In the brilliant documentary Page One – Inside the New York Times, the late, great David Carr describes Brian Stelter as “a robot assembled in the basement of The New York Times to come and destroy me”. The quote references his protege’s penchant for hard work and understanding of new media. Despite all this, Stelter was unceremoniously dropped from CNN two years ago. Now, he’s back, taking on the new role of Chief Media Analyst.
It came as quite a shock when Brian Stelter’s name appeared in my inbox last night. He was once again writing the Reliable Sources newsletter. He returns as his former colleague Oliver Darcy let the network and newsletter to build his own product, Status.
Back in 2022, Stelter’s exit was such a big deal that I couldn’t quite believe he had returned to CNN. As a viewer, listener and reader, his firing was a real disappointment to me. As a journalist, despite being just a couple of years older than me, the way he covers media has greatly influenced what I try to do here at The Addition.
It is going to be fascinating to see what Brian Stelter does now that he’s back at CNN, particularly as the US presidential election gets ever closer. His return truly feels like Mark Thompson undoing at least some of the damage of the Chris Licht era. And it turns out that once again David Carr was right!
