Reliable Sources

Jonathan Swan shares what he has learned about President Trump's final weeks in office, including a feud with Fox News and a conspiracy-drenched shouting match in the Oval Office. Swan, a national political correspondent for Axios, has published a long-form investigative series called "Off the Rails" and a narrative podcast, "How It Happened: Trump's Last Stand," about his reporting. "This is probably the strongest compulsion I've had in my career" and "the most driven I've been to get something out quickly," he says. "I just felt this overwhelming urgency to get it out. What I was hearing was not stuff I could sit on." Swan also explains why this deep-dive was a "dramatic departure" for Axios, otherwise known for "Smart Brevity."

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Plus... Oliver Darcy says there is no real ‘civil war’ in the GOP; Brian Stelter discusses freedom of reach versus freedom of speech; what should the next era of news leadership look like? Nicholas Kristof, Tia Mitchell, Oliver Darcy, Briahna Joy Gray, Dave Weigel, Elizabeth Bruenig, Farai Chideya, and Rick Davis join Brian Stelter.

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Rick Davis is a living CNN legend. He was the executive producer of CNN Sports when the network launched in 1980; he was the vice president in charge of Washington programs like Reliable Sources and Inside Politics in the 90s; and he has been the executive VP for news standards and practices since 1998. With Davis retiring at the end of January, Brian Stelter asks him to share some highlights from his career and evaluate CNN's role in the news landscape. Davis shares his memories of CNN's launch; the power of "these three red letters;" and his plans for retirement.

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Plus... Stuart Stevens says Rupert Murdoch is "the most dangerous immigrant in America;" Zeke Miller says the White House's new Covid protocols make the workplace "safer" for journalists; Biden-bashing has been turned up to 11 on right-wing TV. and a tribute to Larry King. Dr. Seema Yasmin, Karen Attiah, Zeke Miller, Stuart Stevens, Jay Carney, Joe Lockhart, Scot McClellan and Jim Acosta join Brian Stelter.

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Brian Stelter asks Ron Brownstein about how to process the years of history that have happened in just a few short weeks. Brownstein, the CNN senior political analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic, says the "big structural factor driving the politics of our era" is demographic eclipse. America is going through an "enormous demographic change that will produce a majority minority society," and as a result "the fundamental dividing line in American politics is between those who welcome and those who fear the way America is changing." Brownstein says right-wing outlets like Fox play on fear, "feeding that sense that you are under threat, that elites disdain you, and immigrants and minorities are coming to kill you... That is the drug that they offer their audience, and it's increasingly become the message of the Republican party over time."

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Plus... Why a top cybersecurity expert thinks groups like Proud Boys need to be treated like ISIS online; how to cover the information crisis; and a Fox News schedule shakeup rewards opinion over news. Maggie Haberman, Alex Stamos, Christopher Krebs, Dan Shelley, Nicole Carroll, Nicole Hemmer, David Folkenflik, Eugene Daniels and Sara Sidner join Brian Stelter.

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CNN's Sara Sidner says she felt "exposed and embarrassed" when she was overcome with emotion during a live report about the dire situation in southern California. It is what "we're taught not to do," she says. But her human reaction helped draw attention to the Covid-19 crisis, and she now says, "If it did something to help, then I'll embarrass myself every single day, all day long." Sidner and Brian Stelter discuss coverage of the pandemic; the state of emergency in and around Los Angeles; and the ways that journalists process trauma. "If it does anything to make someone think twice about walking out without a mask or not self-distancing, then then maybe it was the right moment," she says.

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Plus... Congressional reporters share what they witnessed during the attack; editorial boards call for Trump and GOP senators to resign; where do we go from here? Jeffrey Goldberg, Susan Glasser, Adam Sharp, Julie Roginsky, Oliver Darcy, Alex Marquardt, Phil Mattingly, Manu Raju and Lauren Fox join Brian Stelter.

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CNN correspondent Elle Reeve tells Brian Stelter what she witnessed in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, January 6, from the Save America March near the White House to the riot at the Capitol. She examines the process of MAGA media radicalization that led up to the insurrection and the links to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017. Reeve explains how her team members were able to move nimbly through the mob and says the people were not all "Internet basement dwellers." She says "I don't think, as a culture, we've grappled with the way social media is a brainwashing machine."

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Plus...Timothy Snyder on Trump's authoritarian aims; growing numbness to the Covid-19 death toll; how news outlets are exposing vaccine distribution delays; a 2021 forecast from CNN's media reporters. Timothy Snyder, Rana Cash, Astead Herndon, Emma Hurt, Dan Abrams, Dr. James Hamblin and Juliette Kayyem join Brian Stelter. 

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