Media critics are calling for Brian Stelter to be fired after failing to report the ‘open secret’ affair between top boss Jeff Zucker and staffer Allison Gollust.
‘The network needs to step up and fire Brian Stelter,’ a CNN insider tells DailyMail.com. ‘He is allegedly our top media reporter – yet he failed to report on the scoop that everyone in the office knew. And if he wants to say he didn’t know, he is truly terrible at his job.’
Stelter is the chief media correspondent for CNN and host of the CNN program Reliable Sources.
In a statement on Wednesday, Zucker said he was stepping down as CNN president for failing to disclose his relationship with Gollust when he was being interviewed as part of the investigation into Chris Cuomo.
He and Gollust claim the romance started during COVID, but media sources tell DailyMail.com it long predates the pandemic and was an open-secret in the CNN offices.
A cable news veteran, who wishes not to be named, spoke of the close relationship between Stelter and Zucker.
‘Brian Stelter should be calling his agent to start looking for another job,’ they said. ‘He’s been Jeff Zucker’s water boy for years and no one believes he didn’t know about all of this.’
The source added that Stelter often criticizes competing networks, like Fox News.
‘He’s been sitting on his moral high horse doing Jeff’s bidding and ripping Fox and every other media outlet that Jeff tells him to while his ratings crash and burn. Where was he on the biggest story at his own network after chastising everyone else?’
Since taking the helm in 2013, CNN has reportedly not seen any ratings improvement – losing audience share, independent viewers and ratings throughout Zucker’s tenure.
CNN is delivering the largest declines in cable news this month – down roughly 80% in primetime and total day across the board.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Stelter for comment.
One source tells us ‘everyone knew’ about the affair and it had been an ‘open secret for years’.
It became so much of an issue that Warner Media separated Zucker and Gollust last year, the source claimed.
‘That wasn’t enough of a hint this was going on in plain sight?,’ they added.
Gollust and Zucker lived in the same apartment building with their respective families, have worked together at NBC and then CNN for more than 20 years, and had what some called an ‘uncomfortably cozy’ rapport.
‘Jeff took Allison to every job he had – after they left NBC, he tried to get her on Katie Couric’s show which failed, then he placed her at his friend Governor Cuomo’s office, then took her to CNN as soon as he was he got that job all while failing upward along the way,’ they said.
They are both now divorced, and one source told DailyMail.com that their splits were due in part to their relationship.
Politico cites two unnamed sources who say Chris Cuomo’s legal team is who brought the romance to the surface in negotiations for the ousted host’s $18million severance pay.
Chris was fired in December last year after an internal investigation found he had helped his brother Andrew, former Governor of New York, navigate through a sexual misconduct scandal, while still working as a CNN host.
He is still fighting for $18million – the remainder of his contract – but Zucker has refused to pay out, citing the conflict of interest between Chris’s relationship with his brother and his on-air reporting for CNN.
According to Politico’s sources, Cuomo’s team said it was hypocritical for Zucker to fire Chris for a conflict of interest when he has one of his own in his relationship with Gollust.
‘Jeff’s affair with Allison has been going on forever – not since COVID!’ one source told DailyMail.com. ‘Everyone has known it but he still denied it. It was part of the reason for his divorce, but not the only reason.
‘It was inevitable that it would come out – he should have been up front sooner.’
Another said: ‘It was the worst kept secret inside the building.
‘Jeff’s office was right next to Allison’s office at Hudson Yards and before that at the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle.
‘The joke was they weren’t only sharing a wall. No one believes that this only happened over pandemic. They have been close for years.
‘The closest it ever came to being outed was when Page Six reported on their “heavy exchange” at the Hollywood Reporter’s 35 Most Powerful People in NY Media party.
‘They had a very public fight at the party that didn’t seem to have anything to do with work.’
Zucker admits lying about when the romance began during the investigation into whether or not Chris Cuomo, formerly the network’s most successful host, helped his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, through his sexual harassment scandal.
‘I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong.
‘As a result, I am resigning today,’ he said.
Story cited here.
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