Two important items in journalism struck me this week from both sides of the political silos. Lets start with my friend and colleague at 60 Minutes Scott Pelley. A journalist at CBS for 38 years, he now sees his program and his profession in jeopardy. And for good reason. President Donald Trump is on the attack, suing 60 Minutes for millions of dollars in what normal times would be a frivolous lawsuit.
Mr.. Trump is holding his thumb on the FCC scale, threatening to torpedo the sale of parent company CBD/Paramount to others. The sale would bring millions of dollars to its largest stockholder Shari Redstone, a non-journalist who is now meddling in 60 Minutes’ editorial content.
Trump’s pressure has led to the cancellation of a story on Gaza and another on Ukraine. Its led to the resignation of executive producer, Bill Owens who said publicly he no longer had the power to pick and choose what aired on Sunday Night. Pelley spoke out in support of Owens on 60 Minutes, a rare comment, even though he did not name the president.
And now at Wake Forest University’s commencement, Pelley went further. He blasted Trump for attacking Americas freedoms in the media, at top universities, and among immigrants living in the united States legally.
Pelley expressed shock that this is “happening in America”.
Why is this newsworthy? Because journalists rarely provide opinion on the stories they cover, unless its clearly marked as opinion, or is in a column such as this one. Pelley stepped outside the box. Its only happened in dire times. Walter Cronkite condemned the Vietnam War during the Lyndon Johnson administration, and LBJ knew he had lost the American people.
Edward R. Murrow went after Joseph McCarthy as the Senator invented a “red menace” and his campaign of fear was over.
Scott Pelley isn’t quite on that level, but he is close. The lead correspondent on America’s most watched news broadcast calling out the President is huge. It remains to be seen if it has a similar effect.
While I applaud Pelley’s courage and his viewpoint, America’s journalism is in peril. Those who can speak up, should. In today’s splintered media landscape it is doubtful Pelley’s opinion will resonate through the country. Trump supporters are already saying he went ‘ballistic” and his outrage shows he is “unhinged”.
What those on Fox News and other right wing outlets forget is that Pelley has years of credibility. And that 60 minutes, where Pelley works has 15 million viewers on Sundays. Fox has hundreds of thousands in the daytime and their top rated shows in prime barely reach 5 million.
That credibility and popularity mean something. It is a clear shot across the bow of the Trump administration. His speech produced millions of views on social media. I for one retweeted it on X, Blue Sky and Threads. Hopefully the rest of you who treasure freedom of the press do the same.
The Joe Biden Health Scandal
Two books about the Biden administration’s last year in office have recently come out. One by Jake Tapper and another from Jonathan Allen. The two Washington insiders have looked into President Biden’s failing health and his staff’s effort to cover it up. It was a decision that crushed the democratic party in its effort to defeat Donald Trump in 2024.
Biden’s decision to hang on despite his mental fragility made it impossible for Democrats to mount a campaign to stand up against Trump, no matter who the candidate would be. It left the Vice President hamstrung with a short campaign tied to a failing president.
The Biden staff and his family hid his frailty to the detriment of the American people. Not since Calvin Coolidge, who had a stroke in the last year of his presidency and his wife and staff took the reins has America suffered such a crisis.
There were suspicions Biden was too old and mentally incompetent to run for a second term, much less finish his first term. But his staff lashed out at the Wall Street Journal and other outlets who were willing to raise doubts with solid reporting. Democrats with access to what was going on, who saw Biden unable to perform and forgetting prominent staff names and world leaders, claimed his debate performance was an anomaly and not a pattern.
Only Nancy Pelosi stood up to him. Even her attempts to stop him from running were couched in subtlety. Journalists who attempted to get to the truth were shut out and denied access. The Press Secretary lied to their faces.
In the aftermath of “The Original Sin” by Tapper and “Fight” by Jonathan Allen the right is claiming the Press failed. It’s my view that the politicians and the Democrats are to blame. The media raised the questions repeatedly. David Axelrod on CNN for one, but they were stonewalled.
These two books came out after Biden’s presidency was over and Kamala Harris’ attempt to succeed him was a big loss. Why? Because nobody would talk before the election, and any reporting before was based on Republican sources and thus lacked credibility or was merely opinion or thinly sourced.
Democrats should be blaming themselves for enabling Biden to continue and propping up a man who should have kept his promise of becoming a transitional one term president. He should never have run at 81 years old. Biden’s stubbornness and ego ruined his legacy, allowing a lying criminal to win the election, giving us what we have today, a President who threatens our freedoms as Scott Pelley so eloquently put it at Wake Forest.
