Oliver Darcy Bids Adieu to CNN in Final Reliable Sources Newsletter: ‘A Hell of a Ride’
Screenshot via CNN.
Oliver Darcy, who surprised the media world by announcing he was leaving his gig as CNN’s senior media reporter, published his final Reliable Sources newsletter Thursday evening.
Darcy launched his new venture, Status, Thursday morning, describing it as a “definitive nightly briefing that informs readers about what is really happening in the corridors of media power.” The plan is for the newsletter to be sent out five nights a week, one free and four nights available through paid subscriptions.
His tenure at CNN was marked by a critical eye on the media industry — including the cable news network that employed him. Darcy penned several sharp critiques of former CNN head Chris Licht and the events that led to his downfall, as well as calling out CNN for airing “lie-filled speeches” from the Republican National Convention with “little to no pushback.”
The last Reliable Sources edition authored by Darcy went out Thursday evening. A network spokesperson previously told Mediaite that the newsletter will go on hiatus over the summer and return in the fall with a new writer.
In his final newsletter for his now-former employer, Darcy offered his farewell to the “Reliable Sources family.”
“To say that it has been a hell of a ride at CNN would be an understatement,” he wrote, calling it “the privilege of my career” to be the “steward of Reliable Sources, particularly at a time in which truth is under assault and people are thirsty for honest, trustworthy information.”
The “role of media reporting is not only important, but essential,” he continued, because media has to be “at the epicenter of truth.”
“If news institutions and journalists shy away from their duties to uphold it, the fragile fabric that binds our society together unravels,” he declared. “Democracy falls into decay and authoritarians rise to power when a shared reality grounded in facts ceases to exist.”
Darcy described how when he was “passed the baton” to take over Reliable Sources, he ” vowed to do everything in my power to uphold its strong reputation and maintain its editorial independence.”
“At times, the newsletter’s unflinching coverage has made people across the industry, including my bosses here at CNN, quite uncomfortable,” he noted. “But that is to be expected. Those who occupy the corridors of power often prefer to operate with little public scrutiny. That is a constant in every industry, including media. But as journalists our job is to shine a bright light on their activities and pull back the curtain on the consequential decisions that are being made. It is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable when they err. It’s to call balls and strikes, without fear or favor.”
He then briefly outlined what he hoped to achieve with his new venture, and thanked his colleagues at CNN, concluding by thanking readers and saying that he would “always be cheering CNN on.”
Read Oliver Darcy’s final Reliable Sources newsletter here.
