Stephen Colbert visits David Letterman and new 'Late Show' home
By Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) - CBS began to introduce the next host of the "Late Show," Stephen Colbert, by having current host David Letterman interview him and take a selfie together on Tuesday night.
Letterman called Colbert "always entertaining," "the new kid" and "my friend." What Letterman was saying, implicitly, was that he supported CBS's pick for his successor.
CBS announced that it had signed Colbert to a multiyear deal back on April 10, one week after Letterman revealed that he intends to retire in 2015.
Read more of Brian's article online here.
Not everyone loves Stephen Colbert
As Stephen Colbert is announced as David Letterman's replacement, Michelle Fields and Keli Goff debate the reaction to the pick on the left and the right.
Cavett on Colbert
Talk show legend Dick Cavett joins Brian Stelter to give his take on what the Comedy Central veteran will bring to The Late Show.
Stephen Colbert to succeed David Letterman as host of "The Late Show"
By Brian Stelter, CNN Senior Media Correspondent
(CNN) - Stephen Colbert will succeed David Letterman as the host of "The Late Show," CBS announced on Thursday, one week after Letterman told his audience that he would retire sometime in 2015.
CBS said Colbert had signed a five-year contract to host the iconic late-night broadcast.
Colbert, 49, has been the host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" since 2005.
Read the latest updates from Brian on CNN.com here.
CBS to air Thursday night football games
By Brian Stelter, CNN
Thursday Night Football is coming to broadcast television for the first time.
The National Football League announced on Wednesday that it had awarded the TV rights to eight Thursday games to CBS (CBS, Fortune 500), buttressing what has been a mutually beneficial relationship between the NFL and its partners at the broadcast networks.
The deal will only apply to the 2014 season, though the NFL could opt to extend it through 2015. The NFL Network, which has carried Thursday games on cable for nearly a decade, will simulcast the eight that will be on CBS, and will carry eight other games exclusively.
Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, credited the NFL Network with building Thursday "into a night for NFL fans." He added in a statement that the NFL's goal "is to bring these games to more fans on broadcast television with unprecedented promotion and visibility for Thursday Night Football on CBS."
Read more of Brian's article here.
Grammy Awards attracted 28.5 million
By Brian Stelter, CNN
Maybe it was Beyonce, or maybe it was the Beatles. (Actually, it was probably both.) The Grammy Awards attracted 28.5 million viewers to CBS on Sunday night, which is essentially a modern-day record for the annual music awards show.
CBS described it in a press release as "the second largest audience for the awards broadcast since 1993." Awards shows in general have been on a ratings upswing in recent years. One oft-cited reason is that, since they're big live events, they stand out in an increasingly on-demand television world.
Sunday's telecast would have been the biggest since 1993, period, were it not for the tragic circumstances of the 2012 Grammys. That year, Whitney Houston died less than 24 hours before the awards telecast, causing a dramatic surge in viewership the next day. (The average viewership was about 40 million.)
The Grammys are typically the second most popular awards show of the year behind the Academy Awards. This year's average viewership was just a smidge higher than last year's average of 28.4 million. (CBS pointed out that a more apples-to-apples comparison was between this year and 2010, the last time the Grammys were scheduled in January instead of February to avoid the Winter Olympics. In 2010, 25.9 million viewers tuned in.)
What we're reading this week...
By Becky Perlow, CNN
It's been a great week for media news, so Brian Stelter and the Reliable team are busy gathering all the stories for our Sunday show. Look for a few segments on the release of a new book that blasts Roger Ailes, as well as an interview with an AP photographer who reunited a young, homeless man with his family simply taking a picture. Unfortunately, we can't fit everything into our one-hour show, so we decided to share a few other stories that didn't make the cut this week:
'Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the Internet'
Amanda Hess writes in the Pacific Standard that female journalists (and women in general) are falling victim to violent cyber attacks. In the article, Hess shares her own experiences of violent, sexual tweets and comments that have been directed at her from people who were angered by her articles. In one of the tweets, the writer tells her, "Happy to say we live in the same state. Im looking you up, and when I find you, im going to rape you and remove your head." Hess adds that despite reaching out to local and federal authorities, she is told to either quit Twitter or given the run-around by the police. Hess hopes that her article will bring light to an issue that is too often not taken seriously.
'Navy mistakenly sends FOIA plans to reporter'
Scott MacFarlane, a reporter for NBC 4 in Washington, D.C, reportedly filed several requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), but got more than he bargained for when the Navy accidentally sent him an internal memo about MacFarlane's requests. The Navy's official Twitter account has released an apology for the mistake.
"60 Minutes' Clean Tech Segment Disputed By Former Energy Department Loan Boss'
As if CBS '60 Minutes' didn't have enough public relations nightmares to deal with, another segment by the legendary newscast has recently come under fire. According to The Huffington Post, the segment "detail[ed] perceived failures in government support for the development of clean energy and other advanced technology," but was later "criticized for leaving out crucial information about the state of the clean tech sector and over-emphasizing governmental failures."
'TV news executive producer saves family from fire'
As journalists, we're always on the lookout for good stories, but one news producer went over and beyond the call of duty earlier this week in Dacula, Ga. On her way to work, she noticed a house on fire and immediately called 911, before running toward the house and "banging on the doors and windows" to get the people out to safety. Now that's a good producer.
For more media news, tune in Sunday at 11am ET.
For John Miller, 'revolving door' is gateway from CBS News to NYPD
By Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) - John Miller, who has moved back and forth between public service and journalism like few others in either profession, is doing it again.
This time he's leaving CBS News, where he has been a senior correspondent for two years, and joining the New York Police Department.
Miller announced his latest move on Thursday. He embodies something that is, for some media critics, a source of great concern: the so-called "revolving door" between the people who cover the news and the people who are being covered. For CBS, he's something else: a fount of great knowledge who will be almost impossible to replace.
David Rhodes, the president of the network news division, said Miller's decision was "a loss for CBS."
"He's been really great for us," Rhodes said in a telephone interview on Thursday.
CBS allowed Miller out of his contract with the network because, as Rhodes put it, "it would just be inappropriate to stand in the way" of a return to public service. Miller's exact title at the NYPD is not yet known. But he'll have a high-profile job in counterterrorism, reuniting with his former boss William Bratton, who was the commissioner of the police department in the mid-1990s and will return to that position in January.
Read more of Brian's article online here.
Credibility crisis for “60 Minutes”?
After another 60 Minutes report gets panned, Michael Calderone, Ryan Lizza, Alicia Shepard and Brian Stelter look at what’s going wrong at the venerable CBS news magazine.
60 Minutes correction controversy
Errol Louis, Lynn Sweet, Dylan Byers and Terence Smith join guest host Frank Sesno to discuss the 60 Minutes apology for their botched Benghazi story; did it go far enough?
About "Reliable Sources"
Now more than ever, the press is a part of every story it covers. And CNN's "Reliable Sources" is one of television's only regular programs to examine how journalists do their jobs and how the media affect the stories they cover.
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About the host
Brian Stelter is the host of "Reliable Sources" and the senior media correspondent for CNN Worldwide. Before he joined CNN in November 2013, Stelter was a media reporter for The New York Times. He is the author of the New York Times best-seller "Top of the Morning."
Here's his biography. You can read his stories on this blog and at CNNMoney.com/Media/.
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