Reliable Sources

Oliver Darcy and Kerry Flynn join Brian Stelter to debrief about the summer's biggest stories on the media beat, from BuzzFeed to Sally Buzbee, from right-wing media to Rachel Maddow. Flynn reflects on her conversations with new newsroom leaders and Darcy weighs in on the Biden White House's evolving relationship with the media. The trio also look ahead to the fall, discussing media companies' return to office plans, Big Lie lawsuits, and more.

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Plus... WSJ reporter shares his reporting about ABC News scandal; succession talk at "Jeopardy!" and MSNBC; and more. Azmat Khan, Anna Nelson, James Fallows, Eric Boehlert, Joe Flint, Claire Atkinson and Colleen McCain Nelson join Brian Stelter.

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Los Angeles Times columnist Jean Guerrero, an outspoken critic of Larry Elder, discusses the fraught media environment around the California gubernatorial recall, and why Elder is such a contentious candidate. She discusses different narratives about Gavin Newsom's time as governor and the recent increase in national news coverage of the recall effort. She says Elder's standoffs with the press hurt the public: "He's not being challenged on what he's actually proposing because he's refusing to talk to reporters who actually know what he stands for."

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Plus... MAGA media outlets are on an anti-democratic crusade; Fox's vaccine rhetoric versus corporate reality; meet the reporter who upended "Jeopardy!" and unseated Mike Richards; and more. Clarissa Ward, Saad Mohseni, Matthew Dowd, Amanda Marcotte, Oliver Darcy and Claire McNear join Brian Stelter.

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BuzzFeed reporter and Nieman fellow Joe Bernstein talks about his Harper's cover story on "Big Disinfo," the rise of a new industry dedicated to combating disinformation. "What I wanted to push back against is a kind of a dominant framing in the media... that implies or outright says that lies and propaganda on social media, specifically on Facebook, on YouTube, on Twitter, are measurably responsible for the deep issues in American society," he says. He also identifies ways forward for the study and coverage of disinformation.

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Clarissa Ward, Susan Glasser and Fareed Zakaria analyze breaking news from Afghanistan; Discovery fights to protect its Polish news network; Rachel Maddow considers leaving MSNBC; and more. Clarissa Ward, Susan Glasser, Fareed Zakaria, Stephen Shackelford, Lachlan Cartwright and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy join Brian Stelter.

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Megan Stack, a contributor to The New Yorker, discusses her recent article about the Pentagon's "de-facto press blackout" in Afghanistan, plus the threats to members of the media in the country. She describes the U.S. military's concerns about how coverage of the troop withdrawal could hurt America's image, saying "they know that any photograph that looks sort of unvictorious, that looks that looks like giving up and kind of quitting" might be useful "to foreign adversaries." Stack analyzes the Taliban's advances and says the image feared by U.S. officials -- a helicopter evacuation reminiscent of the Fall of Saigon -- could wind up being seen. Stack also reflects on two decades of Afghan war coverage and says "I found it very difficult to reconcile how little the U.S. public does seem to understand or engage with the extent of what's happened and what our government has done. I find that very jarring, especially because I gave so many years of my life and I have friends who died covering those stories, and it's sort of frustrating... I feel like people have done great coverage over the years and it just hasn't quite penetrated."

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Plus... Dr. Nisha Mehta on Covid's grim reality; Andrew Sullivan on what the media missed about Provincetown; Dana Bash on the art of the interview; and more. John Avlon, Yasmeen Serhan, David Zurawik, Casey Seiler, Dana Bash, Dr. Nisha Mehta and Andrew Sullivan join Brian Stelter.

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When is it appropriate for journalists to take a side? When is it okay for journalists to participate in a march or use a political hashtag? NPR recently addressed these questions with a revision to its ethics policy. Poynter SVP Kelly McBride, who also serves as NPR's public editor, discusses the policy changes and what they mean for the public radio outlet and the journalism industry more broadly. She says "good journalism and having an opinion about a moral position" should not be mutually exclusive," and points out, "When you talk to journalists of color who are trying to make their way in American newsrooms, they are disproportionately harmed by these conflict of interest policies."

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Plus: Why the MyPillow CEO's delusions endanger democracy; Jared Holt on a "parallel media universe;" and more. Robby Soave, Oliver Darcy, Dr. Celine Gounder, Emily Woodruff, Keisha Rowe, Leida Gore, Anne Applebaum, Jared Holt and Rep. Jackie Speier join Brian Stelter.

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