A while back in this space - April 4th to be exact - the headline here was this:
Do 'Major Shakeups' Mean CBS News Is in Free Fall?
The very first sentence was this:
It’s almost as if a mere handful of days barely goes by before yet another story about turmoil inside CBS runs somewhere in the liberal media landscape.
That, as noted, was April. A mere two months ago almost to the day. And now?
Now, without question, the “turmoil inside CBS” has gotten worse. Here, by way of multiple examples, are some quite recent sample headlines:
- From The Financial Post: CBS’s firing of veteran journalist Scott Pelley boils down to one issue: who calls the shots? .
- From The Washington Post: Read the letter firing Scott Pelley from ‘60 Minutes’ — and his response
- From People: Jimmy Kimmel Has Scathing Reaction to “60 Minutes” 'Cowardly' Firing Scott Pelley
- From The Deseret News: Scott Pelley fired from ‘60 Minutes’ as CBS leans into new direction
- From Politico: ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent Scott Pelley fired after confrontation with new boss Nick Bilton, the show’s new top producer, said Pelley “hijacked” a staff meeting to disparage him.
- From USA Today: '60 Minutes' correspondent Scott Pelley fired after criticizing CBS execs
- From The New York Post: ‘60 Minutes’ star Scott Pelley fired from CBS News after blasting Bari Weiss in heated showdown
One could go on - and on and on - with similar headlines about the sundering of one-time CBS anchor Pelley’s relationship with his CBS bosses, notably CBS executive Bari Weiss.
Clearly, as the saying goes, all “h -e -double l” has erupted inside CBS. And as was asked in that April headline in this space - “Do 'Major Shakeups' Mean CBS News Is in Free Fall?” That answer appears to be if the network is not in free fall, at the very least it is a hotbed of internal clashing views on how the network should be run.
The quite obvious question now is: Why?
The answer for all the inside turmoil at CBS can be found when looking - looking and finding headlines like this one focusing on the new ownership at CBS.
Yet for whatever else that reason or reasons may be, one thing is increasingly clear. The tidal wave size of the ideological divide that has swamped the rest of America - and produced and elected President Trump- has flooded the inside of CBS News as well.
Interestingly, while there can be no doubt this is related to the rise of President Donald Trump, the rise of Trump is not all by itself what’s at cause here. Trump, it can be said, is a symptom of this cause - but he is not the cause.
To more precisely finger the cause, hop in the time capsule and zip back to the stone age of….1964. That being the year Republicans gathered for their convention in San Francisco to nominate “Mr. Conservative” - Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater- for the presidency. This was a full 62 years ago. To get a flavor of those days, see this from a September, 1964 issue of TIME magazine. The headline:
The Press: Thanks, But No Thanks
The TIME story reported:
Never has the press felt more unpopular at a national political convention than at San Francisco in July, where Republican delegates booed and hissed newsmen from the floor. In contrast, never has the press felt more popular than at Atlantic City last week, where Speaker of the House John McCormack, in opening the Democrats’ conclave, went out of his way to give a cordial welcome to journalists.
In short, suddenly out in the open, it was crystal clear that conservatives, the grass roots of that 1964 GOP Convention that nominated Goldwater, had nothing but disdain for the media. The reason, from the GOP perspective, was simple: the media was not, as they tried to advertise themselves, impartial. They had taken a side - the liberal Democrat side. In the day that meant supporting Democrats John F. Kennedy and, post-JFK’s assassination, his successor Lyndon Johnson. And the media were not shy about this, either.
Simply put? 1964 may be a long 62 years ago, but in fact the disdain of liberals in the media for conservatives has not only not gone away it has grown to a considerable sized contempt.
As is quite obvious, in this “Scott Pelley fired” kerfuffle it is clear that Pelley is an old-fashioned left-wing journalist. And while he will eventually pass from the scene as all of us will, the presence of left-wingers in journalism is going nowhere.
But what is particularly interesting in this situation is the new, presumed rightward tilt inside CBS, with various new execs giving a nod in the direction of President Trump - thus infuriating the liberal Pelley and doubtless other less prominent lefties inside CBS. And yes, the larger lefty media has noticed. as seen in this sample story from the liberal NPR:
CBS shifts to appease the right under new owner
That story reports:
CBS' new corporate owner has taken a series of concrete steps to address the concerns of the news division's sharpest critics — particularly President Trump and his allies.
In recent days, the network selected a new ombudsman for CBS News with strong conservative credentials. It promised to run full, unedited interviews on a key public affairs show after receiving blowback from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. And it's in talks to bring on a top news executive who believes the mainstream press is reflexively biased.
All of these decisions have come from top officials at Paramount under the new ownership of Skydance Media. And they represent a grand accommodation to Trump by CBS, known for its rich legacy of journalistic touchstones spanning back to the dawn of television news, including Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and 60 Minutes.
So, in essence, there you have it. The new CBS owners “represent a grand accommodation to Trump by CBS,”.
And, safe to say and as evidenced in the Pelley kerfuffle, the liberals that populate CBS behind the cameras are not happy. Not one little bit. They-not unlike their brethren in other “mainstream” outlets like ABC, NBC, NPR and print versions like The New York Times or The Washington Post - view these networks and newspapers as the preserve of the American Left. And if a new owner has the gall to challenge that with a rightward tilt there will be that proverbial “h…e…double L” to pay.
Which, bottom line, is why all the crazy, not good PR for CBS in this Pelley episode. Something that, wittingly or not, illustrates vividly just how powerful liberals are or believe they are when it comes to running the American media.
Or in other words?
We are a long way from 1964. The technology of the modern media has changed for sure. From talk radio to Fox and Newsmax TV to the rise of You Tube and conservative magazines like the late Bill Buckley’s National Review or Bob Tyrrell’s American Spectator, media in the 21st century is in a very different place.
But the left-leaning tilt of the “mainstream” American media some 62 years later has not changed one bit.
Nor is change in sight.
The Scott Pelley-CBS kerfuffle will eventually come- and go. But the Left wing presumption of media ownership as the future arrives is going nowhere.
