Lauren Brooke Baldwin (born July 12, 1979) is an Americanjournalist, television host, and author who was at CNN from 2008 until 2021. Baldwin hosted CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, which aired from 3 to 4p.m. ET on weekdays.
Baldwin joined CNN in 2008 and was based out of CNN's Atlanta world headquarters until 2014.[2] She anchored CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin on weekdays and has been based in New York City since 2014.
Baldwin's documentary To Catch a Serial Killer won a Silver World Medal for Best Investigative Report at the New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards in 2012.[5] She was nominated for an Emmy for her coverage of the New York City chokehold death protests in wake of Eric Garner's death 2014.
She covered President Obama's second inauguration in January 2013 from Washington, D.C.
In 2015 Baldwin hosted a town hall in Washington, D.C., on gun violence, for which she was a Peabody Award finalist.
Baldwin was criticized during the 2015 Baltimore protests when she incorrectly attributed comments she heard that veterans were responsible for the unrest – saying soldiers who become police officers "are coming back from war, they don't know the communities, and they're ready to do battle." She later apologized via Twitter and on-air the next day.[6] In The Washington Post, Erik Wemple wrote, "CNN's Brooke Baldwin shows rest of media how to apologize".[7]
Baldwin published her first book, Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power in April 2021. In the book, she interviews multiple women including Ava DuVernay, Stacey Abrams, and Gloria Steinem about the power women have when they join.[19]
The Trust
On December 8, 2023, Baldwin was announced as the host of a new American reality TV series, The Trust: A Game of Greed exploring the psychology of people when presented with potential financial reward. The first four episodes were released on Netflix on January 10, 2024, with new episodes then released weekly.[20]
In the media
In April 2015, Variety featured her in "Brooke Baldwin Gives Surprising Boost to CNN".[21] In December 2015, The New York Times interviewed Baldwin after writing an op-ed on CNN.com[22] about covering mass shootings in America.[23]Marie Claire magazine interviewed her on the subject of covering mass shootings.[24]
In 2016, Elle magazine featured Baldwin as one of five female correspondents during the election year of 2016.[25] New York's Downtown magazine featured Baldwin in October 2016.[26]
In 2017, Baldwin was featured in a Variety magazine article "Women Surge to Top of TV News in Face of Sexism".[28]
Clay Travis incident
On September 15, 2017, Clay Travis appeared as a guest on CNN with Baldwin to discuss free speech, specifically whether ESPN personality Jemele Hill should be fired for calling Donald Trump a "white supremacist" and stating that police officers were "modern day slave catchers" on her personal Twitter page. Travis stated that it would be bad policy on ESPN's part to fire Hill for her private comments, just as it was bad policy when ESPN fired Curt Schilling for comments he made regarding transgender bathrooms on his personal Facebook page. Travis received criticism for using a phrase he commonly used on his radio show when he said "...I'm a First Amendment absolutist - the only two things I 100 percent believe in are the First Amendment and boobs..."[29] Baldwin cut the interview short and later responded, "when I first heard 'boobs' from a grown man on national television (in 2017!!!) my initial thought bubble was: 'Did I hear that correctly??...'"[30]
Speaking engagements
Baldwin hosted the AK100 Club event for the travel agency Abercrombie and Kent, and gave a speech, based upon her March 2015 climb up Mount Kilimanjaro.
In 2017, Baldwin spoke at the 7th annual Neighbor Celebration in Washington, D.C. for Blue Star Families where former First Lady Rosalynn Carter was honored on March 30, 2017.[32]