change across the company, including here at cnn. and i m sad that i won t be here to cover it. but since this is our final episode, we re going to do something today. this is a special hour and it s about change. it s about change all across the media world. what s changing? what might change? and what must never change about the accountability function of journalism. i love this show. this small but mighty show punched above its weight for so many years. even a former president commented on the cancellation. reliable sources has been a one of a kind show, and a popular show. this is one of cnn s highest rated weekend shows. so i want to say thank you to all of you watching around the world. i was lucky to be a part of it for nine years. but it began 30 years ago after the gulf war. so here s what the iconic former cnn ceo tom johnson said on facebook when he heard the show was canceled. he said it was founded by ted turner and leaders of cnn who felt deeply that media org
version of the truth, which means even in some of the commentary or a lot of the commentary, that it ought to be repertoirially based. i try to do that. but in this book chasing history, the most important line in the book, it s about what i learned as a 16, 17, 18-year-old going to work in journalism, is a line that i was taught about great reporters covering civil rights. that is, the truth is not neutral. the truth is not neutral. that doesn t mean that we have to be fair in all we cover. we have to give acknowledgement to two sides. we have to be judicious but not judicial. i know there s been a lot of angst for instance calling donald trump not only on this network but all over a criminal. you know, we called nixon a criminal president in reporting on watergate. in fact, he never was convicted of a crime. but he was a criminal president.
of the united states to hitlerrian fascism? we didn t say it. he did. this is a moment. tha that s the importance of this book and perhaps the importance of some of the other books. we are finally getting behind the scenes as to what our leaders were saying and knew about trump, but the other thing is on our air, cable news, this network, msnbc, trump s derangement was reported, repertoirially nailed down. a good number of people myself included, but i don t want to take the credit for this. a number of people early on said, this is a deranged dangerous authoritarian president of the united states, starting in 2017. and yet his party the people around him in the white house they did not go public, including some of the people who are quoted in these books. why did they sit still instead of warning the american people