CNN's Brian Stelter reported Sunday that major news anchors have been meeting secretly with Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown, in hopes of landing an exclusive.
"I'm going to let you in on a secret. Some high-profile news anchors have met Wilson. They've talked with him one-on-one in secret locations entirely off the record – all in the hopes of landing his very first television interview," Stelter told his audience Sunday on
"Reliable Sources."
Story continues below video.
Stelter said his sources have told him NBC's Matt Lauer, ABC's George Stephanopoulos, CBS' Scott Pelley and CNN's Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon have met with Wilson, and he assumes others have as well. Likely, a Fox News anchor is in the mix, Stelter said, though he admitted he doesn't know who.
"My sense from my sources is that it's mostly the anchors doing the talking in these off-the-record meetings, it's mostly Darren Wilson listening and getting to know the person," Stelter said.
Stelter said the other networks did not respond to requests for comment, but his colleagues at CNN, Cooper and Lemon, did take to Twitter to address the report.
Anderson Cooper tweeted:
Cooper continued that he has met and interviewed Brown's family and has spoken numerous times on the record and off the record with Brown family attorneys.
"Prior to interviewing Donald Sterling, for example, I also met with him to ask him to do an interview. That's how you ask for an interview," Cooper tweeted. The former LA Clippers owner first spoke to Cooper after reports surfaced he had made racist comments in secretly recorded private conversations.
Cooper also tweeted that Wilson chose not to do an interview with him, but added he would want to interview anyone with information about the case, including members of the grand jury currently considering whether to indict Wilson.
"There is no conspiracy here. Reporters want to intv people and sometimes you have to meet them first," Cooper tweeted.
Stelter wrote on CNN.com http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/23/media/ferguson-officer-wilson-interview/index.html that Cooper was responding to others on Twitter who criticized him after the report.
Lemon, too, took to Twitter:
Lemon noted that he had interviewed the Brown family, Dorian Johnson and various witnesses.
"Of course we'd want to interview Wilson," Lemon tweeted, adding, " FYI #CNN does not pay for interviews."
Stelter wrote online that his network sources told him that the CBS news magazine "60 Minutes" had been in especially hot pursuit of a Wilson interview. Pelley, who anchors the "CBS Evening News" also is a correspondent for "60 Minutes."
Wilson has not spoken publicly ever since the August 9 shooting death of Brown which sparked protests and calls by some for him to be criminally charged in the shooting.
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.