Stelter was shown the door two years during a newsroom shakeup, when now-former CNN boss Chris Licht was attempting to shift to more neutral, unbiased coverage. Licht himself was fired last year and Stelter announced last week he is returning to CNN with the title “chief media analyst. He is coming back without his former “Reliable Sources” show.
The network announced Stelter will instead publish a Reliable Sources newsletter and will appear on various CNN shows as a media commentator. In the first newsletter, he wrote the “media industry has matured, CNN has evolved, and I have changed a lot since I signed off two years ago."
Bill D'Agostino, of Media Research Center, says viewers can expect the same thing Stetler did before: He will run interference for the biased liberal media.
“And he will do everything that he can,” D’Agostino predicts, “to blame either Trump, Republicans, or some other force, for making the media commit whatever gaffe he's brought on to discuss.”
Documenting CNN’s liberal bias is a full-time job for the analysts MRC, and Stelter’s role as a dishonest media critic made him a frequent subject for the media watchdog. A mock award at MRC, given to an outrageously biased media figure, is called the Brian Stelter Memorial Award for Worst Quote of the Year. (MSNBC's Joe Scarborough is the most recent winner).
After the news broke Stelter was returning, MRC executive editor Tim Graham listed five examples of Stelter’s biased behavior on the air. Those examples include defending the discredited Steele dossier; praising Michael Avenatti as a potential presidential candidate; and dismissing the Hunter laptop because The New York Post had an exclusive story about its contents.
“Look, if The New York Post tells you your mom loves you, you should check it out. We are not talking about fully reliable sources here,” Stelter said of the Post, which is known for its reliable sources.
In his own criticism of Stelter, D'Agostino produced a 1-minute montage of the CNN host's most bizarre and dishonest comments.
Since the former CNN boss Licht is gone, and Stelter has returned, D'Agostino says CNN should just return to its old ways.
“Let's get Don Lemon back there, too,” he jokingly suggests. “Let's bring the whole gang back together and make it the unhinged network that we all remember back in 2020.”
