***The complete post is on NewsBusters***
With his CNN+ show Reliable Sources Daily not even surviving through the final week of the streaming service, chief media reporter Brian Stelter kicked off Sunday’s Reliable Sources by bemoaning the death of his show and again claiming it was “too early to know” if it was a “success or failure.” But during the panel discussion, Stelter was confronted by Axios reporter Sara Fischer about how CNN+ was a financial flop and Warner Brothers Discovery put it out of its misery before it became a money sink.
“Here at CNN, new ownership decided to shut down the CNN+ streaming service less than a month after it was launched by the previous management team,” he announced at the top of the show. And he lamented the “[y]ears of development possibly down the drain. Some of the shows may never be seen. Hundreds of staffers may be laid off, though the company is trying to place many of them in new jobs.”
Stelter decried how “partisans are leaping to predictable talking points about politics” since CNN’s new boss has reportedly said he wants less “red-hot liberal opining.” “But the truth is, this was a corporate move. This CNN+ service was doomed because of the timing of a merger and clashing streaming strategies,” he suggested.
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