Gone in 60 minutes | Edge

That should have been the last straw. The new power couple who failed to edit – Barry Weiss and Nick Belton – shot legendary 60 minutes Journalist Scott Pelley. Why? Because he dared to question the fact that CBS installed sycophants in its upper ranks. Instead of standing in solidarity, reporters Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim spoke announced in a joint memorandum For employees they will stay to save the program. “We don’t want to see 60 minutes “They die,” they said. Children inside Weekend at Bernie’s Hold a similar position.

The canary in the media coal mine is not only sick, he is a charred skeleton.

The remaining trio of reporters are in 60 minutes They said they were “deeply disturbed” by the recent firings, which should read in the tone of Senator Susan Collins of Maine who says she is “deeply concerned” about any particular ridiculous policy. “Newsrooms are not supposed to be run like dictatorships,” the reporters added. Well, there’s something we can agree on. A good newsroom should raise the bar for its reporters on good days Defending them on the worst days. Everything else is cowardice and neglect.

A dictatorial newsroom is exactly what Billy protested when he reportedly challenged management at a staff meeting and claimed editor-in-chief Barry Weiss was “killing.” 60 minutesWeiss She has already proven to be a scourge to the pressso it was generous of her to at least allow new things 60 minutes Executive producer Nick Bilton steals some of that spotlight.

Belton is probably the most famous writing Twitter hatching. He worked for New York Times and Vanity galleryand also as a screenwriter. Traditional broadcast journalism did not appear on his resume until he was recruited by Weiss 60 minutes. But this lack of experience can’t even explain the utter embarrassment she feels His now public termination letter to Billy.

You can’t walk into a room with a title and demand respect, but that’s exactly how Pelton does. His letter to Billy was so bloated and desperate that it worked I Feel negative embarrassment just reading it. He complains about propriety like a classic Internet seal While at the same time looking like a huge idiot – he claims to have been “ambushed” by Billy with “marked rudeness and contempt”. prattle. If you can’t come to the newsroom prepared for tough questions from Journalists Under your care, it’s not your business to be there.

The incompetence emerging on the front lines at CBS is certainly a trickle-down situation. If Nick Bilton is a bad egg, it’s because he climbs bigger stairs – like a failed Matryoshka doll His final form is David Ellisonson of Larry Ellison and CEO of CBS parent Paramount Skydance. (Ellison It is said that it happened On Billy’s sacking.) This family is so bad that I feel sad about the old-fashioned lying of the Murdochs.

Disclosure: James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch, Just bought half of our parent companyFox Media. Which brings me to the real point – we are in very big trouble if the media continues to be consolidated by a very small and powerful group of oligarchs. Especially when they cozy up to an administration that favors loyalty and patronage over things like freedom of expression. ABC and Disney They fight againFor now, but CBS has completely given up. There’s no good explanation for why the network fired Stephen Colbert, one of the nicest and most profitable people in television, unless you consider that his bosses are simply kowtowing to Donald Trump. By the way, this is a pretty stupid long-term strategy, but maybe these people are just looking at how much spoils they can get in the next few years before this empire of incompetence collapses. Or maybe they just want to Moving beyond the acquisition of Warner Bros.

Bailey did not mince his words in a statement he released after his dismissal. He claims that the new owner of the network is wasting a legacy 60 minutes “Apparently to get a moment of favor with the Trump administration.” Even more damning, Bailey says the administration ordered him to “inject lies and bias into a politically sensitive story” and “include unverified assertions.” Oddly enough, none of this was addressed in leadership memos to CBS employees.

All of this comes at a time when the media is on life support nationwide. Even local channels have become frightening echo chambers for Trump propaganda, in particular Thanks to the Nexstar-Tegna deal – something enabled by the FCC that’s completely lost the plot. Do you know what’s worse than corporate media consolidation? Regulating government speech. The FCC is now perfectly happy to regulate free speech as long as it is intended to intimidate speakers not favored by the Trump administration.

Institutions such as Late Show and 60 minutes It is no longer untouchable. This should terrify every American. If size and profit can’t save our most powerful voices, what happens to the rest of us?