from the perpetual-extortion-guaranteed dept
CBS has decided it likes being in an abusive relationship. A few months ago, it laid the groundwork for perpetual extortion by settling a lawsuit with Donald Trump over allegedly deceptive editing of an interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Trump claimed this was election interference and sued, despite winning the election, re-taking power, and using that power to get even with every person or entity he feels has wronged him.
The motivation for CBS wasn’t the money. It only agreed to donate $16 million to the Trump library, which should be more than enough to cover the costs of erecting a physical tribute to Trump’s artifice. Sure, someone may put a few books in there, but it’s pretty much guaranteed Trump will not have read any of them. The real motivation was greasing the wheels for administration approval of its $8 billion merger with Skydance.
CBS shouldn’t have bothered. All this did was open the door to more direct federal government interference with its day-to-day business, which has since seen CBS dump Stephen Colbert for being too critical of Trump, as well as agreeing to be a propaganda outlet for the Trump administration with the impending installation of an FCC-appointed “bias monitor” to ensure future programming treats Trump as a demigod, rather than the mere politician he actually is.
But too much is never enough for Trump and the GOP. Kristi Noem recently took to X to complain that some of her baseless smears of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — the highly visible face of the administration’s risible “eject all the brown people” deportation program — had been removed from the broadcast version of her interview on “Face the Nation.”
That Noem bellied up to the Nazi Bar to bitch about stuff most people realize is the reality of taped interviews (things get cut for time/clarity/etc. all the time) after CBS had already published a full transcript of the interview as well as the uncut recording didn’t matter to Noem, Trump, or any of their always ready-to-be-roused rabble.
And it apparently didn’t matter much to CBS, either. Rather than defending its perfectly normal editing techniques or pointing out that the things said in the cut portion were mostly baseless criminal accusations that weren’t backed by criminal convictions (much less filed criminal charges), CBS has given Trump and his buddies things they haven’t even asked for, ensuring this cycle of abuse will continue for as long as the GOP remains in power.
Days after complaints over the handling of an interview with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on “Face the Nation,” CBS News said Friday it would no longer allow editing of its guests’ words on the Sunday morning public affairs show.
[…]
Going forward, CBS said it would only broadcast live or live-to-tape interviews on the show, meaning guests’ statements could not be edited, subject to legal or national security restrictions. CBS said the change was made “in response to audience feedback.”
This wasn’t “audience feedback.” This was a powerful administration getting mad about stuff that happens to pretty much everyone who’s ever recorded a taped interview ever. And if there was any “audience feedback,” it came from people who truly seem to desire nothing but pro-Trump propaganda spewing from their TV sets, rather than have to endure things like facts, pointed questions, and journalists refusing to be government stenographers.
Even worse, CBS’s official explanation caters to exactly the wrong sort of people: bullies with executive-level power in the government and the be-hatted asshats that adore the velvety touch of a boot heel applied to their tongue/neck:
In its announcement, CBS News said the policy will allow for “greater transparency” in interviews.
Yeah, I mean… I guess. But CBS had already engaged in “greater transparency” by posting the entire Noem interview and transcript before Noem even started to complain about it. CBS already did the “transparency” thing. Allowing government officials to utilize CBS as a bullhorn for baseless claims and outright lies doesn’t serve the public interest.
But this administration doesn’t serve the public interest either. And it doesn’t want anyone getting in the way of its disservice. With this capitulation, CBS shows that even one of the largest corporations in the United States is unable to stand up to bullies, even though it has all of the law on its side. That’s extremely disheartening, especially when it appears even the system of checks and balances appears to be, for the most part, willing to be steamrolled into submission, if not actively engaged in supporting the rise of Republic authoritarianism.
Filed Under: bullshit, dhs, ice, kilmar abrego garcia, kristi noem, trump administration
Companies: cbs, cbs news, paramount
