Brooke Baldwin's CNN Exit Was Messier Than We Realized

CNN has had some headline-making anchor exits in recent years. Brooke Baldwin, host of "CNN Newsroom," was no different. In February 2021, Baldwin announced she was leaving the network after 13 years. Her last episode aired on April 16, 2021. At the time, Baldwin claimed that one of the key reasons for her departure was a feeling that she was getting too comfortable. Many were surprised by the announcement, and rumors swirled for years about the real reason for Baldwin's exit from the network. After three years, she finally broke her silence on the situation in an exclusive essay for Vanity Fair in April 2024.

In the essay, Baldwin reveals a toxic culture of gaslighting and manipulation during her last years at the network, particularly as it pertained to then-network CEO Jeff Zucker and her executive producer at the time. Baldwin notes that by the end, Zucker wanted her out. As she explains, her situation with the network took a turn when, after years of being based in Atlanta, she moved to New York in 2014.

While Baldwin made the move, her regular team she worked with on "CNN Newsroom" remained in Atlanta. Once in New York, Baldwin noted that her executive producer began a series of passive-aggressive actions that included questioning her ability to handle heavy-hitting interviews, ignoring her if she missed an email from him, and sometimes communicating with her via the teleprompter rather than her earpiece. These actions led to Baldwin's request that said producer be reassigned to another anchor. That request was denied. Soon after, "CNN Newsroom" was pulled off the air for two months and eventually reduced to half its allotted time. By that point, Baldwin's agent outrightly informed her that she was essentially being pushed out of the network. Her February 2021 announcement that she was leaving the network would soon follow.

Just two months after her CNN exit, Baldwin released her first book, "Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power," which featured interviews with various influential women, such as Ava DuVernay, Stacy Abrams, and Gloria Steinem. At the time of its release, in an exclusive interview with People, Baldwin appeared to suggest that working on the book was a catalyst for her decision to leave CNN. With the recent revelations from her Vanity Fair essay, one wonders if that might have been a PR-friendly spin. Particularly since on an episode of the "Ms. Magazine" podcast, a few months after announcing her plans to depart the network, Baldwin hinted at facing challenges at CNN due to its male-centric culture.

Regarding her future in media, at the time of writing, Baldwin has not expressly stated any plans to return to broadcast, but she did tell People that she'd like to continue storytelling at a streaming platform.