CNN Cancels Brian Stelter’s “Reliable Sources” Amid Ongoing Budget Cuts, Addressing Public Perception of Biased Reporting

NEW YORK, NY – The latest casualty of the ongoing budget cuts at CNN instituted by the cable news network’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, is Brian Stelter’s Reliable Sources media affairs program, with the show having been officially cancelled and its host now out of a job.

Since WarnerMedia and Discovery completed their merger in April, the newly-christened Warner Bros. Discovery has been mandating budget cuts throughout the mass media and entertainment conglomerate in an attempt to maximize profitability, reports say.

Reliable Sources, which originally debuted in 1993 – making it CNN’s longest-running program – is a Sunday morning talk show that focuses on the analysis of the American news media; former TV news anchor and New York Times reporter Brian Stelter has served as its host since 2013.

Stelter learned of the news of Reliable Sources’ cancellation – and the subsequent loss of his job – on Thursday by CNN chief Chris Licht, who has been making numerous budget cuts at the news network since taking its helm in May, following the WarnerMedia and Discovery merger.

In a statement released the same day he was informed of his ouster, Stelter said that he was “grateful” for his time with CNN and the work he and his co-workers did reporting on “the media, truth and the stories that shape our world. It was a rare privilege to lead a weekly show focused on the press at a time when it has never been more consequential.”

Stelter also stated that he would talk more about Reliable Sources’ cancellation and his plans for the future on the show’s last-ever episode, which airs this upcoming Sunday at 11 a.m. EST.

The media coverage by Reliable Sources’ soon-to-be former host –especially during the Trump Administration – is considered by some to be one of the reasons that CNN has garnered the public perception of excessively biased reporting, a reputation that Licht has been attempting to address since taking over in an effort to make the network less blatantly politically partisan; to date, this has had little effect.