There is something about the podcast world that encourages former network journalists to let the mask slip and reveal that they really were the liberal activists critics alleged they were all along. Former CBS anchor Connie Chung was the latest example, as she joined former ESPN and current Morning Joe talking head Pablo Torre on his Pablo Torre Finds Out Thursday show to discuss the alleged demise of CBS since David Ellison and Bari Weiss have taken over, despite any lack of significant changes.
Torre set Chung up by wondering, “By the way, what's it like to watch CBS right now?”
Chung, who was on with husband Maury Povich, began by admitting, “We don't. I mean, I can't.”
Usually when someone admits to not knowing anything about a topic, that is considered the end of their contributions to the discussion, but Chung continued, “The paradigm has completely changed in news, and we have so much opinion that the truth doesn't hold value anymore, and what we end up doing is trying to — we as consumers. Trying to find the truth. We can't find good old-fashioned facts, and it distresses me so terribly.”
Chung also claimed that “CBS is a whole different realization that I had worked for. CBS has now been taken over, thanks to greedy owners: Sherry Redstone, partnering with David Ellison, Larry Ellison's son. And their greed has caused the venerable CBS to actually disassemble, to crash into crumbles, and then they've hired this—I don't know what to call Bari Weiss. “
Raining on both Chung and Torre’s entire premise, Povich wasn’t inclined to freak out, “Well, she was there the other day when Trump goes on 60 Minutes. I thought it was a decent interview. It was okay.”
For Torre, the fact that the interview even happened was problematic:
You’re talking about Nora O'Donnell's interview. Well, part of my concern, by the way, and I find it very, if I were you, I'd find it very difficult to watch the administration of CBS News wear the costume of CBS News, getting to cosplay to pretend that nothing is different even though the very premise of their acquisition of the network was, in fact, at the discretion and blessing of the president, who was the interview subject in that video that we're describing. And so just the very basic premise of that feels very hard to stomach if you care about anything resembling adversarial journalism.
Chung agreed, “If you care about serious news. When I worked at CBS, it was owned by William Paley, and he actually—who made it a point of allowing the news division to be autonomous and not have to worry about the bottom line… We reporters are watchdogs of government. It's our job to report information that is not fed to us.
It would be nice to say that the liberal meltdowns about Weiss are well-founded and CBS has reformed itself, but the new management has had mixed results. On one hand, Weiss has gone after CBS’s woke excesses by sacking the Race and Culture unit, but on the other, CBS is still making Trump-East Germany comparisons, and Weiss is reportedly hiring Matt Gutman, the ABC reporter who said that Tyler Robinson’s texts with his trans furry lover were “very touching” after multiple other suspensions.
Here is a transcript of the December 4 show:
Pablo Torre Finds Out
12/4/2025
PABLO TORRE: By the way, what's it like to watch CBS right now?
CONNIE CHUNG: We don't. I mean, I can't. The paradigm has completely changed in news, and we have so much opinion that the truth doesn't hold value anymore, and what we end up doing is trying to — we as consumers. Trying to find the truth. We can't find good old-fashioned facts, and it distresses me so terribly.
CBS is a whole different realization that I had worked for. CBS has now been taken over, thanks to greedy owners: Sherry Redstone, partnering with David Ellison, Larry Ellison's son. And their greed has caused the venerable CBS to actually disassemble, to crash into crumbles, and then they've hired this—I don't know what to call Bari Weiss.
MAURY POVICH: I don't either.
CHUNG: She is, you know, I, I just don't know.
POVICH: Yeah, but she's—you know, we'll see.
CHUNG: It's not a big “we'll see” as if she could possibly restore—
POVICH: Well, she was there the other day when Trump goes on 60 Minutes. I thought it was a decent interview. It was okay.
TORRE: You’re talking about Nora O'Donnell's interview.
CHUNG: Yes.
TORRE: Well, part of my concern, by the way, and I find it very, if I were you, I'd find it very difficult to watch the administration of CBS News wear the costume of CBS News, getting to cosplay to pretend that nothing is different even though the very premise of their acquisition of the network was, in fact, at the discretion and blessing of the president, who was the interview subject in that video that we're describing.
CHUNG: That’s right.
TORRE: And so just the very basic premise of that feels very hard to stomach if you care about anything resembling adversarial journalism.
CHUNG: Journalism. If you care about serious news. When I worked at CBS, it was owned by William Paley, and he actually—who made it a point of allowing the news division to be autonomous and not have to worry about the bottom line. He had a president by the name of Frank Stanton, who went before Congress time and time again to defend the fourth estate. Now we have a complete dismantling of that kind of social responsibility. That we are watchdogs. We reporters are watchdogs of government. It's our job to report information that is not fed to us.
