Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released their nominations for the 87th Academy Awards and many have criticized the academy for shutting out the film “Selma” from the four biggest acting categories. With the so-called controversy over the film’s lack of nominations continuing, on Sunday, CNN’s Reliable Sources brought on actor Gbenga Akinnagbe, star of HBO’s “The Wire” and Fox’s “24" to slam Hollywood as lacking diversity. Akinnagbe argued that Hollywood is “very similar to Congress. We get these rules and regulations that benefit one class because we have a Congress full of millionaires. That's pretty much how Hollywood tends to work.”
Brian Stelter
By Brent Bozell | and By Tim Graham | December 20, 2014 | 8:04 AM EST
The widespread reporting on hacked e-mails from Sony Pictures – spurred by the upcoming release of an allegedly funny movie about assassinating North Korean despot Kim Jong Un – might encourage some gloating from people who would like to bring Hollywood down a peg. But hold the schadenfreude. The media’s ethics – or seeming lack of ethics – are troubling.
By Matthew Balan | December 15, 2014 | 4:54 PM EST
On CNN's Reliable Sources on Sunday, University of Virginia student Alex Pinkleton revealed how Rolling Stone's Sabrina Rubin Erdely, who wrote the disputed Rolling Stone story on alleged rape at the college, acted more like an "advocate" than a reporter as she interviewed people for the article. Pinkleton, a friend of the woman who made the rape accusation, asserted that Erdely "did have an agenda, and part of that agenda was showing how monstrous fraternities themselves as an institution are, and blaming the administration for a lot of the sexual assaults."
By Brent Bozell | and By Tim Graham | November 4, 2014 | 11:17 PM EST
On the Sunday before the election, CBS “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer unloaded one of those pompously “progressive” end-of-show commentaries about how our democracy is being ruined by money.“The right to vote is our proudest possession, but the way it has become debased by money shames us all.”
He claimed “Congress hasn't done anything in years, yet these midterm elections will be the most expensive in history, just like the last one -- $4 billion this time around. That's billion with a B,” he lamented.
By Matthew Balan | October 6, 2014 | 5:29 PM EDT
Samuel Burke touted Amazon's new streaming TV series Transparent on Monday's CNN Newsroom as "groundbreaking," and underlined that it's "tackling a topic that TV has rarely touched." The main character in the series, "Moira," is an elderly father who begins to dress as a woman. Burke acclaimed that "this role of a 70-year-old trans-gender character might just give Netflix a run for its money."
By Jeffrey Meyer | September 28, 2014 | 4:20 PM EDT
For the second time in two years, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria has been accused of plagiarism, for using other people’s words and claiming them to be his own, during his Fareed Zakaria GPS program. Despite the seriousness of the charges leveled against Zakaria, CNN’s Brian Stelter did his best to protect his colleague during his Reliable Sources program on Sunday. The CNN host defended Zakaria from plagiarism charges and insisted that his program merely “made some attribution mistakes.”
By Matthew Balan | September 22, 2014 | 6:46 PM EDT
On Sunday's Reliable Sources, CNN's Brian Stelter touted a disgraced former representative as a non-partisan pundit and as an expert on media bias: "Now, I could bring in two partisan commentators now to argue about the media, but I'd rather from someone who's been in the glare of the news media – someone who's all too familiar with what happens when you go from darling to bad boy – then, maybe, back and forth. That's former Congressman Anthony Weiner."
Terror-Supporting Islamist Finds 'Humor' in Saying '9-11, 7-7, 3-11' During Mic Check Before CNN Interview
By Tom Blumer | August 31, 2014 | 10:55 PM EDT When last seen in coverage at NewsBusters, Anjem Choudary was sparring with Sean Hannity while claiming that ISIS atrocities are a Western "falsehood" and that Islamic Sharia law will be implemented "in the whole world one day."
Before getting to his latest stunt on CNN's Reliable Sources program with host Brian Stelter, it's important to provide some context, simply because Choudary, described at Wikipedia as a "Muslim social and political activist," has already said that "if you had a sense of humor, maybe you would have laughed" at how he conducted the mic check before his interview.
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 25, 2014 | 12:55 PM EDT
Dan Rather, former anchor of the CBS Evening News, appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources to harshly criticize those in Congress calling for the U.S. to take military action against the terrorist group ISIS.
Speaking to anchor Brian Stelter on Sunday, August 24, Rather proclaimed that he will only listen to those who advocate boots on the ground “if you tell me you are prepared to send your son, your daughter, your grandson, your granddaughter to that war of which you are beating the drums.” [See video below.]
By Matt Philbin | August 20, 2014 | 2:07 PM EDT
The news that Al Gore is suing Al Jazeera America for millions of dollars owed him from the purchase of his Current TV network rocked the media world last week. After all, who knew Al Jazeera America still existed?
But AJA is still there (probably), snug in the old Current TV channel slot on your cable guide. It’s just that you’re not watching. Neither is anyone else.
By Matthew Balan | August 18, 2014 | 2:45 PM EDT
On Sunday's Reliable Sources on CNN, Dr. Gail Saltz blasted Fox News contributor Dr. Keith Ablow for his jab at Michelle Obama's weight: "To be criticizing people, kind of, willy-nilly is – I don't think meets the Hippocratic Oath." She played up how Dr. Ablow previously hinted that Vice President Biden might have dementia, and claimed that the psychiatrist violated "American psychiatric guidelines, which is not to diagnose someone that you have ever met." [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
Host Brian Stelter wondered if there's "this urge to be entertaining; to be provocative; to be outrageous." Dr. Saltz asserted that she tries "very hard every day to resist that," and that "any professional wants to express their opinion that has nothing to do with medicine, they have to carefully take off their doctor hat, and make it clear that they're doing so." The CNN guest should take her own advice, as she diagnosed conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh as a "bully" in October 2009:
By Jeffrey Meyer | August 17, 2014 | 3:41 PM EDT
Following the death of Michael Brown and the ensuing protests in Ferguson, Missouri, one topic of conversation that has drawn a lot of attention is whether or not Al Sharpton can serve as both an activist and be the host of a daily MSNBC program.
Appearing on CNN’s Reliable Sources, Marc Lamont Hill, CNN contributor and HuffPost Live host, defended Sharpton’s dual roles and argued that “Al Sharpton is no different than Sean Hannity. He's no different than Glenn Beck was. He's no different than many pundits who had TV shows.” [See video below.]