Today, nearly a century’s worth of reporting officially dies as CBS News Radio goes away. So many esteemed people claim this marks the end of unbiased news, or the death of a media giant. Others are pointing the finger at Bari Weiss for killing the outlet.
However, there are three points to CBS News Radio’s closure that no one wants to bring up: the news division always had a political slant, CBS actually died 30 years ago.
The loss of CBS News Radio opens up new doors for the industry as a whole.
The News Division Always Had a Political Slant
Ben Franklin understood that he who controls the press can control the masses. He learned this as the writer “Silence Dogood” for the New England Courant. It’s also likely why he bought the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richard’s Almanac before becoming the official printer for both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Most collegiate media history classes will skip over this very important and influential fact.
I bring you this brief history lesson because it shows you one very specific thing: without Franklin’s influence and reach in the 1700s media industry, the likelihood of the American Revolution happening and being successful is cut in half.
Now, don’t get me wrong — I’m glad we are America, and we are free — but Franklin’s political slant infiltrated the Pennsylvania Gazette and helped shape the conversations happening at the dinner table during the 1700s.
We see this again prominently in American history with the Hearst vs. Pulitzer newspaper wars in the 1800s, World War I, World War II, and virtually at every single outlet during any time of conflict in American history.
CBS News Radio is no exception to this, and if you don’t believe me, here are a few examples:
In the 1960s, Republican congressman Jimmy Utt sued CBS for “entrapping him into giving a television interview” by journalist Roger Mudd. The case was later dismissed.
A few years later, Fred Friendly resigned from his position as President of CBS to protest the Vietnam War — this hardly seems like a journalist-friendly move.
In 1982, CBS was sued by U.S. Army Chief of Staff General William Westmoreland for the documentary “The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception.” This case was settled out of court.
Later in the 1980s, when reports came out about Westinghouse having “environmental incidents,” what did Westinghouse do? They bought CBS, and then any future liability for at least four different energy plant leaks was transferred to CBS. Shockingly, the reports about Westinghouse stopped around 1994 before the two companies merged.
In 2005, Dan Rather presented questionable — and possibly forged — documents about President George W. Bush’s National Guard service.
Then, in 2014, long-time reporter Sharyl Attkisson resigned from the network. She noted the outlet’s liberal bias, and wrote extensively about how multiple reports of hers were killed because of that slant. This includes her work on the now-debunked group People 2 People and her investigation into the Benghazi attack.
More recently, CBS paid President Donald Trump $16 million in a settlement for deceptively editing an October 2024 interview with his political opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Every outlet has a slant. To say CBS has served our democracy with the public interest in mind is to undermine the issues listed above. Which date back to the 1960s. All of these people — except Attkisson — who’ve had issues with the outlet are Republicans. With nearly 100 years of history, it’s hard to believe there hasn’t been a single Democrat who’s had an issue with CBS, because both sides of politics are dirty. Fair and balanced means this list should either be non-existent or have a close to equal number of Republicans and Democrats on it.
CBS Actually Died 30 Years Ago
In December 1995, CBS was purchased by Westinghouse and went public. The outlet was flailing financially at the time, and Westinghouse had a huge PR problem. Two birds were killed with one stone.
This purchase also meant one new thing for the outlet: they had shareholders to make happy.
How do you do that? Make money. What’s the fastest way to make money when you’re an established network? Cut your overhead. What does that mean in layman’s terms? Cut jobs.
Good journalism means boots on the ground. It means months of research before establishing a full report. CBS Radio didn’t die overnight.
First, they cut jobs in order to turn a profit for shareholders.
Then they failed to keep up with the changing landscape of the media industry — other terrestrial and traditional radio stations are doing a great job at this. Lastly, they closed.
New Doors for the Industry as a Whole
No one likes change. Whether you want to admit it or not, it’s programmed into our DNA as human beings not to like change. It’s difficult, uncomfortable, and yet we’ve all been through it at least once in our careers.
Think about every time you’ve gotten a new news director or EP — or some sort of boss. The whole newsroom goes into this “Lord of the Flies,” unstable mode of complete chaos. That’s what’s happening right now with the loss of CBS Radio. For my friends and colleagues who have lost their jobs, I am sorry. I know it’s rough, and I refer you to my March column about why everything is going to be OK — because it will be.
This empty hole left behind by CBS needs to be filled, and everyone is trying to make their share of our finite media pie just a little bigger — hence the chaos. CBS Radio’s microphone won’t be filled by any of the terrestrial radio stations, TV outlets, or even podcasters.
Instead, this microphone will be filled by the innovators of our industry. I’m not talking about artificial intelligence. I still think it’s a load of garbage. But I am talking about those who are willing to strap on their leather shoes and find a better process for sharing information. At the end of the day, this is what we do. We look for information and share it with everyone else. It’s the way we share it that will continuously change.
Evolutionarily, we went from caveman grunts to pictures on a wall. Then the printing press. Radio, TV, podcasting, and now social media. We no longer grunt like cavemen. And the only people I know who still draw on walls are under the age of five. The reality is we’re witnessing the next evolutionary step in our industry, so you have two choices.
Sulk about the loss of radio — because I’m sorry, I love radio — but if we’re honest with ourselves, none of the publicly traded radio outlets’ financials look good. When one door closes, another one opens. We don’t know what that’ll look like yet, but embracing this change could make us better as an industry.
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Krystina Alarcon Carroll contributes features and columns for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
