CBS News Sidelines Actual Journalists for Erika Kirk's Town Hall [View all]
Jennifer Schulze
CBS is calling its upcoming prime-time ‘town hall’ with Erika Kirk a “news program.” And, just like that, nearly a century of excellence in news reporting is gone.
Don’t get me wrong: A real interview with MAGA activist Charlie Kirk’s widow would be newsworthy. CBS still has the talent to do that job. Jane Pauley, Gayle King, Lesley Stahl, John Dickerson, Bill Whitaker, Norah O’Donnell, Cecilia Vega, Vladimir Duthiers, and Scott Pelley are just some of the many CBS News journalists eminently qualified to interview any newsmaker in the world. They have literally hundreds of years of experience between them — including interviewing presidents, kings, and even despots.
None of these qualified journalists will be part of the broadcast. Instead, the network’s new Trump-approved “Editor-in Chief” Bari Weiss will do the job. In sidelining journalists to take up the microphone herself, Weiss is actively moving CBS from news to advocacy. That is by design. Weiss wasn’t installed at CBS because of her journalism chops. Despite what the bio says on her ironically titled “Honestly” podcast, Weiss is not a news reporter and never has been. She’s a longtime pundit with very Trumpy views especially about mainstream media.
Not only is she not a reporter, her blog — the one David Ellison reportedly paid $150 million for — is not a news outlet. As media critic Oliver Darcy says: “In truth, it’s an opinion site, and Weiss is primarily a commentator, not a reporter. When was the last time The Free Press broke a notable story? In the history of The Free Press, what major stories has it broken?”
https://www.lincolnsquare.media/p/cbs-news-sidelines-actual-journalists
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