Why was CNN’s star media reporter and its host Brian Stelter? reliable sources Show, put out of your job this week?
There are two working principles, inside and outside of CNN.
But before we get there, let’s talk about why we’re talking about Brian Stelter: Yes, people in the media care a lot about other people in the media. And media reporters like me are to blame for this too. But in this case, what happened to Stelter matters because it can tell us a lot about the future of CNN — one of the most powerful news outlets in the world — as well as Warner Bros. Owns CNN with a few companies. Most valuable cultural asset.
This is the preamble. Here are the principles. Importantly, they are not mutually exclusive.
This is politics, idiot
It’s juicy: In this version of events, Stelter hunts down John Malone, billionaire cable magnate and most powerful investor in Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., which now owns CNN and the rest of what used to be called Time Warner.
Malone’s politics is largely correct/liberal, although he was also critical of Donald Trump during his administration. More to the point: Current and former CNN employees believe Malone’s view of CNN is entirely colored by Fox News. “John Malone doesn’t watch CNN. John Malone only watches CNN through Fox News,” says a CNN employee. “If I watched CNN through Fox News, I would hate CNN too.”
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And Stelter, who spent much of the Trump era criticizing the propaganda’s embrace of the American right, was already the target of Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson, who were happy to tease him. Then, after Stelter’s boss, Jeff Zucker, was ousted in February, Stelter went after Malone, who said he wanted CNN to be like Fox News because Fox News had “real journalism.”
When asked about this theory by the New York Times, Malone made one of the most obvious admissions you’ll see a public figure making under the guise of denial: “Mr. Malone said he wanted “CNN’s” The ‘news’ part may be more centrist, but I am not in control or directly involved.”
translate: yes it makes me happy,
So in this theory, Malone believes that Stelter represents an excess of CNN’s coverage. But presumably Malone and his managers — Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Chris Licht, the executive hired to replace Zucker — will get other CNN journalists they want off the air as well. Alternate theory: He wouldn’t need to let anyone else go because he created Stelter’s example.
Then again, they probably have to let a lot of people go because of principle number 2:
it’s money, idiot
As I wrote earlier this week, Warner Bros. Discovery has a huge debt burden, but Zaslav has told investors it won’t matter, as he’s going to find $3 billion in savings.
We’ve already seen signs of budget cuts across the company’s entertainment properties – such as shelving a bat girl Rather than releasing the film and layoffs on HBOmax — but there will be many more cuts to come this fall. So Stelter, who reportedly made around $1 million a year, had an easy cut: his show, along with his daily media newsletter, was a big deal in media circles – Check out this “Pet of the Day” submission… David Zaslav – but not a huge draw for the normals.
Under Zaslav/Licht, CNN has already made a significant cut: closing down CNN+, its brand-new streaming service, a few weeks after it launched (Disclosure: My editor and I made a show for CNN+ Vox Media are the producers).
But it may not be anything close to enough to help the parent company hit its numbers. In this case, Stelter’s departure may be the first of many, and we’ll spend less time worrying about CNN’s politics and more time about its ability to provide first-class news coverage.
CNN says both theories are wrong: it says that Lich got rid of Stelter and reliable sources Because it wants different programming on Sunday mornings. And CNN spokesman Matt Dornick told me the news service is under no pressure from its new boss to reduce the workforce, noting that Licht has said he wants to hire more reporters.
Again, there’s certainly a way to reduce costs while adding people: you leave out the expensive ones and replace them with cheap ones.
I hate saying “wait and see” at the end of stories like this. But this is where we definitely need to see how it plays out. For starters, Stelter’s last show is on Sunday. About the only thing I’m sure is that he wants to use his swan song to talk about all this.
