Why is CNN host Brooke Baldwin leaving the network in April?
Longtime anchor of CNN Newsroom Brooke Baldwin surprised viewers with an announcement of her resignation from the cable news network on live television today. The reporter informed viewers all over the world that she was planning to leave in April to focus on “amplifying the lives of extraordinary Americans and putting my passion for storytelling to good use”.
What else is in store in the future for the longtime news anchor? Read on to hear about her plans.
1. I want to start with some personal news❤️ 📺 I will be leaving @CNN in April. I came to this network as a freelancer in 2008. I scribbled my name on a post it and stuck it outside a temporary office determined to fulfill my dream of becoming a full-time correspondent at CNN. pic.twitter.com/v4zeG5XMQX
— Brooke Baldwin (@BrookeBaldwin) February 16, 2021
Surprising announcement of departure
On her 3 PM ET show, Brooke Baldwin kicked off her CNN Newsroom show by announcing to her viewers: “Before we get going, I want to start with some personal news. I will be leaving CNN in April”.
The anchor then continued and said: “Let me back up. After most of my 20s working my way up in local news, I came to this network in 2008 – in the midst of the Great Recession as a freelancer. I remember I scribbled my name on a Post-It note and stuck it outside of this temporary office, determined to fulfill my dream of becoming a full-time CNN correspondent”.
“I wanted to be part of the best of the best in cable news & journalism. Little did I know, I would not only go on to fulfill that dream, I would flourish in this environment and land my own two hour show in the afternoon at the age of thirty-one”.
“For a decade, I have never taken for granted the enormous responsibility & privilege I’ve had to work with some of the most talented producers and photo journalists and correspondents and anchors out there as we have covered our era’s most urgent & important stories”.
“Conflicts, terrorism, environment & natural disasters, the wrath of gun violence, human interest stories, royal weddings, my American Woman series, the social justice movements that define our culture, and the pandemic that changed the world, and politics. Lots of politics”.
“You have been here with me. Every step of the way. Never more so than when I was incredibly sick with COVID last year. I am so grateful for your loyalty & passion for the world we cover, and so grateful to my show team, you know who you are”.
What’s next?
Brooke Baldwin then proceeded to thank CNN president Jeff Zucker in her speech as well as the “very large CNN family”. But the anchor then made it clear that her career wasn’t coming to a halt anytime soon after leaving the show. She announced that “the next chapter of my life will be focused on what I love most about my work”.
After leaving CNN, Brooke Baldwin stated that she currently will not have a job she’ll immediately jump into and admitted that “Yes, I’m feeling very vulnerable”. She also announced that “for the last two years, I have been working on my first book. It’s called Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power”.
“There is just more I need to do… outside the walls of this place, a place I have been privileged to call home for 13 years”, Brooke Baldwin said of her CNN workplace. She then finished with a Brene Brown quote that reads: “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change”. To that, the anchor said: “So here goes. I do hope you join me. In the meantime, I’ll be right here until mid-April. Now, to the news.”
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Will you miss Brooke Baldwin on CNN Newsroom? Will you continue to follow her career after she leaves CNN? Let us know your thoughts & opinions about the news anchor in the comments.
