CBS Folds Like A Moist, Flushable Towelette In Response To Baseless Trump Threats

When last we checked in with CBS, the company was preparing to fold under pressure from the Trump administration, amidst bogus accusations that 60 Minutes had unfairly made Donald Trump look bad. As we’ve noted previously, the accusations are utterly baseless, but that’s apparently not stopping the CBS board from kissing authoritarian ass and throwing their journalists under the bus.

According to the New York Times, CBS/Paramount board members, keen on getting approval of their $8 billion merger with Skydance, are likely moving forward with a fat settlement with the Trump administration. In the process they’re sending a very loud message to everyone that they’re no longer interested in protecting journalism, or their own journalists:

“Paramount’s interest in settling has dismayed CBS’s news division, in particular the staff of “60 Minutes,” the country’s most popular weekly news program. Four days after the April 18 board meeting, the show’s executive producer, Bill Owens, abruptly announced he would resign, citing encroachment on its journalistic independence and saying Paramount “is done with me.”

Last weekend 60 minutes covered the fracas in what feels like a death knell for the once-respected cable TV news magazine:

Last fall  Trump sued CBS claiming (falsely) that a 60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris had been “deceitfully edited” to her benefit (they simply shortened some of her answers for brevity, as news outlets often do). As Mike explored, the lawsuit was utterly baseless, and tramples the First Amendment, editorial discretion, and common sense.

CBS/Paramount is looking for regulatory approval for its $8 billion merger with Skydance (run by Larry Ellison’s kid David, who has been palling around with Trumplings at MMA fights). Trump and his FCC boss Brendan Carr quickly zeroed in on this, and began using merger approval as leverage to bully CBS into even more feckless coverage of the administration.

Carr has launched an “investigation” into CBS claiming that the minor edits to the Harris interview violate the FCC’s “Broadcast News Distortion” policy, a rarely enforced rule preventing news outlets from killing stories or dramatically changing stories in exchange for bribes. It’s completely bogus, but whether CBS is guilty doesn’t matter; the right wing has ensured CBS looks guilty of being unfair to the right wing.

Again, legal experts everywhere have pointed out this is all indisputable bullshit. Even longstanding GOP members and former Republican FCC officials have acknowledged the accusations are baseless and the FCC is overstepping any real-world authority. CBS certainly has the money to fight the case. But CBS owners like Shari Redstone are more interested in cashing out of the struggling (one wonders why) media industry:

“Shari Redstone, the company’s controlling shareholder, has said she favors settling the case. She is set to receive a major payday in a pending sale of Paramount to a Hollywood studio, Skydance, that requires sign-off from the Trump administration.”

It’s another example of why consolidated corporate power probably shouldn’t be in the journalism business, and we ought to explore better ways to fund independent media (including public financing). Corporate media owners simply, clearly, and routinely aren’t capable of putting the truth before making money, resulting in an ocean of substandard, pseudo-journalistic, ad-based simulacrum.

The far right doesn’t want reformers untethering journalism and media from commercial interests because they know that ad engagement model is eminently exploitable, something that wasn’t remotely subtle last election season. Looking for major merger approvals, tax cuts, and mindless deregulation, consolidated U.S. media companies have demonstrated they’re more than willing to throw the truth under the bus for financial gain. You see it absolutely everywhere you look. Again: not remotely subtle.

Incompetent authoritarians fear the truth because it illustrates their corruption and incompetence. It’s why they’re bullying media companies and trying to pull the rug out from America’s already woefully under-funded public broadcasters. And even in some of the flimsiest cases widely viewed as winnable, the brunchlords in charge of U.S. media have shown they have the structural integrity of damp cardboard.

What’s left of CBS after the Skydance merger will be run by Skydance exec and soon-to-be CBS boss Jeff Shell (booted from NBC after sexual harassment allegations). It’s inevitable that, like the Washington Post and LA Times, whatever’s left of CBS journalism will follow the trend of even further pandering to the right wing, under the pretense that this sort of feckless ass kissing is the pinnacle of objectivity.

At the same time, the continued, pointless “growth for growth’s sake” impact of even more mindless media consolidation will erode U.S. media quality even further and trigger even more layoffs across the sector, as the recent AT&T, Time Warner, and Discovery series of mergers so ably demonstrated.

It’s utterly pathetic and demented. All around.