Long-time readers of this space surely know of my delight in the demise of CBS News and 60 Minutes; I give them far too much attention based on the merits. Of late, though, the misfortunes of the elite communists being slowly turned out of the newsroom at the organ Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather built (talk about two of the most overrated personages in the history of media) have become utterly fascinating.
Veteran CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley has been fired from the network following an explosive confrontation with CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss over new leadership at 60 Minutes. Pelley, a correspondent for 60 Minutes since 2004 and one of the most recognizable faces in broadcast journalism, was terminated effective immediately on Tuesday after a contentious […]
Veteran journalist Scott Pelley, one of the faces of the iconic news program "60 Minutes," was fired from the program Tuesday, according to a publicized letter from CBS.Pelley is a decades-long CBS News veteran and former anchor of the CBS Evening News. His firing comes amid a broader upheaval at "60 Minutes" after CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, appointed by David Ellison, the tech scion who took control of CBS parent company Paramount in a multibillion-dollar merger, dismissed top producers and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega in what colleagues called "Black Thursday.""Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear," Nick Bilton, the executive producer of "60 Minutes," wrote in a termination letter to Pelley. Journalist Dylan Byers shared the letter on X."I have heard you, and I therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. ("CBS") to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately," Bilton wrote.Pelley reportedly erupted at Weiss during a heated meeting and told her she was "murdering 60 Minutes" after she fired Alfonsi and others. He also reportedly raked Bilton over the coals."You hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me," Bilton wrote, saying Pelley "chose to ambush" him.
Graham Platner visited Washington on Tuesday to meet with Democrats amid fresh controversy.
Mr. Platner, the likely Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, met in Washington with several senators. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, dodged questions about his confidence in Mr. Platner.
Fox News host Sean Hannity ended Tuesday's episode of his podcast, "Hang Out with Sean Hannity," with a disclaimer that some political analysts flagged as "notable."The 90-minute episode featured an interview with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that spanned several conspiracy theories about alleged Democratic conspiracies to charge President Donald Trump with crimes. The allegations became so caustic that producers felt the need to slap a disclaimer at the end of the video before it was published on YouTube. "John Brennan, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Matthew Colangelo, Arthur Engoron and James Clapper have not been charged with any crimes in connection with any alleged conspiracy,'" the disclaimer reads in part. "Charges against James Comey related to alleged false statements and obstruction have been dismissed. There have been no findings that Rod Rosenstein, Tim Walz, Gavin Newsom or Jacob Frey engaged in professional misconduct." The interview was published at a time when the Trump Department of Justice is facing significant criticism for its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and for its attempt to create a $1.776 billion fund to pay the president's allies for claims that they were mistreated by the government. On Tuesday, Blanche faced a storm of questions about his handling of the Epstein files during a House Appropriations Committee hearing. Blanche also threw cold water on the administration's pursuit of the $1.776 billion fund, telling lawmakers that the administration has abandoned efforts to establish it. Alex Mallin described the disclaimer as "notable" in a post on X. "Legal must’ve been threatening to kill themselves if they got producers to agree to this," Greg Gonzalez, legal counsel for the free speech group FIRE, posted on X.
CBS News’s new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, recently announced in an email to staff a major shakeup of the revered broadcast, starting with the removal of “60 Minutes” executive producer, Tanya Simon, for Nick Bilton, who has no experience producing a television news show. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Bilton said he was excited “to take what I believe is largely an unutilized news brand and take it into the modern age.”Unutilized? Modern age? “60 Minutes” is the most successful television news broadcast in U.S. history. It has remained the #1 news program for 50 straight years and consistently ranks among the top 10 of all Nielsen-rated television programs. And it pulls in a fortune for CBS. “60 Minutes” is one of the most profitable programs in all of television, generating tens of millions in annual profit for CBS. In one recent year, its advertising revenues were $67.5 million. The network wholly owns the franchise, which makes it a gold mine. It’s the most lucrative and prestigious journalism operation on the network.This goes beyond “if it ain’t broke ….” At a staff meeting yesterday, famed “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering” “60 Minutes,” according to an audio recording and a source who was in the room. Others at the meeting applauded. (Scott Pelley gets this week’s Joseph N. Welch Award for truth-telling in the face of tyranny.)I could understand Weiss wanting to shake up, say, CBS’s Sunday morning news program. But why in hell would Weiss want to shake up CBS’s golden goose?One hint: Besides chucking its executive producer, Weiss has also cut ties with “60 Minutes” producers Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. In December, Alfonsi challenged Weiss’s decision to hold a “60 Minutes” segment on an El Salvador maximum-security prison where the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, including alleged gang members. Weiss had raised concerns about the comment-seeking process and determined that it needed additional reporting. Alfonsi termed the decision a political move. (The segment, called “Inside CECOT,” eventually ran in January, with some additional material bookending the piece.)Alfonsi calls the network’s decision now to allow her contract to expire “a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting” that “sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom.”Vega is no less blunt. “In recent months, my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories,” she said in a statement. “Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions…. Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven.”Of course it’s censorship, because CBS is now owned and controlled by Trump pals Larry and David Ellison, who kissed Trump’s assets to get Trump’s FCC chair Brendan Carr to approve their acquisition of CBS from Paramount. Trump’s “fingerprints and DNA are all over this,” veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Croft says. “He’s been making threats against ‘60 Minutes’ and how he wanted it gone. And he finally got his wish.”Trump has fixated on “60 Minutes,” calling the show “a dishonest Political Operative disguised as News.” He sued CBS News over an interview of then presidential candidate Kamala Harris that Trump claimed had been edited in such a way as to hurt his presidential campaign. After “60 Minutes” aired a story about Ukraine and another about Greenland, Trump said CBS “should lose their license.”This much is clear. CBS is being “murdered,” as correspondent Scott Pelley calls what’s happening, not because of economics but because of politics. Economically, “60 Minutes” is a gold mine. Politically, Trump thinks it’s dangerous as hell because it tells the truth about him and his regime, and wants it killed. Bari Weiss knows this. Larry and David Ellison know it. Nick Bilton knows it. Everyone who’s been fired from “60 Minutes” knows this. Trump’s lapdog at the FCC, Brendan Carr, knows this. You need to know this. “60 Minutes” — the most successful television news broadcast in U.S. history — is being dismantled because Trump doesn’t want America to know the truth. It’s the same reason CBS canned Stephen Colbert — because Trump hated Colbert’s truth-telling humor about him. It’s important to see all this as a systematic effort by Trump to silence the truth about what he’s doing to America. Trump’s increasingly corruption — rife with crony capitalism, corporate welfare, and payoffs to the powerful — is producing an increasingly corrupt economy in which everything depends on bribes and personal deals made by the biggest Republican loyalists and grifters, oligarchs and plutocrats, billionaires and multibillionaires, and monopolists.When political and economic deal-making become personal transactions — when greed and payoffs replace trust — what happens?
