Fired CNN host Brian Stelter has announced he will return to the network in 2022 after the executives who fired him were also fired.
“I am excited to return as lead writer for CNN's Reliable Sources. “Digest,” a newsletter I launched in 2015,” Stelter said. Written On Tuesday, he sent a “surprise” message to Reliable Sources readers: “I will be returning to CNN in an entirely new role as chief media analyst, which means I will be on-air, developing digital content and running this newsletter.”
Stelter will officially return to CNN on September 9, but said it won't be the same as his previous work at the network, “because I'm different.”
Brian Stelter: A memoir of a reporter who was kicked out of CNN
“The media industry has matured, CNN has evolved, and a lot has changed since I left the company two years ago,” Stelter wrote. “After more than 20 years of being a news junkie, I changed my habits and stopped listening to the news for a while. My perspective has shifted, too, moving from Manhattan to a horse farm near Donald Trump's home.of “I'm excited to share what I've learned with you all. I'm excited to experience the news like a regular consumer and learn a lot about the attention economy and the information ecosystem in the process.”
Brian Stelter is returning to CNN after being fired by the network two years ago. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for TIME)
In his announcement on Tuesday, Stelter indicated that he would return to CNN's “Reliable Sources” newsletter, but that the “Reliable Sources” television show would not be revived.
Stelter was fired from CNN in 2022 by his then-boss, Chris Licht, who said at the time he was “determined to tone down the spectacle” and had been ordered by his bosses at parent company Warner Bros. Discovery to shed its left-wing partisanship and restore CNN's journalistic credibility.
Throughout much of his nine-year tenure at CNN, Stelter was widely considered an on-air favorite of Licht's predecessor, Jeff Zucker, who transformed the network into “the most trusted name in news” into an anti-Trump media organization.
Brian Stelter defends 2020 media coverage of Hunter Biden's laptop: “We never called it 'disinformation'”
Stelter fulfilled Zucker's mission as host of the Sunday media-centric show “Reliable Source,” which spent much of its airtime attacking Donald Trump before, during and after his presidency. Stelter also insisted on criticizing conservative media, avoiding major controversies in the traditional media and often even defending his liberal colleagues in other media outlets.
As a result, Stelter has been derided by conservatives for years as a media “caretaker.”
Stelter's “Reliable Sources” show was canceled by CNN in August 2022. (Screenshot/CNN)
As host of “Reliable Sources,” Stelter promoted Russiagate. Kowtowing to Andrew Cuomo's coronavirus In October 2020, he called the Hunter Biden laptop story a “scandal fabricated by right-wing media organizations.” Additionally, heading into the 2020 election cycle, he called anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti a “serious” presidential candidate.
Less than a year after Stelter was fired, Licht himself was fired after a public backlash following a string of reports of infighting during his tenure and a failure to earn the trust of CNN's rank-and-file staff.
After Licht left CNN in June 2023, Stelter began reappearing on the network as a guest, fueling speculation that a full return to the network was imminent. A source familiar with Stelter's request told Fox News Digital earlier this year that no discussions had taken place about bringing him back in a full-time capacity.
Brian Stelte remains defiant as final “reliable source” refutes claims critics were to blame for cancellation
Stelter was fired by then-CNN CEO Chris Licht, who was ousted from the network less than a year later. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery)
Click here to get the FOX News app
Stelter was rejected by Licht but quickly embraced by CNN's current CEO, Mark Thompson.
“I am thrilled to welcome Brian to CNN in his new role,” Thompson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Brian is one of the world's foremost experts in media commentary and, as founder of the Reliable Source newsletter, he is the perfect person to lead Reliable Source into its next chapter.”
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
