I don’t watch a lot of network TV but I always watched CBS Sunday Morning, 60 Minutes, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Since CBS pulled Alfonsi’s story, I only watched Colbert. Now I don’t watch CBS at all. I now watch John Oliver’s show, and The Daily Show.
I stopped watching television news shows years and years ago because the talking heads format is shallow, limited and controlling by definition. Especially now with Substack so robust, there's plenty to read and fuller stories. TV news is kind of like white zinfandel, you know, wine for people who don't really like wine? If you're really interested in getting grip on things, you don't turn to CBS or any other network. You read.
In general, I agree. The exception, I think, is live coverage of breaking news -- for example, on Jan. 6, 2021. Being able to see what was actually happening at the Capitol in real time was staggering.
True, but it wasn't the regular news show. I do, also, sometimes watch live sports. But in either case, if I actually to understand, I read about when there is time for reflection and, like here, freedom to respond.
Absolutely. I also watch my Carolina Panthers on CBS on the two or three dates per year when they play on CBS (being in the NFC, they have most of their games on Fox), and here in North Carolina you get a lot of good college basketball on CBS. But that's it.
Actually, I live in Portugal, but last year, I invested in the season pass and watched my Buffalo Bills, sometimes in the middle of the night, right until they lost to Denver. But, I spent plenty of time reading about the games I saw because experts spotted many things I missed. I loved the live action, and that's enough for most people, if not for me. I have not watched a single live news broadcast since my wife and I settled in Lisbon in April last year. Haven't missed it one bit. Good luck with the Panthers, this season!
Maybe for my friends and family back in Buffalo, a town I always liked, lived there 17 years, but after Pegula's crude handling of Sean McDermott plus the lowest price for the first game in the new stadium at $700, I don't see how it's a loyal, working-class team anymore. Back when Ralph Wilson tried to cheat Wade Phillips out a paycheck, it led to a decade of mediocrity. Does karma strike twice?
I don't even find television news much good on breaking news and I say that having lived through the Rodney King riots and the Northridge earthquake. The problem is that they fill airtime with sensational footage even when they don't have any actual information. And very little of what is called breaking news is all that urgent - no disrespect but I didn't need continous, breathless coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
A point you reminded me of and which I should have noted earlier: Viewers mistake television as either an entertainment or information medium. It's neither. Television is a commercial medium. By that I mean, all content is developed with the primary intention of delivering viewers to advertisers. Quality content ranks low on the scale. That's why they push buttons to hold viewers. (Film at 11:00).
I ask because I stopped watching local news because I thought it was exploiting fear, exaggerating threats, but my sister, for one, watches every day. Always interested in others’ points of view. Thanks.
Do you think you get more local news on TV than you would in your local newspaper, if you have one? I founded, edited and published a local online newspaper in New York City, but I found that I couldn’t compete with TV.
We are fortunate to have a local newspaper, to which we subscribe to both print (3x weekly) and online. Our “local” TV stations are in cities a few hundred miles away, so we get more like regional news unless they happen to cover some major newsworthy local happening.
"Certainly not by communicating with the public. Despite the lip service to “transparency,” his role was never meant to face outwards, as is the norm with news ombudsmen; rather, if he saw a problem, he’d report it to his corporate bosses."
This lack of communication is one of the worst (though unsung) violations of the Trump era. Too many figures/entities do not feel any obligation to explain their actions to the American public.
Of course CONGRESS is generally the body who calls for investigations and hearings to ensure that the citizens are aware of government actions and (possible) malfeasance, but cowering Republicans block most efforts at transparency. It's stunning how often this administration just flips the bird at their constituents. "What you don't know won't hurt us!"
They've lost all sense of public service and accountability. We must remind them in November that they are OUR servants, not vice versa.
A minor aside: J.D. Vance was born 12 years AFTER the Watergate break-in. His opinion on its significance shows his ignorance of what actually happened and what it meant to those of us who lived through it. It would be like me downplaying the significance of liberating concentration camps at the end of WWII. I wasn't there so, to quote President Trump in another context, "it's a yawn."
As deplorable as Vance it, he's right in that Watergate would only be a 12 hour story -- until the next outrage occurred. But that's more because there's been so many outrageous things happening in the current regime.
When I was in college (years ago), I lived in a large Victorian co-op in Ann Arbor with about 20 other people. Every weeknight after dinner, we would retire to the living room, where there were multiple couches lined up in front of the TV. We'd always watch Walter Cronkite & CBS News. I cut the cable years ago, so I don't have much access to CBS's broadcast news right now. I'm familiar with Ms. Weiss via her online "newspaper". It's dismaying to read what new ownership in general, and Bari Weiss in particular, to have done to this once-august news source. Hiring people who have no experience in broadcasting, little to no managerial expertise, and blatantly shifting their stories to appeal to Republicans are all symptoms of the perilous times we live in. The absence of any meaningful output by the "public ombudsman" is no surprise. CBS News will slowly fade into insignificance. and I hope that sinking ship takes Ms. Weiss down with it.
I am done with CBS. Sadly. Cannot trust their reporting. I am also a Zionist. No more Oct 7ths. Jews have been expelled from every country on earth.
Let’s hope USA not joining that list.
If you follow news in Israel there is huge protest against Netanyahu. Just in last few weeks, Palestinians are beginning to protest Hamas and its disregard for them. I hope there can be a road to co existence. Leadership on both sides is failing the people.
Great column. My thoughts about CBS are that Bari Weiss is leading it exactly for the reason Larry and David Ellison hired her—to promote Trump!MAGA and Israels’s best interests. The news angle is just a light framework for delivering the POV they’re pushing. I was a huge long-term fan of CBS Sunday Morning. After Weiss took over, it was immediately apparent that she was switching to soft propaganda for her and their interests. I immediately quit watching. Same with 60 Minutes after what happened. The Ellisons have built a Right Wing (propaganda) media empire rivaling Rupert Murdoch’s. Expecting anything remotely real news is like waiting for the tooth fairy. Same with expecting anything substantial from their ombudsman.
J.D, Vance. Now, that was something. Of course, and as always, what Axelrod said was on the money. I worked for Senator John McClellan during summers of 1972 and ‘73. I got to spend some time in the Watergate hearings. My uncle was a powerful lobbyist, and I had inside info. What a horrible but educational moment.
I’m currently about half way through Garrett Graff,‘s “Watergate: A New History.” What a book. What a corrupt episode in presidential history. What Vance said is such an indictment of himself and the entire Trump administration. And with yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, we’re in even more trouble now. But SCOTUS is another issue.
I was sitting in the Georgetown Club with Senator McClellan and my aunt and uncle when Nixon resigned. Good riddance.
I just hope that we have learned an important lesson since Watergate. At that time, we heard over and over that we couldn’t send a president to prison. That was then, and this is now. Oh, yes, we can. I hope the whole family will be wearing orange juimpsuits.
Weiss is the Weisswascher in Chief who whitewashes the news in favor of the regime. Fun fact -- her last name is the German word for "white" so thought a German compound was in order.
Thanks for a great column. I was brought up on Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather,and CBS radio news. I no longer watch any CBS programming except CBS Sunday Morning. I hope that I can continue to watch it but I’m doubtful. Advertisers, are you paying attention?
Nothing is more illustrative of the shamelessness of our kleptocracy than someone being rich enough to purchase a storied, prestigious network for the sole purpose of wrecking it to please Trump. There will always be scavengers like Bari and Weinstein who will gladly take huge sums of money to preside over the rapine. JD is right in one respect: His regime creates a new scandal every other day that dwarfs Watergate in terms of the enormity and brazenness of the corruption. JD thinks this a good thing, further illustration of his regime's degeneracy.
I was a young “draft bait” (1A-Y due to varicose veins at only 19 when called for a draft physical) who lost two friends due to Nixon’s treasonous 2-faced communication convincing the PRVN to stall talks in 1968. My sister’s fiancé was a young Army pilot lost in that time. Watergate was just a continuation of Nixon’s lawless grasp for power without reproach. Vance effectively says they do as much twice every day now.
Our household watches The PBS Newshour regularly - highly recommended - and MSNow occasionally. We used to watch 60 Minutes for the first few minutes to see if the stories they were covering were of interest, but we stopped when Bari Weiss took over.
I have steadily reduced my viewing of “the Sunday shows” for some time as my estimation of their relevance and ability to hold interviewees accountable gas worsened. Simply allowing Lindsay Graham air time was often my camel-breaking straw.
The exception has been Face the Nation, and Margaret Brennan who, I felt was the strongest interviewer of the bunch given the format.
Sadly, the show recently had Graham on again and rules are rules. Yet I think I will continue to occasionally watch out of interest in how CBS’ erosion affects that show and Ms. Brennan.
I haven't lived with a TV in decades, and I'm also a hardcore print person, so I can't say anything about the changes in CBS News.
I was a college undergrad in Washington, DC, for much of the Nixon administration. I was politically active, plus I'd come of political age in 1968, so Watergate wasn't as shocking as it might have been. But I was riveted to first the Watergate hearings and later the impeachment hearings, so I have lasting visual and audio memories of when the Republican Party was pro-democracy. (It helps that since 1985 I've lived in my home state of Massachusetts, where we recently had a respectable Republican governor in Charlie Baker as (2015–2023) and the Democratic-dominated legislature ranks near the bottom of the 50 states on virtually all criteria.)
Watergate was more than 50 years ago! Which means you have to be at least in your mid to late 60s to have reasonably adult memories of it. JD Vance clearly doesn't qualify, and he clearly hasn't done any independent research either.
Margaret, the two stories you highlighted are actually the same story.
As you noted, someone already nailed Weinstein's real role, to do nothing - and of course, allow the propagandists & fascists who've invaded CBS to do their worst (which, it appears according to their cratering ratings, they are indeed doing).
As for Vance, and his Freudian slip in telling the truth? The entire reason for Vance's existence in his current role *is* the reich-wing media, who were created *specifically* by people like Roger Ailes. From the beginning of the post-Watergate era, monsters like him worked to create an entire alternate media so that *when* the next criminal Republican president like Nixon came along, that monster would be able to get away with their crimes.
As I've said for many, many years, the reich-wing media presents a clear & present danger to the United States, and really any worthwhile democracy.
Given that we have the First Amendment, we can't entirely wipe them out, as dangerous & poisonous as they are. But they can and must be decimated, and minimized to a size where they are no longer dangerous.
But the commonality between your two stories is the reich-wing media, and their insistence to put their ideology above truth, facts, and reality, regardless of the cost.
As I march toward 83 in October, I am still "grieving " the loss of 60 Minutes, a mainstay in my life for so many years. Today, a check the stories before I watch and look hard to see if there is fair reporting. Tony Baloney and CBS News is meaningless to me today. Thank you for your service and for continuing to seek the truth in this Goebbels nightmare we call information.
I don’t watch a lot of network TV but I always watched CBS Sunday Morning, 60 Minutes, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Since CBS pulled Alfonsi’s story, I only watched Colbert. Now I don’t watch CBS at all. I now watch John Oliver’s show, and The Daily Show.
Thanks, Mary. I think a lot of people have made a similar decision.
I stopped watching television news shows years and years ago because the talking heads format is shallow, limited and controlling by definition. Especially now with Substack so robust, there's plenty to read and fuller stories. TV news is kind of like white zinfandel, you know, wine for people who don't really like wine? If you're really interested in getting grip on things, you don't turn to CBS or any other network. You read.
Great wine comparison.
In general, I agree. The exception, I think, is live coverage of breaking news -- for example, on Jan. 6, 2021. Being able to see what was actually happening at the Capitol in real time was staggering.
True, but it wasn't the regular news show. I do, also, sometimes watch live sports. But in either case, if I actually to understand, I read about when there is time for reflection and, like here, freedom to respond.
Reading is efficient. I agree. And I do watch tennis and basketball (and of course the Buffalo Bills on TV).
Absolutely. I also watch my Carolina Panthers on CBS on the two or three dates per year when they play on CBS (being in the NFC, they have most of their games on Fox), and here in North Carolina you get a lot of good college basketball on CBS. But that's it.
Actually, I live in Portugal, but last year, I invested in the season pass and watched my Buffalo Bills, sometimes in the middle of the night, right until they lost to Denver. But, I spent plenty of time reading about the games I saw because experts spotted many things I missed. I loved the live action, and that's enough for most people, if not for me. I have not watched a single live news broadcast since my wife and I settled in Lisbon in April last year. Haven't missed it one bit. Good luck with the Panthers, this season!
Thanks! I think a Panthers-Bills Super Bowl would be fun for a lot of reasons!
Maybe for my friends and family back in Buffalo, a town I always liked, lived there 17 years, but after Pegula's crude handling of Sean McDermott plus the lowest price for the first game in the new stadium at $700, I don't see how it's a loyal, working-class team anymore. Back when Ralph Wilson tried to cheat Wade Phillips out a paycheck, it led to a decade of mediocrity. Does karma strike twice?
I don't even find television news much good on breaking news and I say that having lived through the Rodney King riots and the Northridge earthquake. The problem is that they fill airtime with sensational footage even when they don't have any actual information. And very little of what is called breaking news is all that urgent - no disrespect but I didn't need continous, breathless coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
A point you reminded me of and which I should have noted earlier: Viewers mistake television as either an entertainment or information medium. It's neither. Television is a commercial medium. By that I mean, all content is developed with the primary intention of delivering viewers to advertisers. Quality content ranks low on the scale. That's why they push buttons to hold viewers. (Film at 11:00).
I also do not watch MSM news shows, now that CBS has ruined 60 Minutes I don’t even watch that. I do watch local news, and read several Substacks.
Just out of curiosity, what do you get from local news shows?
Well, besides local news, I watch for local weather.
I ask because I stopped watching local news because I thought it was exploiting fear, exaggerating threats, but my sister, for one, watches every day. Always interested in others’ points of view. Thanks.
Do you think you get more local news on TV than you would in your local newspaper, if you have one? I founded, edited and published a local online newspaper in New York City, but I found that I couldn’t compete with TV.
We are fortunate to have a local newspaper, to which we subscribe to both print (3x weekly) and online. Our “local” TV stations are in cities a few hundred miles away, so we get more like regional news unless they happen to cover some major newsworthy local happening.
Thanks for the insight.
My local news Infotainment is slanted right. Last night, they were giddy over the "state fair" in DC. They are owned by Nexstar.
Can't imagine anything more slanted than that. It doesn't seem like you can trust them.
💯💯💯
Since Colbert left I never watch anything on CBS. May it wither away.
"Certainly not by communicating with the public. Despite the lip service to “transparency,” his role was never meant to face outwards, as is the norm with news ombudsmen; rather, if he saw a problem, he’d report it to his corporate bosses."
This lack of communication is one of the worst (though unsung) violations of the Trump era. Too many figures/entities do not feel any obligation to explain their actions to the American public.
Of course CONGRESS is generally the body who calls for investigations and hearings to ensure that the citizens are aware of government actions and (possible) malfeasance, but cowering Republicans block most efforts at transparency. It's stunning how often this administration just flips the bird at their constituents. "What you don't know won't hurt us!"
They've lost all sense of public service and accountability. We must remind them in November that they are OUR servants, not vice versa.
A minor aside: J.D. Vance was born 12 years AFTER the Watergate break-in. His opinion on its significance shows his ignorance of what actually happened and what it meant to those of us who lived through it. It would be like me downplaying the significance of liberating concentration camps at the end of WWII. I wasn't there so, to quote President Trump in another context, "it's a yawn."
As deplorable as Vance it, he's right in that Watergate would only be a 12 hour story -- until the next outrage occurred. But that's more because there's been so many outrageous things happening in the current regime.
Agreed
When I was in college (years ago), I lived in a large Victorian co-op in Ann Arbor with about 20 other people. Every weeknight after dinner, we would retire to the living room, where there were multiple couches lined up in front of the TV. We'd always watch Walter Cronkite & CBS News. I cut the cable years ago, so I don't have much access to CBS's broadcast news right now. I'm familiar with Ms. Weiss via her online "newspaper". It's dismaying to read what new ownership in general, and Bari Weiss in particular, to have done to this once-august news source. Hiring people who have no experience in broadcasting, little to no managerial expertise, and blatantly shifting their stories to appeal to Republicans are all symptoms of the perilous times we live in. The absence of any meaningful output by the "public ombudsman" is no surprise. CBS News will slowly fade into insignificance. and I hope that sinking ship takes Ms. Weiss down with it.
I am done with CBS. Sadly. Cannot trust their reporting. I am also a Zionist. No more Oct 7ths. Jews have been expelled from every country on earth.
Let’s hope USA not joining that list.
If you follow news in Israel there is huge protest against Netanyahu. Just in last few weeks, Palestinians are beginning to protest Hamas and its disregard for them. I hope there can be a road to co existence. Leadership on both sides is failing the people.
Great column. My thoughts about CBS are that Bari Weiss is leading it exactly for the reason Larry and David Ellison hired her—to promote Trump!MAGA and Israels’s best interests. The news angle is just a light framework for delivering the POV they’re pushing. I was a huge long-term fan of CBS Sunday Morning. After Weiss took over, it was immediately apparent that she was switching to soft propaganda for her and their interests. I immediately quit watching. Same with 60 Minutes after what happened. The Ellisons have built a Right Wing (propaganda) media empire rivaling Rupert Murdoch’s. Expecting anything remotely real news is like waiting for the tooth fairy. Same with expecting anything substantial from their ombudsman.
J.D, Vance. Now, that was something. Of course, and as always, what Axelrod said was on the money. I worked for Senator John McClellan during summers of 1972 and ‘73. I got to spend some time in the Watergate hearings. My uncle was a powerful lobbyist, and I had inside info. What a horrible but educational moment.
I’m currently about half way through Garrett Graff,‘s “Watergate: A New History.” What a book. What a corrupt episode in presidential history. What Vance said is such an indictment of himself and the entire Trump administration. And with yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, we’re in even more trouble now. But SCOTUS is another issue.
I was sitting in the Georgetown Club with Senator McClellan and my aunt and uncle when Nixon resigned. Good riddance.
I just hope that we have learned an important lesson since Watergate. At that time, we heard over and over that we couldn’t send a president to prison. That was then, and this is now. Oh, yes, we can. I hope the whole family will be wearing orange juimpsuits.
You had some incredible experiences!
Yes, Arkansas had the most powerful delegation in Congress then. Amazing. Pre-Bill Clinton. A completely different vibe.
Weiss is the Weisswascher in Chief who whitewashes the news in favor of the regime. Fun fact -- her last name is the German word for "white" so thought a German compound was in order.
Totally—and really fun fact. 👊🏻👊🏻👊🏻
Thanks for a great column. I was brought up on Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather,and CBS radio news. I no longer watch any CBS programming except CBS Sunday Morning. I hope that I can continue to watch it but I’m doubtful. Advertisers, are you paying attention?
Nothing is more illustrative of the shamelessness of our kleptocracy than someone being rich enough to purchase a storied, prestigious network for the sole purpose of wrecking it to please Trump. There will always be scavengers like Bari and Weinstein who will gladly take huge sums of money to preside over the rapine. JD is right in one respect: His regime creates a new scandal every other day that dwarfs Watergate in terms of the enormity and brazenness of the corruption. JD thinks this a good thing, further illustration of his regime's degeneracy.
Yes, it’s appalling, and not singular, unfortunately.
Re: Vance’s Watergate comments
I was a young “draft bait” (1A-Y due to varicose veins at only 19 when called for a draft physical) who lost two friends due to Nixon’s treasonous 2-faced communication convincing the PRVN to stall talks in 1968. My sister’s fiancé was a young Army pilot lost in that time. Watergate was just a continuation of Nixon’s lawless grasp for power without reproach. Vance effectively says they do as much twice every day now.
It feels like a personal insult to me.
Our household watches The PBS Newshour regularly - highly recommended - and MSNow occasionally. We used to watch 60 Minutes for the first few minutes to see if the stories they were covering were of interest, but we stopped when Bari Weiss took over.
I have steadily reduced my viewing of “the Sunday shows” for some time as my estimation of their relevance and ability to hold interviewees accountable gas worsened. Simply allowing Lindsay Graham air time was often my camel-breaking straw.
The exception has been Face the Nation, and Margaret Brennan who, I felt was the strongest interviewer of the bunch given the format.
Sadly, the show recently had Graham on again and rules are rules. Yet I think I will continue to occasionally watch out of interest in how CBS’ erosion affects that show and Ms. Brennan.
PBS Newshour for intelligent unbiased factual reporting.Simply the best that televised journalism has to offer
I haven't lived with a TV in decades, and I'm also a hardcore print person, so I can't say anything about the changes in CBS News.
I was a college undergrad in Washington, DC, for much of the Nixon administration. I was politically active, plus I'd come of political age in 1968, so Watergate wasn't as shocking as it might have been. But I was riveted to first the Watergate hearings and later the impeachment hearings, so I have lasting visual and audio memories of when the Republican Party was pro-democracy. (It helps that since 1985 I've lived in my home state of Massachusetts, where we recently had a respectable Republican governor in Charlie Baker as (2015–2023) and the Democratic-dominated legislature ranks near the bottom of the 50 states on virtually all criteria.)
Watergate was more than 50 years ago! Which means you have to be at least in your mid to late 60s to have reasonably adult memories of it. JD Vance clearly doesn't qualify, and he clearly hasn't done any independent research either.
He should read Garrett Graff’s book.
*I* want to read Garrett Graff's book, even though my to-read shelf is out of control.
It’s very good!
Margaret, the two stories you highlighted are actually the same story.
As you noted, someone already nailed Weinstein's real role, to do nothing - and of course, allow the propagandists & fascists who've invaded CBS to do their worst (which, it appears according to their cratering ratings, they are indeed doing).
As for Vance, and his Freudian slip in telling the truth? The entire reason for Vance's existence in his current role *is* the reich-wing media, who were created *specifically* by people like Roger Ailes. From the beginning of the post-Watergate era, monsters like him worked to create an entire alternate media so that *when* the next criminal Republican president like Nixon came along, that monster would be able to get away with their crimes.
As I've said for many, many years, the reich-wing media presents a clear & present danger to the United States, and really any worthwhile democracy.
Given that we have the First Amendment, we can't entirely wipe them out, as dangerous & poisonous as they are. But they can and must be decimated, and minimized to a size where they are no longer dangerous.
But the commonality between your two stories is the reich-wing media, and their insistence to put their ideology above truth, facts, and reality, regardless of the cost.
As I march toward 83 in October, I am still "grieving " the loss of 60 Minutes, a mainstay in my life for so many years. Today, a check the stories before I watch and look hard to see if there is fair reporting. Tony Baloney and CBS News is meaningless to me today. Thank you for your service and for continuing to seek the truth in this Goebbels nightmare we call information.