CNN Fires Brian Stelter

Good morning and welcome to the News Diet where I’ll give you daily news bites in under 10 minutes. Today I’m gonna talk about Brian Stelter’s departure from CNN and other major changes at the network, the mysterious car blast in Moscow, and also the youngest pilot to have flown around the world. Let’s be informed so we can get on with our day.

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News network CNN continues to make major changes to the company. The most recent being the letting go of one of their most well known hosts Brian Stelter, along with canceling his show “Reliable Sources”. The news was announced last week, and yesterday was his last show. 

This change is just one of several major shake ups the network has made this year. Back in February, Warner Brothers Discovery bought CNN and supposedly are looking to take the company in a new direction. The last several years, CNN has been accused of turning into a progressive counterpart to conservative network Fox News, with almost non-stop critical coverage of President Trump during his time in office. Well it seems that the new bosses may be attempting to bring the coverage back to a more centrist tone. Before letting Stelter go, they also fired another star anchor Chris Cuomo earlier this year after he was accused of helping his brother, former Governor, Andrew Cuomo, confront sexual asssault allegations; and also former CNN President Jeff Zucker left the network after it was revealed that he had engaged in a relationship with a colleague. So these shakeups definitely signify the end of an era for CNN and a rumored blank slate. 

The new management is also rumored to be cutting back on spending, as Warner Brothers Discovery has a heavy debt load of $55 billion. They’ve already cut huge initiatives like the CNN+ streaming service, only weeks after it launched to the upcoming Batgirl movie, as well as layoffs at HBOMax. 

Overall, cable news is in an interesting predicament right now. These companies require hundreds of millions of dollars to run, and they make most of their revenue through advertising. So in order to justify high prices for these ad spaces, they have to have mass audiences. The problem is, is that these networks are actually starting to struggle in terms of ratings. Independent reporters and smaller news shows are starting to gain more market share with audiences, and cost a fraction of the price to run. So the old model of star news talent, elaborate sets, and fancy graphics, are actually likely to be hurting these shows now more than helping. CNN is likely catching on to this to some extent, so we’ll see if their upcoming changes, whatever they end up being, will make any difference in audience retention and the costs of running the network.

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So apparently there’s a prominent Russian philosopher named Aleksandr Dugin, whose views are very pro-Russian and anti-Western, so it comes as no surprise that he’s also an advocate of the current invasion of Ukraine. While he’s not a government official, it’s said that his philosophies are shared by President Putin, and many outlets are even referring to him as ‘Putin’s brain’.

Well on Saturday, his daughter, Daria, was killed when her car exploded from a planted device. Authorities are still investigating, but it’s suspected that the explosive was intended for Aleksandr. Both he and his daughter were leaving a festival where he was speaking, and at the last minute, he decided to take a different vehicle.

The obvious first reaction was some Russians accusing Ukraine of being behind the blast, considering the ongoing conflict, but a Ukrainian official has denied responsibility. Up to now, all fighting has remained on Ukrainian soil, so if there was any proof that attacks were made within Russian borders, then that could take the fighting to a new level as technically Russia would have justification for ramping up the fighting. Similar sentiments were shared towards the recent Crimea explosions, which Russia considers a part of its territory.

So as right now, no one knows who was behind the attack.

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The youngest person to fly around the world solo is scheduled to finish his five month long journey on Wednesday. Mack Rutherford is a 17 year old British pilot, and he departed Bulgaria on March 23 - where he then made his way through Africa, United Arab Emirates in the middle east, through Asia, then across the Pacific Ocean to Alaska, down the west coast of the US to Mexico, then back up to Canada to Iceland, the UK, and then he’s scheduled to make a couple more European stops before reaching his original destination in Bulgaria.

Mack comes from a family of aviators - both of his parents and his 19 year old sister is a pilot, who currently holds the record for the youngest woman to fly around the world. Mack received his pilot license in 2020, which made him the youngest pilot in the world at 15.

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You’ve just been informed so now it’s time to get on with your day. I’m Michele Carroll. Thanks so much for listening.

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TODAY’S STORIES:

https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/8/18/23312362/brian-stelter-cnn-warner-brothers-discovery-john-malone-reliable-sources

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/18/1118197553/brian-stelter-cnn-canceled-show

https://www.foxnews.com/media/brian-stelter-hosts-final-reliable-sources-show-cnn-free-world-needs-reliable-source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Zucker#Resignation_from_CNN_and_WarnerMedia

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/04/business/media/warner-bros-discovery-earnings.html#:~:text=The%20executives%20at%20Warner%20Bros,Mr.

https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/cable-news/ 

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62621509

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/daughter-putins-brain-ideologist-killed-car-blast-88653006

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Dugin 

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https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/in-the-home-stretch-16-year-old-to-become-youngest-person-to-circumnavigate-the-world-by-airplane/

https://macksolo.com/journey/