CNN’s “Reliable Sources” reporter Oliver Darcy leaves the network in shocking fashion

CNN reporter and media critic Oliver Darcy has left the cable news network to start his own newsletter.

Darcy, 33, said Thursday he was leaving his position at the Warner Bros.-owned network. Discovery, where he wrote the widely read media newsletter Reliable Sources, to start Status, a subscription-based newsletter covering the same topic.

The move comes as CNN is in the throes of a massive restructuring under CNN CEO Mark Thompson, who recently announced 100 job cuts.

A CNN representative said “Reliable Sources” will go on summer break but will return in the fall with a new writer.

Darcy told The Post that “Status” is a separate effort at the moment.

“There are no supporters. Only me,” he said. “Paid readers will empower my independent voice.”

A Status subscription will start at $15 a month or $150 a year with an elite membership, with perks like private Zoom calls, available for $595 a year, The New York Times reported Thursday .

The first issue will be published on Monday and will have a launch sponsor, which Darcy declined to name.

Darcy told the paper that Status will cover topics ranging from Silicon Valley to presidential politics to the effects of artificial intelligence technology on news consumption.

“We’re trying to connect all these dots every night,” he said.

“My request to readers is that this is a 100 percent independent voice,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a product out there that does exactly what we do.”

The newsletter will also have an ad-selling partnership with The Ankler, a Hollywood coverage start-up founded by Janice Min, the ambitious media veteran who once ran The Hollywood Reporter and US Weekly in the days of her glory.

Darcy’s “Status” joins a slew of tidbits from outlets like Politico, Axios, Puck and Bloomberg. Unlike the competition, CNN did not branch out and expand its “Reliable Sources” newsletter into live events. Instead, she canceled her poorly rated long-running TV show of the same name in 2022.

This show was hosted by Brian Stelter, who founded the newsletter in 2015. Stelter was let go when the show was canceled, but Darcy took over the newsletter.

Darcy, who joined CNN in 2017, quickly became a leading media voice when he took over “Reliable Sources.” Notably, in June 2023, he spoke out against his network under then-CEO Chris Licht, which had sparked an uproar among network correspondents who were rubbed the wrong way by the executive’s judgment and leadership.

Licht, who was the subject of a scathing profile in “The Atlantic,” went down soon after.

Darcy also had his fair share of scoops, most recently exposing MSNBC’s decision to pull “Morning Joe” off the air after an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

“Oliver has established himself as a tough but scrupulously fair leading voice in media reporting and commentary — never afraid to call it like he sees it,” said CNN chief Thompson. He has been a great shepherd of CNN’s Trusted Source newsletter, and we wish him every success in his new entrepreneurial adventure.”