris Cuomo has his show," Colbert began the exchange before pointing to the New York Times' recent reporting about the CNN star advising the governor to resign. "How does that create any conflict over at CNN behind closed doors? Are people mad at him? Or is he in trouble?"

"Some people are mad at him," Stelter admitted. "By the way, I can confirm the New York Times report… I also have a source that says Chris was on the phone with his brother this week-"

"Is your source Chris Cuomo?" Colbert jokingly asked. 

"He is not, he is not," Stelter quickly responded. "You've gotta have boundaries. You've gotta draw lines."

"Why? He doesn't," Colbert knocked the "Cuomo Prime Time" anchor. 

"I think he does, actually," Stelter pushed back. "I think Chris does, I don't know about the governor."

"What are the boundaries?" the CBS host pressed Cuomo's colleague. 

CNN's media lackey then echoed the network stance from May calling Cuomo's participation in the governor's strategy sessions "inappropriate" and that it was a "management ruling" for the anchor to not cover his brother's scandals. 

"Well, then why didn't they rule that way when his brother was on the show pretty much every night during the COVID crisis?" Colbert asked. 

"Yeah, I think it's really complicated," Stelter responded. 

"It seems like an odd conflict of rules," Colbert said. 

"It is an odd conflict," Stelter acknowledged, "but I don't think- if we open up the journalism ethics book, there's no page for this. The craziest set of circumstances that you can imagine, right? A governor and a brother, both in these high-profile jobs. This is definitely awkward for CNN, though."

Notably, "The Late Show" was produced at the time by Chris Licht.

Too early for ‘haters’ to know if CNN+ was a failure

What will go down as one of the 21st century's biggest media business flops was CNN+. 

CNN+, a passion project of Zucker's that launched following his ouster, was supposed to be CNN's bridge to the future. The $300 million streaming service attracted major talents like Chris Wallace, Kasie Hunt, Audie Cornish, Rex Chapman, Jemele Hill and Eva Longoria. And most of CNN's mainstays, including Stelter, were given their own programs.

But in less than a month, Warner Bros. Discovery pulled the plug on CNN+, which reportedly had only 150,000 subscribers and just 10,000 daily users. Many have compared it to the defunct streaming service Quibi.

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Stelter, in what ended up being his last installment of "Reliable Sources Daily," suggested it was "too early" for critics to give a final ruling on CNN+.

"It’s too early to know if this product, if this service, was a success or a failure," Stelter said on the soon-to-be shuttered platform. 

He added, "You’ve got all the haters today saying this thing was a failure. I don’t know if we can even ever assess that because it just simply didn’t have enough time because of the management’s change in direction."

A war of words against a powerful shareholder

Perhaps the writing had been on the wall for Stelter since high-powered media executive John Malone, a Warner Bros. Discovery board member who mentored CEO David Zaslav, declared last year CNN should revert to nonpartisan journalism once the liberal network was under the Discovery umbrella. 

"I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing," Malone said on CNBC.

That struck a nerve with Stelter, who took the comments as an insult to the legacy of his former boss Jeff Zucker, to whom he had deep loyalty.

"The people who say the Zucker-era CNN was lacking in real journalism clearly were not watching CNN directly. My best guess is that they were watching talking heads and reading columnists complain about CNN. And yes, I'm including John Malone in this," Stelter wrote in his newsletter in February. 

Stelter explained to readers that many current CNN employees were hurt by Malone’s rhetoric. 

"That phrasing – especially the words ‘actually have journalists,’ which implied CNN currently doesn't – was highly offensive to many staffers. I reported on Sunday's ‘Reliable’ that it was disturbing to Zucker, too," Stelter wrote. "Malone's comments stoked fears that Discovery might stifle CNN journalists and steer away from calling out indecency and injustice." 

His defense of blunders from other liberal news outlets

Often referred to as the media's "janitor," Stelter was often reliable for cleaning up the messes made by other news organizations. 

In April 2021, Stelter downplayed the botched "60 Minutes" report that accused Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of a pay-for-play scheme over his administration's distribution of the COVID vaccine, referring to so-called "missteps" and leaving any criticism of CBS News to be said by his guest. 

In January, he ran cover for NPR's "incredibly well-sourced" reporter Nina Totenberg, who alleged Chief Justice John Roberts "in some form" asked the justices to wear masks because of the omicron surge since Justice Sonia Sotomayor has diabetes, and Justice Neil Gorsuch refused. 

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His newsletter put a spotlight on CNN’s own reporter claiming to match "key parts" of NPR’s reporting, but Stelter referred to the situation as a "masking dustup" and began by noting that NPR is standing by the story despite a trio of Supreme Court justices, representing both sides of the aisle, discrediting it. He noted that Roberts "undercut Totenberg more directly" than Sotomayor and Gorsuch but claimed "this dispute may come down to the meaning of the words ‘in some form,’" because the NPR report claimed Roberts "in some form asked the other justices to mask up."

In April, Stelter defended Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz following her report doxxing the identity of Libs of TikTok, agreeing that she was the target of a "bad faith actor campaign."

"I think a lot of people don't get it," Stelter told Lorenz. "A lot of people are surprised by reporting practices and procedures."

Stelter's long history of ignoring media controversies

Despite being a media reporter, Stelter had a remarkable track record of not doing his job, specifically when it came to completely avoiding headlines that portray his liberal allies in the industry in a negative light. 

Most famously, he ignored ABC News' shocking coverup of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, omitting it from his "top ten media stories" of 2019. 

In 2020, he skipped Glenn Greenwald's publicized exit from The Intercept, the suspension of top ABC News executive Barbara Fedida over racist comments she reportedly made about prominent Black anchors and the backlash NBC News received for its report that urged Google to remove two conservative news sites including The Federalist from its ad revenue platform. 

HERE ARE 20 MAJOR MEDIA STORIES CNN'S BRIAN STELTER IGNORED ON HIS SO-CALLED MEDIA SHOW IN 2021

In 2021, Stelter avoided a slew of media scandals from the Lincoln Project turmoil, the Washington Post's stunning corrections on articles pertaining to the Steele dossier, Meghan McCain's dramatic exit from "The View," to USA Today allowing Stacey Abrams to stealth-edit an op-ed to water down her support of boycotts following Major League Baseballl pulling its All-Star game out of Atlanta. 

Perhaps the most bizarre instances pertain to MSNBC, CNN's direct competitor. Stelter swept under the rug the Peacock network's leadership shakeup in 2020 that prompted the exit of its president Phil Griffin. Last year, Stelter skipped over MSNBC host Joy Reid's public spat with Nicki Minaj and the backlash MSNBC analyst Mara Gay received when she said the sight of American flags on the back of trucks while visiting Long Island was "disturbing." 

Stelter even avoided the judge from the Kyle Rittenhouse trial banning MSNBC from the courtroom after police caught a freelance NBC News producer following the jury bus. 

He wasn't exactly forthcoming about the scandals that rocked CNN - at least until they reach a boiling point. Stelter buried Chris Cuomo's first sexual misconduct allegation from former ABC News colleague Shelley Ross and made no mention of Jeffrey Toobin's shocking return to the network following his Zoom masturbation scandal. Even as he was forced to cover Jeff Zucker's ouster, Stelter refused to say whether he knew about his old boss's affair with top executive Allison Gollust, which was reported as an "open secret" within the company.

A silver lining for the ‘Liberal Hack’ champion

When it's all said and done, Brian Stelter did make history during his tenure at CNN.

In 2020, Stelter became the first-ever champion of the "Liberal Hack Tournament." Started by Comfortably Smug and now hosted by the "Ruthless" podcast, Stelter competed against 63 other competitors in a NCAA-style contest where fans on Twitter voted on which liberal media personality was the ultimate hack.

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In the years since, Stelter has had strong performances, making his way into the Final Four in 2021 and returning to the championship in 2022, only to be defeated both times by Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin. 

Fox News' Brian Flood and David Rutz contributed to this report.