Founding TVNewser

How A Cable News Blog Turned Into A Top Source For The Highs And Lows Of Broadcast Media.

- Brian Stelter

Television news matters. The networks should be monitored, scrutinized, criticized and applauded when appropriate. And all of the scrutiny makes TV news better.

That was the simple idea behind the launch of my blog CableNewser 15 years ago. I was a television news junkie, and I wanted to read more about the shows, the stars and the screw-ups.

I was also intrigued by this up and-coming thing called blogging. In 2003, it suddenly became really easy to set up a blog and start publishing anything, anytime, anywhere. In the days before Facebook and Twitter, this was a revelation.

So in the fall of 2003, when I was starting classes at Towson University, I came up with CableNewser, the name of the website and my anonymous identity. I figured no one at the networks would take me seriously if they knew I was only 18 years old. I started the site on New Year’s Day 2004, when the biggest news involved Deborah Norville’s new MSNBC show and the expansion of CNN’s Inside Politics to Sundays.