Brian Stelter Is Out at CNN

CNN has canceled its weekly Reliable Sources show on the media, and host Brian Stelter is leaving the network. The show will have its last broadcast this Sunday. CNN has been looking to cut costs but also to present a less opinionated product. Stelter has written a book about Fox News Channel and been critical of that network, the AP reports, making him a frequent target of criticism himself. Stelter came to CNN from the New York Times, where he was a media writer.

Stelter has been host of the show for nine years. It began 30 years ago with Bernard Kalb as host before longtime media reporter Howard Kurtz took over. Kurtz has a show with a similar format on Fox News called MediaBuzz, now the last surviving major national television show analyzing the news business and journalism. Kurtz rarely has been critical of Fox News on his show, per NPR.

Stelter covered CNN's failings but still was considered a team player, if not a network apologist, during the reign of former CNN chief Jeff Zucker. Stelter later admitted that he was slow to recognize the depth of the ethical problems posed by former CNN host Chris Cuomo in helping his brother, then governor of New York, deal with accusations of sexual harassment, per NPR. "Stelter's no media critic: he’s a corporate flack," one commentary said. It's not clear what will happen with the Reliable Sources newsletter, a daily compendium of the media's big stories. (More Reliable Sources stories.)