“You know that meme of George Michael Bluth?”
Journalist and political commentator Chris Cillizza is trying to describe for me what it felt like when CNN laid him off back in 2022. The pop-culture shorthand he reaches for is that famous Arrested Development scene when Michael Cera’s character drops his backpack and slumps to the floor. “That was me for a while. Like, a solid month or two. I felt ashamed, embarrassed and like I had failed — even though I wasn’t sure what I had done wrong.
“I had used writing, talking and thinking about politics for so long to order my day that, without it, I felt lost.”
For most people, getting laid off is a private trauma. Cillizza’s separation from the cable news network, however, was noteworthy enough — in part because he was one of several big names let go during a round of cost-cutting — that it generated coverage and write-ups in outlets like The Daily Mail, Variety, and The Daily Beast, to say nothing of the mentions across Reddit threads and Twitter posts. He’d had no indication it was coming. And then, just like that, it was all gone; the newsroom routine, the daily deadlines, and any semblance of a clear next step.
“I still remember dropping my kids off at the school bus at 7:45 a.m. and getting home, pulling up my calendar, and seeing the next thing I had to do was pick them up at 3:30 p.m.” That empty stretch of time forced him to rethink everything. What emerged was So What, his Substack newsletter, along with YouTube videos and TV work that together marked the start of what he and so many other independent journalists have scrambled to build as the industry contracts around them: A second act.
Chris Cillizza and the shift away from legacy media
Across the industry lately, well-known journalists have been striking out on their own — some by choice, others by necessity — as newsrooms get smaller. Cillizza’s former CNN colleagues like Oliver Darcy and Jim Acosta have built followings outside the network, while figures I’ve interviewed for Forbes, including ex-Univision anchor Jorge Ramos and former TV anchor-turned-TikTok creator Lisa Remillard, have similarly found new audiences on independent platforms.
All of it arguably echoes something E.B. White once wrote about New York City, but which could just as could sum up the capricious roulette wheel of journalism in 2025: “It can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck.”
Independent journalism, to a certain extent, is a test of that luck. Without exception, every journalist I’ve interviewed who’s gone down this road points to the uncertainty as the hardest thing. No salary, in other words, means the money floor can be nauseatingly low. Continues Cillizza: “The most rewarding part? Building your own thing. Like, if I want to make my YouTube videos a certain way — or change how I make them — I just do it. No rigamarole or bureaucracy to navigate. It’s tremendously liberating.”
Still, he admits he sometimes misses the camaraderie of a newsroom: “I wish I could have my own little newsroom where Carlos Lozada, Julie Tate, Paul Kane, John Bresnahan, Brooke Brower, and a few other people could just hang out and shoot the shit together. That said, I’m pretty sure the newsroom environment I grew up with in the 2000s doesn’t really exist anymore.”
Today, his schedule is a mix of Substack writing, YouTube videos, and filming his Monumental Sports Network show Politics Aside. Some of his recent Substack posts include an interview with a medical doctor about whether something is wrong with President Trump; a snapshot of the 2026 governors’ races; and a conversation with another of his former CNN colleagues (Chris Cuomo).
He’s also a NewsNation contributor — though he’s unapologetic about putting family first. “Here’s the best thing: I don’t feel bad at all telling someone I can’t make a TV hit or a meeting because I am going to see my son play soccer. Like, I used to feel guilty if and when I did that. Now? That’s my first priority. Everything else pales in comparison.”
Cillizza and his wife recently formalized his work under an LLC, Cheney Road Productions, as he looks toward what he calls “version 2.0” of his independent career. “I never thought I would wind up running a small business, but here I am. And I think a lot more journalists are going to be small business people in the near future.”
His advice for younger journalists? Stay in newsrooms while you can still learn. But for older reporters: Be realistic, and have an emergency option to fall back on. “These legacy outlets don’t care about you — no matter how much they try to pretend everyone who works there is one big family. They will keep you around until it doesn’t make financial sense for them to keep you anymore. Period.”
Yet even with the trade-offs, Cillizza doesn’t regret the leap. “What independent journalism does offer is control over your life. I never wake up anymore with dread in my stomach. Because I know I am in control. I am steering the ship. Which is also terrifying! But mostly liberating.”