What the hell has happened to CBS news?

[Archae]

Have they brought in some right-winger to wreck the place?

"60 Minutes" does two discredited stories, one on "disability fraud" that is a tiny percentage of disability claims, and now a Benghazi "exclusive" using a guy who lied about what he did.

Not to mention CBS news running with fake ACA stories.

[Warpy]

1. That happened years ago when they fired Rather

for telling the truth about stupid and brought in Katie Couric, whose very first guest (on a news show?) was Limbag. If you didn't get the message then, you must not have watched in a very long time.

When Rather was on, the truth occasionally slipped through. That hasn't been the case then, they're just as worthless as everyone else.

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. Yep.

I cannot stand watching CBS anymore. Brian Williams is the only one I can stand now on the reg channels, and even he is no Peter Jennings. I will miss Peter forever.

[Samantha]

9. I have not watched 60 minutes since CBS fired Rather

The only thing I watch on CBS is The Good Wife and Blue Bloods. I don't even watch its weather reports....

Sam

[Lasher]

10. I stopped watching 60 minutes then too.

I had been watching every week until then.

[factsarenotfair]

2. It seems like it's really gone over to the dark side in the last six months or so.

I have no idea why.

[watrwefitinfor]

24. When did Norah come aboard?

I think you can probably trace the overt creep to the right to that date. Now it is evident in every morning show.

Charlie Rose is bad enough - the biggest hypocrit around on network news.

But Norah is a bully who third-degrees, interrupts, confronts, insults, feigns outrage, and laughs at all Democrats who are interviewed. Then she fellates any right wing nut case being interviewewd, smiling and nodding and agreeing with every nutty thing they spew. She does everything but go under the table on them.

This woman is dangerous. TPTB obviously think she can put any RW bullshit over with her (skin-deep) beauty. She was bad enough all those years as White House correspondent. Now she is hell-bent to destroy this country from her pulpit on CBS Morning News.

Wat

[demwing]

37. wow...."hell-bent to destroy this country" ???

I don't watch much corporate "news," but from what I have seen, Norah O'donnell always struck me as a bit of a lefty.

[factsarenotfair]

49. It seems to me she was a centrist and has been moving rightward.

That's just my impression.

[watrwefitinfor]

50. Yes. You should watch some corporate network news

to see what millions of people see when they tune in the news. I've read network news is still ahead of cable news by huge margins of viewers.

As for Norah being a "centrist" or "lefty", perhaps you remember seeing her report on Shrub. Or maybe have her confused with the other O'Donnell reporter and pundit - the redheaded one. I forget her first name, but she always seemed fairly moderate and reasonable to me.

Norah, never! And now she is much worse.

Another poster said she has been moving rightward. From my observations, stuck with network news every morning (have to watch some kind of news over my coffee - ABC has forsaken news for Kardasians, crime, and DWTS, and I have no access to any NBC stations) she hasn't been recently moving rightward - she has leaped.

Wat

[Stainless]

55. The Redheaded O'Donnell is NBC's Kelly

Her beauty is more than skin deep. In addition to her looks, she seems to be down to earth and personable.

My mother used to say about certain people "If you could buy them for what they're truly worth and sell them for what they think they're worth, you would make a fortune". That perfectly fits Norah O'Donnell and Charlie Rose.

[factsarenotfair]

48. She joined CBS News in 2011, the Morning Show since July, 2012.

Here's a story that says she doesn't like playing second fiddle to Gayle King:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/morning-glory-norah-o-donnell-article-1.1356981
Perhaps envy is souring her journalism skills.

[longship]

4. Edward R Murrow is rolling in his grave.

I have hundreds of hours of WWII broadcasts from CBS. The reportage was great. Murrow, William Shirer, Robert Trout, and their whole team set the standard for on the scene reportage.

Shirer, who reported from Berlin, always under Goebbels' jaundiced eye, later wrote a history of Nazi Germany, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. His first person accounts were crucial in turning the tide in an isolationist USA.

Murrow's "This is London" reports brought the reality of continental warfare to radio sets across the nation. What the British sacrificed leaked into living rooms across the USA. His reporting was always personal, often with literary flourishes. It brought a continental war to the Western Hemisphere before anybody considered that there'd be another world war.

Robert Trout was forced into another CBS innovation in broadcasting on the very early morning of June 6, 1944 when he was woken up and told to get to the CBS studios in New York as fast as he could. The result was an incredible nine hour broadcast by Trout, the first anchored news broadcast where Trout was the focus, but not the news. I have audio of the 24 hours of that day, and Trout literally kept the news coming live as it happened. Eat shit, Wolf Blitzer.

How far the great have fallen.

[Submariner]

23. My intro to Murrow was his "See it Now" program

As a post-war runt I remember my parents always tuned into CBS, and even as a kid Murrow had a voice that held my attention.

Wolf wouldn't qualify as Murrow's ashtray emptier back then.

[Eleanors38]

5. Well, they are pitching to a smaller and older audience on a budget

Which cannot sustain deep investigative reporting, even if they wanted to. They are marking time for what I don't know. IIRC, these are the same guys who cancelled "Golden Girls" at the height if its popularity, all to "position" itself for a younger, more affluent audience.

BWAHAHA.

Sorry, Walter.aa

[Enthusiast]

19. I think you give them too much credit.

They are simply serving the Fascist interests.

[Eleanors38]

33. Simple or serving, they are in it for keeps. Which is how they got to where they are.

I don't think most Democrats realize what they are up against, or give the enemy its due; it's always dumb asses controlled by some Mountain King in his Hall. The FR has corporate money, nothing new. But it is its own agency and unlike the McCarthyites, it has its own institutions, churches, media, schools and legitimized mainstream presence.

CBS merely sees the new legitimacy of the FR, and views it as the balance of the day, and instinctively and ideologically seeks it. Like most Democrats, they don't want to go up against it and its more than competitive communications: You're too LIBERAL!

[Bluenorthwest]

25. Golden Girls ended when Bea wanted it to end, after 6 top 10 years the 7th season

ranked at number 30. It was not at the height, but rather in a ratings decline. That's just how it was.

[Eleanors38]

34. Maybe so, but they had a following who could spend.

I wonder what goes through CBS's mind now?

[LuvNewcastle]

6. I've been wondering the same thing.

Their news was always my favorite of the 3 networks, but they've been doing more RW inspired stories lately. Maybe I'll take a look at NBC. ABC is already out of the question. I don't have cable, so my options are limited.

[Faryn Balyncd]

7. The define the media's role to peddle a "middle course" (between Cruz & Baucus).

[Enthusiast]

18. You got it.

That is where they plot the middle. Right between a far right "Democrat" Baucus and a Nazi Republican Cruz.

It's like some sort of terrible nightmare.

[SHRED]

8. mainstream radio and tv are wastelands

[NJCher]

11. I've quit watching, too

I used to watch it all the time but it's lost it's lustre.

My 89-year old aunt watches, though!


Cher

[SoapBox]

12. We dumped watching ABC at dinner and had switched to CBS...Scott Pelley seemed to have some cred...

BUT, hell, that is totally out the window.

We are so fuck'n mad about the stories that they have been running with about HealthCare.gov...such BULLSHIT.

Can they try to make enrolling and the ACA look any worse?

...we've now turned that pile of steaming bullshit off.

[sabrina 1]

13. Is anyone with a brain cell working still watching the totally discredited

MSM? I can't remember the last time I watched any of them. WMDs, Dan Rather, treating the felon and total moron, James O'Keefe as if he were sane and a 'journalist'. Refusing to follow up on the truth about O'Keefe's lies and deceptions about ACORN, and the total vindication of ACORN in the COURTS.

Anyone still watching and expecting 'truth' must either have missed why the US MSM is least trusted in the world, to they just can't believe this country has been so completely coopted by corrupt Corporations.

[adirondacker]

35. Apparently, sadly so. I'll admit to tuning in about once a month, just to see what bullshit they're

selling the public on our airwaves. Typical drivel to get folks "fired up".

[Comrade Grumpy]

45. I watch regularly to get the official line.

[area51]

14. I gave up on US nightly news reports a while back due to their rightwing slant.

I prefer to watch BBC News America.

[tofuandbeer]

15. Agreed. Their affiliate radio "news" station in Los Angeles (1070 AM), is no longer listenable.

I grew up hearing these Los Angeles AM radio news stations telling just the news, 24 hours a day—now they sound like Fox News.

[Enthusiast]

16. CBS?

It's universal now. The entire media has been compromised. It's all Fox Lite. And the internet? Every discussion board has an army of sock puppets at the ready to defend big finance, the MIC, the insurance scam industry, entitlement cuts and free trade deals. I think the tax payer is unknowingly funding the Right Wing sock puppet army.

This nation is clear done.

[blkmusclmachine]

17. Turn em Off.

[ReRe]

20. They're "Main Stream"...

... that's what their problem is. The MIC news is what they really are. After all, the MIC runs this effing country. Oh, they throw in some human interest stories so the public gets some fuzzies. Just IMHO.

[Blue_In_AK]

21. I had to stop watching CBS News.

Their bias is palpable.

[Fridays Child]

22. You thought CBS was exempt from committing acts of crappy journalism?

Gotta rile people up, whatever it takes. I've had it with just about all of them.

[mucifer]

26. That's what makes everything seem so pointless.

Sorry, it's just so depressing.

[valerief]

29. Right. The USSR couldn't fight its propaganda and it degenerated greatly. nt

[GoneFishin]

27. Same thing with CBS radio news that runs at the top of the hour on local radio

stations. Even progressive radio stations seem to subscribe to this news source, but the right wing slant is crystal clear. It's disgusting.

[valerief]

28. Conservative Bullhorn System. nt

[adirondacker]

36. Certainly Bull Shit. nt

[freshwest]

38. +1

[kydo]

30. The Daily Show and later The Colbert Report

Are better then regular nightly news programs. It's been that way since 2000. Actually a little earlier but not as good until Stewart took over the Daily Show and then of course a little later Colbert.

I haven't watched network nightly news or their news programs since before Rather was fired. CBS (and ABC, and NBC) is in for the money pure and simple. They are pandering to the right so they can remain relevant. But they became irrelevant around 1998. And every year since they just become that much more irrelevant.

Now if they (all news network programs), really cared about being real journalist instead of tv stars and ratings, they might actually have to fact check and do leg work to find the truth. You know like they used to do.

As a kid when we ate dinner the nightly news was on. When my kids were 4 and 2 years old we still mostly had the news on for dinner. But sometime around 1997 it was Simpson's repeats. Once the kids were teens it was South Park. Over 18, they put on what ever is on the Comedy Central. So it could be Tosh, South Park, Always Sunny in Phillie, random stand up comics, Daily Show or Colbert, depending on the time. In football season on weekends its football maybe the Simpson's.

Who still watches network news?

[Shrike47]

31. We need to give them negative feedback so they know they are alienating the audience.

[JEFF9K]

32. So much for liberal bias!

[alc]

39. we don't have news, we have entertainment

This bit of entertainment is built around current events/interests, and based on facts, but it's still focused on marketshare/viewership. If they aren't getting the viewers, they will change to what they think viewers want. As much as any producer or owner may want to push an agenda, they want viewers more. It's best when the 2 goals intersect.

They still build the story around facts (IMO) but they have lots of flexibility on choice of stories, which parts of the stories they focus on, who they interview for opinion (introduction of non-facts while feeling they are still providing a factual story).

Some news is build around news that focuses on a specific agenda (fox and many msnbc shows). No so much because they want to push the agenda, but because they have a certain marketshare locked up as long as they do the shows those viewers want to see.

This isn't anything new, it's just that they have some many more ways to judge what viewers want and measure the results and they can change their direction pretty quickly.

It seems that many on DU like the news shows that say what they want to hear and hate ones that say what they don't want to hear - the truth is secondary to reinforcing beliefs. That's the kind of loyal viewership these shows are going for - a smaller loyal marketshare is better then sometimes pulling big ratings and sometimes not. If you don't agree with that, look at how many people are saying it's a lie when anyone gets screwed by the ACA. It may be getting over-hyped, and many of the examples may be exaggerations or misunderstandings, but it isn't a lie that some people are getting screwed by the ACA. It would be better to want to hear the truth (as many others on DU do), then if it's significant to work on getting it fixed rather than avoiding anything that contradicts beliefs (e.g. that the ACA is good for everyone). The OP is a perfect example by saying "fake ACA stories". Maybe over-hyped, maybe other words can be used, but there is almost certainly a factual basis for them and not simply made up.

[RagAss]

40. What is CBS ?

[otohara]

41. Their Recent Hit Piece On The Disabled

was disgusting. They only spoke to Coburn - no doctors, no disabled people or advocate for the disabled. We're all committing fraud according to CBS News.

[Archae]

42. "This Sunday on "60 Minutes"

The military lets a reporter into Gitmo, gee, won't that be "investigative."

Also stories about the Laborghini and a college football coach.
Both puff pieces.

[stevenleser]

43. My fear, and I am not commenting specifically on CBS here, is that there is a perception

that Liberal based media does not sell or at least not as easily. We obviously see that with radio and that is something I am trying to crack right now.

I don't think that Liberal radio and TV is any less marketable than conservative, I think it just has been approached the wrong way, particularly on the radio side. But I'll tell ya, there seems to be a lot of inertia to overcome to convince people of that.

[Iggo]

44. Don't watch it.

[librechik]

46. they've been like this for years, and it's just as bad on CBS radio news

I can't believe the sneering anti Obama crap they put on there. And it's often paired with progressive content. Bleech.

[Mc Mike]

47. Always a Mellon owned corporate mouthpiece. nt.

[lostincalifornia]

51. cbs is not what it used to be. started going downhill after Dan left

[LWolf]

52. No clue.

I haven't seen them in 13 years, and when I did see some tv news, I didn't identify news by network.

[annabanana]

53. Who owns it?

This will probably answer the question

[Uncle Joe]

54. The corporate media is first, last and foremost, the corporate media.

If they sense too much movement away from the corporate owned Republican Party, countermeasures are enacted.

Thanks for the thread, Archae.

[Blanks]

56. Seriously, the only ads I see on TV are insurance commercials...

And Obamacare is not health care reform - it is health insurance reform.

Of course the networks are always going to support war because the networks are a wholly owned subsidiary of the MIC, but they aren't going to say anything positive about the ACA because it attempts to regulate their primary advertisers.

If you don't watch TV, I guess I can see how you might have missed it. Certainly, most of the advertising is auto insurance, but there is a health component at work in that as well.

So Obamacare = insurance oversight = bad.

Of course they're gonna be against it, they aren't going to find pro-Obamacare sponsors to replace the insurance money rolling in.