As many of you know, major dad and I watch the CBS Evening News every night while we get dinner ready and feed ferals. KNOW YOUR ENEMY has long been a maxim in our household, and never has it held truer than this past year.
Especially this past week.
Nothing has given the lone eyeball network an even blacker reputational shade of dismal than its courtesy Kamala queries clean-up from the now notorious 60 Minutes interview airing a little over a week ago.
CBS's 60 minutes didn't just cut Kamala's rambling answer down to make her sound coherent.
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) October 10, 2024
They completely replaced the answer to the question she was asked.
This absolutely has to be against broadcast standards. pic.twitter.com/mVyDAL2uXC
David had a good post laying out the myriad times in just the last ten days or so that CBS "News" has stepped on its...um...well, self. From the Kamala clean-up to destroying a journalist who dared question race-baiting Ta-Nehisi Coates to ensuring its reporters make no mention of Jerusalem being IN - as in located -Israel, the "news" division seems to have a professional reputational death wish.
Even with all the outrage over the manipulative editing, eliciting understandable accusations of obvious election interference...
CBS is facing a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after allegedly editing Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent appearance on ’60 Minutes.’ The network deliberately altered portions of the interview to present Harris in a more favorable light.
The segment in question aired on 60 Minutes as part of a broader interview series leading up to the 2024 election in which many criticized the segment as a “word salad.” In the original clip, Harris was seen struggling with her response to questions about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. This portion of the interview was notably absent from the final broadcast.
...coupled with their biased, pre-screened 'interviews' and then punitive retributions, it's obvious the chieftains intend to do their damnedest to find the katana to finish themselves off, come Hell or high water, government scrutiny or the utter loss of credibility.
Journalistic integrity, what is it?
The CBS selective editing team, never ones to back down from a rock-paper-scissors fight, struck again a couple of days ago.
CBS has been under fire for selectively editing their interviews to PROMOTE Democrats and UNDERMINE Republicans.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) October 15, 2024
Yesterday, they chose to cut FIVE important minutes out of my nearly 15 minute interview.
You can be the judge as to why.
Stand by for the receipts. pic.twitter.com/Rv4PK1Cv1W
Only, as Speaker Johnson is a Republican, the edits were not at all beneficial to clarity.
Because (D)ifferent, you know?
Making appropriate mewling noises about investigating themselves isn't going to appease anyone...
CBS last week said it hadn't manipulated a Kamala Harris soundbite to make her sound articulate. Many didn't believe it. Now CBS says it may conduct an "editorial review." That won't be enough to win back public trust, either. Just release the damn transcript, @CBS. pic.twitter.com/anUInKzlES
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) October 16, 2024
...when, again, as David noted, even Democrats are starting to lose faith in the media, and this is a media their party owns.
...But the decline in trust that has plagued the media has been going on the longest and is now creeping into the consciousness of Democrats as well as Independents and Republicans.
When you're losing the home team, you have a problem.
As for the rest of us out in the real world, it is a fascinating study of corporate hubris.
Our jaws hit the floor last night at Norah O'Donnell's ne'er-so-subtle Trump jab in her opening headlines (with a purely coincidental - I'm sure - semi-rational soundbite of Harris added for good measure).
(Above is a CBS embedded video - if it presents as a picture, refresh, and it should play. The link goes to it on their website)
Then, the very first story of the evening they covered was:
TRUMP IS AN UNHINGED LUNATIC, SWAYS TO MUSIC AND SUCH A LIAR.
Seriously. Listen to this three minutes. Or...at least try to.
The unrestrained bias and targeted vitriol are gobsmacking.
Granted, we know you don't like the guy, but a teensy bit of balance is a bridge too far?
Dear God almighty - j'accuse! Trump "swayed to the music for FORTY MINUTES!"
Who in their right mind, anchor and reporters alike hyperventilate, does that sort of thing? CBS wants you to know this is a sign that Trump is dangerously unstable and "unhinged." Their words and Joe Biden's for good measure.
Never once was there a mention of the conditions in the venue leading to the circumstances for the music. Never once a mention of Trump's going down into the town hall crowd afterward to mingle and sign autographs.
This is as patently a fraudulent presentation of the event as any two-bit shyster could frame it.
After attending the event, to his great credit, ABC's Terry Moran called the fraudsters out on it.
ABC’s Terry Moran, on the PA town hall that turned into an Evening with Donald Trump and some musical selections:
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) October 15, 2024
“Inside that hall … people were having a good time. What can I tell you? It did not seem out of the ordinary. It seemed almost intimate … [Trump] came down off… pic.twitter.com/EbKSToNOhH
The truth and subtlety are lost on the CBS attack dogs.
The adjectives repeatedly spewed when speaking of Trump - strange, false, unhinged, debunked, etc - contrast starkly with those when they pivot to the Harris campaign. How she's continuing her "outreach" to Republicans looking for an "alternative" to Trump, they let her wax poetic on Trump comments and use 'cats and dogs' to launch another attack:
...That along with his recent behavior including dancing on stage has led Harris to question what she calls his 'unstable behavior.'...
The dancing on stage is killing me. I can only figure Democrats prefer their presidents catatonic even when the audience looks fine.
Biden appears zombie-like during the White House Juneteenth concert.
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) June 11, 2024
As the crowd including Kamala Harris, and actor Billy Porter dance and clap the President appears frozen in a state of shock. pic.twitter.com/gC6xlriTP9
Or when they're, God bless him, 100 years old, immobile, and yet somehow still manage to vote.
NEW: Jimmy Carter accomplishes his goal of voting for Kamala Harris as early voting opens in Georgia.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 15, 2024
Carter is overjoyed to cast his vote for Kamala Harris, according to his son.
Carter is very "interested in politics and the war in Gaza", according to his son who recently… pic.twitter.com/Jg50TVjOng
A nearly catatonic CBS is voting close to their network's last gasp, too.
When the eye inevitably blinks shut, it won't be the hand of God.
The media say we must give the government more power to fight misinformation online. We must not. The only way to fight misinformation is through free speech. What the media really want is the power to censor us. And it's easy to see why: very few Americans trust them. pic.twitter.com/lcC27AcQcL
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) October 15, 2024
It will have been all those arrogant, smug, authoritarian progressive hands who yanked the lid down.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member