CBS has long been a network in decline. With dismal ratings, the network has been mired in third place for years, and many view it as openly biased and partisan in its coverage, including pushing false stories with a political agenda. Bari Weiss was brought in to save the network and move it back to a neutral center. She has encountered continued attacks from staff who are outraged by the efforts, including her recent selection of Tony Dokoupil as the next evening anchor. Dokoupil is being attacked as too white, male, straight, and pro-Israel.
The one identity these staffers seem less interested in is that of a top news network. Weiss is trying to save their very jobs by reversing this trend. However, these anonymous staffers would prefer to lose their jobs than their bias.
For full disclosure, I worked (twice) for CBS News as a legal analyst. I have great affection for the network and want to see it return to its prior glory. However, years of staff and culture shifts have taken their toll. Great reporters like Catherine Herridge were let go despite their reputations for following stories regardless of the political impact or influence.
The objections to Dokoupil are particularly revealing. Past CBS hosts and anchors have destroyed the network’s standing with many viewers, particularly those in the middle or right of the political spectrum. The decline was summed up when 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl literally laughed on air in the face of President Donald Trump, after he said that Biden was implicated in the influence-peddling scandal involving his son, Hunter. It was not the smug delivery but Stahl categorically denying that Biden was facing a scandal and showing absolutely little interest in the documented millions of dollars that went to the Biden family.
CBS increasingly seemed to be reporting to a shrinking audience composed of themselves, other establishment media, and the far left. The result was a network that was underperforming and little-watched.
The owners and shareholders welcomed a new direction, but many in the staff want a return to the same disastrous path. It is reminiscent of the response of staff at the Washington Post to Jeff Bezos bringing in new editors to reverse the decline of the newspaper.
Post owner Jeff Bezos brought in Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis, who promptly delivered a truth bomb in the middle of the newsroom by telling the staff, “Let’s not sugarcoat it…We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right? I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
The response called for Lewis and other editors to be canned. Again, these reporters would rather give up their very jobs than their bias.
The attacks on Dokoupil’s race, gender, and sexual orientation captured the unhinged and hypocritical character of these critics. They are triggered by any mention of race or gender by others, but regularly move to cancel others using the same identity criteria. It does not matter that Dokoupil has a long journalistic career or that a major change is badly needed if the network is to reverse these trending numbers. His actual talents appear immaterial to the consideration of his race, gender, and sexual orientation.
For those of us who once worked at the network, we are rooting for Weiss and Dokoupil in turning this ship around. CBS has been one of the truly great news organizations. It can be again.
Diversity (e.g. color, class judgments), sex (i.e. male, female), and gender (e.g. sexual orientation) in lieu of character et cetera.
The MSM was long ago reduced to a Mutual Admiration Society centered on the Inside the Beltway, NYC, and maybe LA crowd. The rest of America left them on the side of the road decades ago. Real investigative journalism is now owned by independent online journalists and commentators.
The conservative media now is just an Admire Trump society.
Network News is obsolete.
I began watching CBS as soon as Barri Weiss took over … as my vote of confidence and positive encouragement. We need to make the numbers go up inline with the improvement we see. There is a lag time. By June we should see the difference. My once, must watch show – 60 Minutes – might be the canary in this coal mine.
Used to buy weed from Tony’s dad. And he’s married to Katy AIPAC. Only problem with Stahl laughing at lizard Donnie is she didn’t do it long enough.
Turley, you live up to Elias’ calling you Mike Lindell with tenure every single day. It’s hilarious what a hack you’ve become.
And you’re not only a dimwit and partisan hack, but a gutless one who throws out barbs as “Anonymous.” Are we really thinking Leslie Stahl is objective — or Joe Biden not a walking corruption scandal?
Magats love their irony, right?^^^
All of you TDSers are soooo predictable.
Sounds like you bought too much weed from Tony’s Dad….
I told you a long time ago that Anonymous is sitting in her basement getting high and making comments on this forum all day long. Now she admits it. She’s still the victim even after weed has been decriminalized.
It feels sooo good to be the victim. Righteous man righteous hee hee hee. The eternal child can type.
TiT,
Well, you nailed it! Once again, our leftist friends prove for all to see how much of losers they really are.
Typical conservative is sitting on a couch getting drunk and throwing bottles at their wife all day.
Personally, no interest in drugs or drinking.
Seriously? Does any sentient being actually watch or listen to the mainstream legacy so-called news media? Where’s the evidence?
CBS has long outlived its shelf life and is on the path of the 8-track player. It is what happens to the asylum when mainstreaming of the inmates occurs.
Ano
8-track player.
______________________
I was thinking 4 track player.
Reel to Reel
Or in your case Real to Real…
Sorry, couldn’t resist a bit of humor at your spelling expense.
What are 78s, chopped liver?
Did you watch the 60 Minutes Lesley Stahl interview with MTG? It was chosen to highlight the schism within MAGA.
Stahl played it straight most of the way through, but couldn’t resist springing a trap at the very end. MTG had earnestly said she was turned off by the rancorous, personal attacks that have come to dominate politics. She was coming over in the direction of civility. Rather than accept that as positive movement, Stahl asked if MTG was ready to take responsibility for her previous transgressions as a queen of incivility. MTG responded by calling the question “accusatory”, and ended the interview there.
Stahl/CBS couldn’t show empathy or agreement with MTG’s enlightened conversion to civility. Why?…because as a progressive, you can never credit a demon-figure when they do something right or good (a “tell” of hatred). And, as a newswoman, you NEVER EVER back away from shows of unhinged incivility as an attention-getting news format.
“MTG had earnestly said she was turned off by the rancorous, personal attacks that have come to dominate politics.”
Yeah, because after years of making them, MTG is now on the receiving end from Trump
As of late it always becomes race, gender, and sexual orientation when you lack talent and are meritless.
Don’t forget drag queens maggie.
Margot,
Well, they put priority on DEI garbage and put talent at the bottom. That is why we see them fail again and again.
Well said! Sad deterioration of our media is apparent!
Our media? Unless we all own stock in Paramount (owner of CBS), its not our media.
time to punish Democrats for their ACTUAL racism and lies.
FINE their entities out of existence!
Line them up against a wall and … As for ACTUAL, you got proof?
Looks like the consensus so far ranges from “burn it all down” to pushing a mass of dead wait out the door. It may be too far gone but should be interesting to watch. The programming after 8PM EST seems more real than the news hour. At least the entertainment people act like they might be real even if they are’nt.
Its weight not wait. Time is catching up eh?
GEB,
That is how nihilistic leftists have become. They would rather “burn it all down” then face the facts and the truth, they and their leftists policies are failures.
Who, what, when, where, and why . . . that’s it, nothing more. Please, I DO NOT WANT the opinion of the producer and/or news reader. Period. Is that too much to ask? For them to leave me to form my own judgement? For the love of all that I view as important – my nation – just give it to me straight. This, so I can be better informed about what’s going on so that I, may play my one role as a citizen, an informed voter.
Who, what, when, where, and why . . . Perfect! This guy certainly knows what reporting is all about. Turley could take a few pointers from him.
…and “how”. Nothing else.
DEI will not go away quietly…
Replace the Staffers as too dark, too biased, too anti Jew, and too a feminine. Problem solved in so many ways.
For years I watched Walter Cronkite on CBS, but never knew he was rather left wing. He was a journalist of the old style. Today’s leftists could do the same but will not. They insist on displaying their views, noisy, loud, and obnoxious, no matter the costs, financial, viewership, and content. Now, CBS has signaled it would like to make a few bucks, an outrage to the resident staff. Sadly, it may be to late for CBS.
To the Democrats, the bitter, stupid, biased harridans on “The View” are what pass for journalists these days.
If Bari is serious about cleaning out the rot she is going to have to break out the Clorox and totally disinfect the place. Leave a few germs and they will only grow and reinfect everything.
I completely agree with this comment. If the entire mess isn’t cleaned out, they will do everything they can to undermine everything and everyone who doesn’t agree with their agenda.
The question is this. After clearing the Aegean stables, who is there to hire? Journalism departments are churning out their clones by the thousands every year.
They are not journalists, but activists.
They are there. It will be evident by their work. They are there. We just haven’t been able to hear or see their work… yet.
gdonald, that is why the left/communists/socialists/Democrats started taking over the schools 50 years ago. They took over the elite colleges and universities (see stories of ZERO conservative professors or 100% anti-Zionist professors in the MIDDLE-EAST Departments), then the Law Schools, the Med Schools and of course the J Schools. Now it is the high schools, the middle schools and the elementary schools as well.
Sad to say but they won. The war is all but over. One Trump term won’t turn it around, but maybe if he is followed by 2 Rubio or Vance terms we can make a dent. But I fear the war is lost.
Well said Hullbobby. Their aggressive activism in high schools and middle schools keeping parents from knowing various things is well underway. Greg
HullBobby,
Respectfully, I disagree.
While the war may be raging on, I think with the first election of Trump, was a major blow to the leftists. The reaction to all the COVID lockdowns was another. And then we saw, slowly, how all those so called “experts” were not just wrong but very wrong. With wokeism dying, the racist DEI crap being dumped, and the second election of Trump are all major victories for us normies. We do need to continue to keep up the fight, namely with things like protecting women, parents rights, school choice, law and order. Where the leftists and Democrats offer only destruction and nihilism, we need to build and offer hope.
Just look at all the leftists and their comments here on the good professor’s blog. Who would want that?
Sadly Upstate many of today’s uneducated and indoctrinated people do want this garbage. This is why the took over the schools. Have you tried to talk to one of these young people or these leftist folks? They are truly so far in the tank that you cannot use reason and logic against them. Think of our youngest and newest Justice, KJB, and try to understand her logic. You can’t. She doesn’t care about logic, she cares about results, feelings and the agenda. This is how she was “trained”.
I will say I hope you are right about the war, but I am afraid that Trump 1 and Trump 2 are just battles against the inevitable decline of the US.
Maybe you’re the one who is uneducated and indoctrinated. You just see the real educated people among you as the “crazy” ones because they don’t make sense to you. Because it’s you who is uneducated and indoctrinated. That is how most cults brain-wash their subjects.
HullBobby can define what a woman is. I do not have a degree and I can define what a woman is. My livestock know the difference between a male and a female.
As an example, KJB demonstrated to the whole world leftist Democrats are educated and indoctrinated into their own cult.
“…leftist Democrats are educated and indoctrinated into their own cult.”
That is an excellent truism, Upstate.
(I suspect “rightist” Republicans can do the same thing; -it’s just that, as hullbobby pointed out, leftist Democrats have tactically gained so much control in the communications fields (journalism, education, and media networks in particular) that it remains an uphill battle to maintain some balance.)
hullbobby, why did the conservatives not notice? I guess they didn’t pay attention to the education of their children, or just didn’t care.
gdonaldallen,
Good question.
However, I do think there are some real journalists out there as evident by the press room at The Free Press. Seeing how successful The Free Press has been while MSM continues to fail, I think Weiss can turn CBS around. Might take some time.
Same can be said of our bloated and corrupt government
CBS needs to clean house of the woke, left wing DEMS supporters and simply the old staff. Bring on new faces and take control. Once you start firing watch what happens to the left wing woke staff and MGMT. Next to be bought out is CNN. The potential buyers are already talking about FIRING and Cleaning house.
Looks like CBS will have to remove the Mental Munchkin population to recast Oz as a neutral news source. Good luck with removing that infestation of woke dirtbags! They came to believe News was Entertainment and not News can be Entertaining!! As Entertainment they love the Ru Paul Drag Race approach to news – flamboyant and outrageous – which makes for snickers in the control room but most of America just changes channels! Idiots.
Hmmmm….going to have to take a look at CBS. I quit watching the “big three” a long time ago when they became outlets for the democrat ministry of propaganda.
I stopped watching when I was accused of killing babies by Walter.
Did Walter Cronkite name you personally or were you left out? American efforts in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia were quite often atrocities just so the President of the USA wouldn’t be the one with the hot potato when the US lost.