Brian Stelter rebukes CNN on final show: 'It's not partisan to stand up to demagogues' [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Brian Stelter rebukes CNN on final show: ‘It’s not partisan to stand up to demagogues’

Host says, ‘It is not partisan to stand up for decency and democracy and dialogue,’ after CNN cancels media show Reliable Sources

Ed Pilkington in New York
@edpilkington
Mon 22 Aug 2022 08.00 BST
Last modified on Mon 22 Aug 2022 08.01 BST

Brian Stelter, host of CNN’s media affairs show Reliable Sources which was cancelled last week after 30 years on air, used his final episode Sunday to make a pointed rebuke of the network’s new bosses and their intention to pursue a more “neutral voice” to its coverage.

“It is not partisan to stand up for decency and democracy and dialogue,” Stelter said in his final monologue, which he stressed was unvetted by CNN management before he delivered it live. “It is not partisan to stand up to demagogues – it’s required, it’s patriotic.”

He added: “We must make sure we do not give a platform to those who are lying to our faces.”

CNN gave Stelter his marching orders last Wednesday, just four months after the network came under new leadership appointed by its owners, Warner Brothers Discovery. CNN head Chris Licht, who took over after the February departure of Jeff Zucker, has indicated that he wants to tone down the opinion quotient of its shows and “return” to an older, straighter and in his view less overtly leftwing style of reporting.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/aug/22/brian-stelter-cnn-cancels-show-reliable-sources