Seems like others are beginning to ask the question I raised yesterday about Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter. It hardly seems reliable that Stelter failed to report on the “open secret” sexual relationship of his boss Jeff Zucker with former Andrew Cuomo aide turned CNN exec Allison Gollust while defending the deeply unethical Cuomo propaganda aired in the spring of 2020. Thus far, the criticism falls along the “how can Stelter have missed this scoop” lines:

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.’ …

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.’

That’s getting closer to the problem, but …

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?’

Yes, the hypocrisy stinks, but it’s not the largest problem with Stelter and the other media critics and fact checkers at CNN. It’s not just a sin of omission — it’s the obvious cover-up in which Stelter participated that is the real offense. As late as August of last year, 15 months after CNN finally brought an end to the Cuomo Brothers Prime-Time Propaganda Circus, Stelter argued publicly that there were no clear ethics lines crossed, a point at which Stephen Colbert — and everyone else — openly scoffed:

.@CNN’s media reporter @brianstelter says of the network’s much-criticized handling of the @ChrisCuomo–@NYGovCuomo conflict:

“If we open up the journalism ethics book, there is no page for this. It’s the craziest set of circumstances you can imagine.”pic.twitter.com/oleGUiiS6Y

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) August 11, 2021

Try to square that with these updates from Washington Post media critic Eric Wemple last night. The Cuomo Brother strategy came directly from the Zucker-Gollust offices, which along with the “open secret” would represent a multidimensional journalistic-ethics meltdown to an actual media critic:

According to several sources, Gollust and Zucker were instrumental in securing the Cuomo-on-Cuomo interviews. Though Andrew Cuomo’s staff assented to the early appearances, they had second thoughts about continuing the series. 7/

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) February 3, 2022

As I argued months ago, the glare of accountability shouldn’t have fallen exclusively on Chris Cuomo. And now it appears it hasn’t. https://t.co/AmKmU27Sxw

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) February 3, 2022

Critics and competitors had clamored for an explanation of the Cuomo circus for more than a year by the time of the Stelter-Colbert interview. Wemple was in fact one of the more insistent among those critics. And yet none — none — of CNN’s media critics and media reporters bothered to call out their own network for this corruption at its very top. Stelter’s no media critic: he’s a corporate flack, and still is to this very day:

Bless his heart. He's convinced himself that there are people out there who believe he's an honest broker working hard to report on the corruption that's been endemic at CNN for a decade. https://t.co/wkO8nhkZHm

— Duane Patterson (@Radioblogger) February 3, 2022

"I know we're all in shock," Michael Bass said on CNN's 9am editorial call today. "You can't replace Jeff. It's not possible. There's no one else like him." So "the best thing we can do is honor his legacy and continue his mission." "Do what we've been doing every single day."

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 3, 2022

“Honor his legacy”? What legacy is that? Zucker promoted his mistress, turned his network into a propaganda channel for a corrupt governor, and sunk CNN’s ratings into the dirt. By the end of Zucker’s reign, he only had one show in the top 25 — and that was Chris Cuomo’s. That’s one hell of a legacy from Zucker, and the fact that his network and its chief media critic keeps wanting to paint him as some kind of sympathetic hero speaks volumes about credibility throughout the organization.

Discovery needs to clean house once it acquires/merges with Warner. They should start at the top, and not stop until they get to the bottom of the corruption.