Maybe it’s the name?
“Reliable Sources” scribe and senior reporter Oliver Darcy has left CNN, according to multiple reports.
If “Reliable Sources” sounds familiar to you, that’s because it was also the name of the now-defunct CNN Sunday morning show featuring the polarizing Brian Stelter.
Darcy’s “Reliable Sources” wasn’t a show, but a newsletter that “examines the information economy, chronicling the evolving media landscape,” effectively sharing the same purpose as Stelter’s show.
In an email obtained by Variety, Darcy unveiled his new platform, “Status.”
Trending:
“Drawing on a deep well of sourcing and industry expertise, ‘Status’ delivers hard-hitting reporting and unflinching analysis on the Fourth Estate, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley,” Darcy’s Thursday email said.
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The message continued: “There will be no sugarcoating, no pulling punches, no sparing sensitive egos — just the unvarnished truth about the companies and individuals who shape our world.”
Variety noted that the new newsletter will be delivered Sunday through Thursday.
Unlike Stelter, who appeared a bit miffed at his show’s cancellation, Darcy seems to have left CNN on more amicable terms.
One curious thing Stelter and Darcy do seem to have in common: A genuine disdain for former Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson.
Stelter was notorious for lambasting Carlson during his CNN days, and things have clearly persisted, even post-CNN.
As for Darcy, just look at the last thing his “Reliable Sources” posted on social media platform X, following Elon Musk’s purchase of the social media platform.
Today’s Info Wars with Reliable pic.twitter.com/AxJu3azW0W
— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) July 21, 2023
Both Darcy and his newsletter’s account (it’s unclear what will become of the newsletter without Darcy) stopped posting to X in July 2023, when Musk announced the platform would no longer be known as Twitter, as the now ex-CNNer explained here:
X Marks The End. Twitter is dead.
This platform only reluctantly lives on as a zombie.
Warped and disfigured, it marches on like a White Walker, an ugly shell of its former self under the command of a loathsome leader.
RIP, Twitter. It was a fun ride. https://t.co/XamM4TjWwD
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 25, 2023
Blasting X as a “warped and disfigured” platform only living on “as a zombie,” Darcy’s last post on the platform came just days after his newsletter’s final post.
According to Variety, Darcy is branching out from CNN because he is “eager to pursue his own path and felt he could turn his reporting and media presence into a scalable business.”
Some eyes will certainly be watching to see if Darcy’s “reporting and media presence” will be more like the man he so clearly despises (Carlson, who has thrived post-Fox News), or more like his former coworkers (Stelter and Don Lemon, for instance, who have struggled in their post-television careers).
