One doesn’t have to be a political junkie to know the turmoil and controversy that ensued when David Ellison used his and his dad’s billions to take control of CBS. The real goal was to take over the iconic CBS News and it’s famous 60 Minutes. Weiss wasted little time interfering with 60 Minutes, when literally a few hours before it was to air she spiked an already approved segment about Trump’s sending deportees to the infamous CECOT prison in El Salvador. We now know she’s been pushing journalists at CBS to put out negative stories about Democrats. We really shouldn’t be surprised.
Weiss pushed out some outstanding journalists including 60 Minutes correspondents. Sometimes by firing them and sometimes by creating a hostile work environment by involving herself in the editorial process. By that I mean cutting out parts of news reports or ensuring things to her liking were inserted. I can’t say I blame some of them for saying screw it and walking away. Now, as The New Republic reports she’s been pressuring staff to “smear” Democratic candidates. This is how far the network that gave us Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather has fallen. However as I said, no one should be surprised. Weiss was hired to turn CBS News into if not Fox, then Fox-Lite.
I can’t recall where I read about it earlier today but it seems Stahl had to fight with Weiss to protect the story she presented yesterday evening. If a journalistic lightweight like Weiss is still trying to bully someone like Lesley Stahl, I can’t help but wonder if/when Stahl decides enough is enough and walks out. At this point I think it’s inevitable. Weiss is doing exactly what she was hired to do which is remake CBS News into a Trump/conservative friendly outlet. And going after the biggest and most respected journalists and their work sends a clear message throughout the ranks.
What makes this new news so worrisome is that veteran, highly respected journalists at CBS had Weiss interfering with their work. Yes, those few that are left can stand up to Weiss as Stahl just did last week. But what if you’re a younger journalist that doesn’t have decades of solid reporting they can point to to get Weiss to back off? What she did out of the gate at 60 Minutes and subsequently left little of the key staff left. Longtime correspondent Lesley Stahl stayed, under the promise Weiss wouldn’t mess with her or 60 Minutes and that promise has been broken. But we now know Weiss’ effort targets every journalist at CBS News.
The linked article mentions two Democratic Senate candidates locked in tight races. James Talarico in Texas and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan are at the top of Weiss’ hit list. With the House almost certainly lost for Republicans and the Senate truly in play it’s no stretch to say even if the Ellisons didn’t issue orders to Weiss to ‘take them out’ she was already inclined to do so. Especially El-Sayed who as his name might suggest is Muslim. No wonder she wants to tar him but Talarico is as whitebread as it gets and a Christian Pastor too. Still, as far as she’s concerned they have to be politically bloodied to keep them from winning their races:
Semafor reported that Weiss was particularly focused on El-Sayed’s (non-existent) ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and 9/11, and Talarico’s (also non-existent) trip to a mental health facility. El-Sayed, an Egyptian American Muslim, has denounced the Muslim Brotherhood numerous times amid Islamaphobic attacks from both the right-wing and the Democratic establishment.
Weiss “personally advocated” for a deeper dive into El-Sayed’s personal history, and she even faced internal pushback for her insistence that they cover El-Sayed’s false ties to the 9/11 terror attacks, as she published an August headline reading “Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s deleted tweets on Sept. 11 attacks invite scrutiny of past remarks.”
Trump and the GOP need an October Surprise. In fact they need more than one and with two high profile Senate races Weiss has been trying her best to give them one! You can read the linked article for more details. It will only take a minute. I want to keep this short but there’s another point that needs to be made. Remember my snarky comment about Weiss turning CBS News into Fox-Lite? That might be and probably is the long-term goal but it’s going to take more than a year or two to make it happen.
More importantly even if that’s overstating things, I think the real point is something else. Those who are accustomed to getting their news from RWNJ outlets like Fox, Newsmax and OAN aren’t going to become regular CBS News viewers. For too long in their eyes CBS has been their enemy by, as Harry Truman once put it telling the truth on Republicans. Democrats too when they’ve messed up but Republicans engage in crap far more often than Democrats and mainstream outlets including and especially CBS News coverage has reflected that.
However, if CBS, freaking CBS NEWS comes out with a hit piece, or at least critical (even if it’s dubious) of this or that Democrat I can assure you Fox in particular will hawk it to high heaven. They relish the possibility of being able to ‘add credibility’ to their own nasty coverage of any Democrat by citing ‘liberal’ CBS News! It’s a subtle strategy. Sneaky as hell in fact. However I’m thinking tonight that’s what the Ellisons intended all along.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
