Time is a flat circle, and that’s especially true this week for Brian Stelter.
The former CNN anchor announced his return to the network and its newsletter “Reliable Sources” on Tuesday – just two months after his successor Oliver Darcy left the network.
Stelter was fired in 2022 during CEO Chris Licht’s ill-fated era at the network, as part of a purge of those known for criticizing Donald Trump and other Republicans. Stelter then wrote a book about Fox News and the 2020 election and later took a job as Vanity Fair Special Rapporteur.
He announced his return in typical fashion through a message to the Reliable Sources email list.
“The media industry has matured, CNN has evolved, and I have changed a lot since I quit two years ago,” Stelter wrote. “I loved my old life as a Sunday morning show host, but to borrow a phrase from my days as a video game blogger, I’ve completed that level of the game. Time for new levels, new challenges.”
It begins on September 9, one day before the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Brian Stelter talks to podcast host Kara Swisher about his new book “Network of Lies in New York City.”
Jason Mendez/Getty Images
“I am thrilled to welcome Brian back to CNN in this new role,” CNN CEO Mark Thompson said in a statement. “Brian is one of the world’s top media commentators and, as founder of the Reliable Sources newsletter, he is the perfect choice to lead Reliable Sources into its next chapter.”
The news came less than a month after Darcy, who worked under Stelter for years before taking over as head of the newsletter in 2022, decided to leave CNN to launch his subscription-only newsletter Status. The launch was completed by a splashy New York Times profile that portrayed him as “CNN’s media chronicler” who “goes his own way.” (Darcy did not respond to a request for comment, but Stelter said in his email Tuesday that he believed their two products would “complement each other beautifully.”)
CNN confirmed that it contacted the former anchor shortly after Darcy’s departure with the lofty new title of “Chief Media Analyst” and began a sprint to get everything together ahead of the network’s public schedule for a fall relaunch. In his email on Tuesday, Stelter promised he would “reimagine Reliable Sources” Digest,” suggesting a likely redesign to differentiate it from Darcy’s Reliable Sources-like offering.
Stelter was among a group of vocal CNN stars who were ousted after Warner Bros. executive John Malone publicly demanded that the network “evolve into real journalism” and move away from criticism of right-wing figures. Reporter John Harwood was also fired, while Don Lemon was moved to a morning show before his final firing last year.
But Stelter’s return provides an opportunity for the network’s critics to claim that CNN is returning to the era of verbal attacks on Republicans. Stelter has made many enemies at Fox News – Sean Hannity frequently referred to him as “Humpty Dumpty,” while Greg Gutfeld often tried to make him a laughing stock. When Stelter was fired, Trump suggested that he should “REST IN PEACE!”
But CNN’s rehiring of the star media reporter suggests that such pressures are less important to the company than they were during the Light era, especially given that the company is in the process of reinventing itself.
The network plans to offer its first digital subscription product by the end of the year, and Stelter’s revamped Reliable Sources—an established brand with a well-known size at the helm – could be part of such an offer.
