Categories: OLD Media Moves

NYT’s Stelter no longer covering CNBC because of relationship

New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter is dating CNBC anchor Nicole Lapin, which means that he’s been recused from covering the business news network.

Hamilton Nolan of Gawker reports, “Brian Stelter made his name covering TV news as a blogger, and he still covers TV news at the NYT. ‘What the dilly?’ is what we asked the paper, regarding this situation.

Bruce Headlam, the editor of the NYT’s media section, told us that from now on, ‘he just doesn’t cover CNBC. If there’s a passing reference to the network in a blog post or ratings story, I’m not going to get too worked up. We’ll steer clear of anything beyond that.’ Stelter tells us that his two most recent stories about CNBC — one about the death of Mark Haines, and the other about CNBC’s role in the movie ‘Too Big to Fail’ — were written before the relationship started, at the very end of May.

“So there you have it. Brian Stelter lost a bunch of weight and is starring in a movie and now he has a famous girlfriend. He also seems to be wearing decent clothes. How long before he quits journalism entirely? You don’t belong here, Brian.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.