Brian Stetler

CNN's Full-page NYT Ad Boasts 'New Day' Ratings Top MSNBC's 'Morning Joe'
By Randy Hall | January 29, 2015 | 8:05 PM EST

The perpetual battle for last place in the cable “news” channels took an interesting turn on Thursday, when the Cable News Network took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times claiming that while MSNBC's Morning Joe program was “leaning forward” -- a reference to that channel's motto -- CNN's New Day show was “moving ahead!”

“SORRY, JOE,” the title glared before the text below bragged: “In January, CNN's New Day beat MSNBC's Morning Joe for the 4th month in a row in total viewers and the 7th month in a row” among adults in the critical demographic of viewers from 25 to 54 years of age.

CNN Panel: New Book on Roger Ailes Won't Change Any Minds About Fox News
By Randy Hall | January 11, 2014 | 2:16 PM EST

During Wednesday night's edition of Piers Morgan Live on the Cable News Network, a panel of four media analysts joined their liberal host in agreement that The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News -- and Divided a Country, a new book written by New York Magazine reporter Gabriel Sherman, will not have much impact on readers' views of that cable network.

“People who are skeptical of Fox News are going to read this book and are going to be sure, once and for all, that Fox News is an arm of the Republican Party,” said media critic Brian Stetler of the New York Times. However, Amy Holmes -- a host on TheBlaze TV -- asserted that the book is filled with “pretty thin gruel.”

NYT Belittles Chevron’s Efforts to Counter One-Sided Media Treatment in Ecuador Lawsuit
By Jeff Poor | May 11, 2009 | 12:18 PM EDT

You might expect this sort of simple revelation from the New York Times reporting, but a May 11 article declared that when Chevron hires a former reporter to tell the company's side of the story, it's intended to make them look good - or not as bad as the eco-activists deem appropriate.

After CBS's "60 Minutes" aired a one-sided segment attacking Chevron (NYSE:CVX) for a mess the oil company contends it is not responsible for, a Times article by Brian Stetler questioned the merits of their efforts to counter the claims, specifically in hiring a former CNN reporter to speak on the company's behalf.

"As a demonstration of just how far companies will go to counteract negative publicity, the Chevron case is extraordinary," Stetler wrote. "Gene Randall, a former CNN correspondent, spent about five months on the project, which was posted on the Internet in April, three weeks before the ‘60 Minutes' report was shown on May 3."