Fresh off of blaming Americans for ruining Spring, CBS anchor John Dickerson delivers another hollow, moralistic editorial from his “Reporter’s Notebook” segment which closes out the CBS Evening News Plus.
Watch the editorial in its entirety, as aired on CBS Evening News Plus on Monday, March 25th, 2025:
Another day, another pompous editorial by CBS's John Dickerson. This time, lamenting that Donald Trump wields the awesome powers of the presidency pic.twitter.com/98r1mh8w0O
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) March 25, 2025
JOHN DICKERSON: "Give me liberty or --" you likely know how it ends. 250 years ago yesterday, Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death" at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, a pure defiant cry for freedom stamped in speeches, textbooks, and our national memory. July 4th, 2026 will mark America's 250th birthday. Henry's cry summoned the midwife. In a proclamation, President Trump quoted Thomas Jefferson: "Henry was before us all in maintaining the spirit of the Revolution." Like many founding stories, this may not be what Henry actually said. The version we know was written down 42 years after the speech, revealing more about how we choose to remember our history than what actually happened. Unlike the mythic glow of the American Revolution, there are real-time accounts of Henry's speeches during another pivotal moment: the ratification of the Constitution. He was not on the winning side. He didn't even go to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, reportedly saying: "I smell a rat in Philadelphia, tending towards monarchy.” He opposed the Constitution with the passion he once used to ignite revolution, this time fearing the presidency itself could become an absolute tyranny. "If your American chief be a man of ambition, how easy it is for him to render himself absolute. What have you to oppose this force?," he asked of the presidency. "What will then become of you and your rights? Will not absolute despotism ensue?" Quotes from the Founders are used to pierce the cloud of the present with moral clarity from the past. 250 years later, as presidential powers have expanded far beyond the Founders’ vision, and as the current occupant seeks ever more, Henry’s words are not a quotation FOR The White House, but a warning about it.
I don’t recall Dickerson ever winding up a historical reference-laden editorial on the pitfalls of expanded executive power when Joe Biden and his proxies wielded it. We don’t recall Dickerson conjuring up some quote on the damage ensuing from presidential corruption of the pardon power, or on the potential dangers to our constitutional order ensuing from repeated attempts to circumvent the Supreme Court.
We don’t get any of that from Dickerson, who ultimately reminds us that there is no constitutional crisis except that Donald Trump is who wields Article II power and therefore the left and their media proxies are in crisis. Dickerson has no problem when Democrat presidents expand presidential power. It is only when the Bad Orange Man sits behind the Resolute Desk that these things are a problem.
This editorial, as smug and condescending as the others, serves to remind us that behind the mask of news anchor and “historian” (like so many others in media) lies little more than a bitter partisan, minus the dignity of those who are transparent with their partisanship- not hiding it behind florid, verbose editorials.
