from the flimsy-veneer-of-respectability dept
You might recall that one of the conditions of the FCC’s approval of The Ellison family’s $8 billion acquisition of CBS was that the agency would install a “ombudsman” at the network to ensure CBS journalism was appropriately feckless and deferential to our mad, idiot king.
This was particularly ironic given decades of whining by Republicans about stuff like the “fairness doctrine,” and other short-lived government attempts to set acceptable contours for journalistic speech. But it probably also wasn’t necessary: there’s every indication that CBS under the Ellison “leadership” is going to be repurposed by folks like Bari Weiss to be right wing propaganda.
After some delays, CBS recently hired Kenneth Weinstein to be the “ombudsman.” Weinstein had been the head of the faux-academic right wing Hudson Institute “think tank,” and has absolutely no experience in journalism whatsoever. He’ll report to Paramount President Jeff Shell, who was fired by Comcast back in 2023 for sexual harassment:
“Mr. Weinstein, who has no experience overseeing news coverage, was an unexpected choice for the role. He will report to Jeff Shell, the new president of CBS’s parent company, Paramount, which recently merged with the Hollywood studio Skydance.”
Of course Weinstein isn’t supposed to have any expertise in journalism. His expertise is bullshit and the flimsy veneer of intellectual credibility; pretending that the installation of a truth nanny at CBS has anything to do with journalism, and isn’t just a flimsy ploy by authoritarians to trample free speech and the First Amendment under the pretense that they just really care a whole lot about free speech.
To be clear, CBS, even before the Ellison acquisition, had already been shifting its editorial window rightward to please authoritarians. Now under the Ellison family — and the purported looming leadership of right wing propagandist Bari Weiss — there’s absolutely every indication they’re building another unabashed right wing propaganda mill that’s probably going to be worse than Fox News.
The CBS government nanny exists to ensure that no actual journalists remaining at CBS News don’t get any crazy ideas and try to do actual journalism. Jedd Legum at Popular Information dissected Weinstein’s past online comments and found him to be an unsurprising Trump apologist. Like Bari Weiss, Weinstein’s there, in part, to ensure CBS goes soft on coverage of Netanyahu’s ongoing industrialized slaughter of toddlers.
Again though, I suspect Weinstein won’t have much actual work to do; CBS ownership and management are clearly, unabashedly pro-Trump. Weinstein’s only real function will be to provide a flimsy veneer of legitimacy to the firing of any employees who try to actually do journalism critical of the duo. And because he has no actual legitimacy, I suspect he won’t even do that well.
Repurposing CBS for use as right wing information warfare machine is one part of a much broader, pathetic failure by major media institutions in response to authoritarianism, which, this week, also involved the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post firing its last black female columnist simply for quoting Charlie Kirk’s claims that black females are inferior beings.
Countless mainstream media outlets, like the LA Times, CNN, NYT, and ABC (who paid Trump and gave in to his admin’s threats over Jimmy Kimmel) have met the moment with utter fecklessness. It’s been so pathetic it almost feels satirical. (As an aside, people of ethics should stop funding these outlets and give their money to reputable, independent journalists).
Wealthy, (usually right wing) media owners like tax cuts, mindless deregulation, and the government rubber stamping of shitty mergers. Despite decades of furrowed-brow protestations that this doesn’t impact U.S. journalism or editorial independence, you can very clearly see with your own eyes how, when push comes to shove, that’s usually an obvious lie.
Consolidated corporate media was always going to fail us in precisely this way at the worst possible time. Media academics spent more than fifty years warning us. Advice that American media policymakers (across both sides of the aisle) ignored every single step of the way.
Filed Under: brendan carr, disinformation, fcc, first amendment, free speech, journalism, kenneth weinstein, media, news, propaganda, truth
Companies: cbs, paramount, skydance
