Media top headlines October 25
In media news today, The Washington Post gets mocked for reporting on 'vulgar threats' against President Biden, Bill Maher defends Dave Chappelle, and the Atlantic blames Americans buying things they don't need for supply chain crisis
CNN's leftwing media guru Brian Stelter swept his own network's town hall featuring President Biden under the rug on his program that purportedly focuses on the biggest media stories of the week.
On Sunday's installment of "Reliable Sources," Stelter made no mention of CNN's primetime special, where the president generated plenty of headlines from him admitting perhaps he "should" make his way to the southern border to him mocking the "freedom" of first responders who refuse to take the COVID vaccine.
Perhaps Stelter did not want to give the town hall more oxygen since it was a ratings dud, averaging only 1.2 million viewers from the 8-9:30 p.m. ET timeframe, finishing in third place behind Fox News' 2.8 million and MSNBC's 1.4 million averages. Both networks had aired regularly scheduled programming.
BIDEN RESCUES CNN FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY FROM NETWORK'S 26-DAY STREAK OF LESS THAN 1 MILLION VIEWERS
The town hall, which was moderated by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, was the first CNN program in a staggering 26 days that reached over 1 million viewers. The last time any regularly scheduled CNN program earned such an audience was Sept. 24.
Stelter appears to have a blindside when it comes to acknowledging media stories about CNN and his colleagues. Last week, the "Reliable Sources" host failed to acknowledge CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta's viral interview with podcast giant Joe Rogan, who forced Gupta to admit CNN should not have characterized Rogan's use of ivermectin as "horse dewormer" amid his recovery from COVID.
Last month, Stelter ignored the latest scandal plaguing CNN star Chris Cuomo, this time a sexual harassment allegation made by veteran TV producer Shelley Ross when the two of them worked at ABC News.
Stelter also tends to shield his allies at his direct liberal competitor MSNBC, avoiding "ReidOut" host Joy Reid's publicized spat with rapper superstar Nicki Minaj over her vaccine hesitancy, though he did address Minaj's viral tweets.
Over the summer, Stelter failed to mention CNN's awkward return of the network's disgraced legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, the departure of "The View" co-host Meghan McCain," the uproar over New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay calling the sight of American flags "disturbing," and the collapsed media narrative during the 2020 election that President Donald Trump ordered the clearing of protesters at Lafayette Square for a photo op.
"Reliable Sources" averaged only 738,000 viewers in September.
Stelter glossed over the Washington Post's major correction of its January report that accused Trump of urging Georgia election officials to "find the fraud," the major MSNBC leadership shakeup, Toobin's firing from The New Yorker following his Zoom call masturbation scandal, the ousting of MSNBC contributor Jon Meacham after it was revealed that he was moonlighting as a speechwriter for the Biden campaign and the scandals that plagued 2020 media darlings The Lincoln Project.
Last year, Stelter skipped Glenn Greenwald's dramatic exit from The Intercept after the founding editor accused his colleagues of censoring his story critical of Joe Biden and ignored Twitter caving in its standoff with The New York Post over its reporting of the Hunter Biden story.
Stelter similarly ignored the controversy surrounding presidential debate moderator and C-SPAN host Steve Scully, who alleged that his Twitter account was hacked after it appeared that he was reaching out to Trump foe Anthony Scaramucci. Stelter only acknowledged the controversy after Scully admitted he lied about the hack.
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In 2019, Stelter completely avoided the revelation that ABC News had spiked an investigation into convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Stelter, who is widely regarded as the media's "hall monitor," also spent much of the year downplaying the journalistic ethics violations made by his CNN colleague Chris Cuomo, who was repeatedly swept up in the scandals plaguing his brother, former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
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