Tag: cbs

The Firing of Scott Pelley by ’60 Minutes’ Reveals Media Elites Have No Idea How Little the Public Trusts Them

The firing of Scott Pelley by ’60 Minutes’ has angered all of the right people and exposed the fact that the liberal elites in our media have no idea how many people in America no longer trust them.

Jake Tapper of CNN invited Scott MacFarlane onto his show, a journalist who left CBS News for a far left outlet called Meidas News, along with Terry Moran, who was fired by ABC News over an indefensible anti-Trump tweet, to react to the Pelley news.

MacFarlane showed that these people are utterly clueless about their situation.

Transcript via Curtis Houck of NewsBusters:

Former CBS correspondent-turned-MeidasTouch pundit Scott MacFarlane scoffs at the notion found in polls Americans don’t trust the media…

“I would venture the bold prediction that, if Americans were surveyed about the trustworthiness of 60 Minutes, it may have more support and more trust, more credibility with Americans than the general milquetoast term “media.” What is the media at this point that they’re being polled on? Are they talking about specific programs, specific sources of information?

Are they talking about the garbage on the internet, the garbage on talk radio? Are they talking about the actual verified, bonafide source sources of journalism? The ones who actually have credibility and empirical evidence to back up their reporting. This all feels to me like apples and oranges.”

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CBS Fires Professional Prevaricator Scott Pelley

Longtime readers of mine know that I don’t often do news stories. I’m the verbal bomb-throwing opinion guy here at the PJ Media Ranch; my colleagues handle the heavy news stuff much better than I do. Once in a great while, however, I come across a story that just makes me happy. Also, this one broke around 11 p.m. EDT, which is prime time in my Morning Briefing work day. 

The New York Times:

CBS News fired Scott Pelley on Tuesday, jettisoning one of the network’s best-known journalists in a clash over the future of “60 Minutes,” the country’s top-rated news program.

Mr. Pelley, 68, a “60 Minutes” correspondent and a former anchor of “CBS Evening News,” joined the network in 1989. At a staff meeting on Monday, he accused the network’s editor in chief, Bari Weiss, of “murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” citing the ouster last week of the program’s leadership team and two on-air correspondents.

“We have parted ways with Scott Pelley,” Nick Bilton, the tech journalist who was hired last week as the new “60 Minutes” executive producer, wrote in a memo to the show’s staff on Tuesday night.

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Dr. Jill Repeatedly Claims She Never Saw Signs that Joe Biden Was Falling Into Cognitive Decline – And CBS Mornings Host Isn’t Even Buying It

Dr. Jill insisted that she had never seen anything to indicate that Joe Biden was in cognitive decline during an interview with CBS Mornings host Rita Braver.

Jill Biden sat down for an interview with CBS Mornings to discuss life after the White House.

“Did you ever see signs that [Biden] was falling into cognitive decline?” Rita Braver asked Jill Biden.

“No,” Jill Biden said.

Rita Braver was not buying Jill Biden’s claim.

“No?” Rita Braver asked.

“No,” Jill Biden insisted.

“Truly?” Rita Braver asked.

“No,” Jill Biden said.

“Oh, he was definitely aging; I mean, we were all aging,” Jill added. “So, yes, he was slowing down.”

“People were saying he wasn’t the same Joe Biden,” Rita Braver said.

“Well, I don’t think that’s true,” Jill said.

She continued, “He was the same, the essence of the same Joe Biden, but yeah, he was slowing down. He was getting older.”

“It’s a very intense job. I think it ages you quickly. Look at the other presidents, I mean, in comparison, when they started in office and got out of office. It was natural aging,” Jill Biden insisted.

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CBS Torches Stephen Colbert After His Exit

CBS just handed Stephen Colbert the most brutal farewell a network could offer, and it should end all the debate over how and why Colbert got canceled.

Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed officially took over CBS’s 11:35 p.m. late-night slot on Friday, May 22, under a new “time buy” deal with the network. Under the arrangement, Allen Media Group pays CBS for the time period, handles all production costs itself, and controls the advertising inventory. This means that CBS doesn’t have to spend a dime.

That’s a pretty sharp contrast from what Colbert cost it.

CBS announced the cancellation of The Late Show back in July 2025, citing financial reasons. The network said the program was hemorrhaging roughly $40 million a year. At the time, some on the left insisted that the move was political. In their minds, CBS, an anti-Trump network, was doing President Donald Trump a favor by getting rid of one of his critics.

But CBS (again) demolished that narrative.

“With this ‘time buy’ model, we have shifted an hour that was losing roughly $40 million annually to $15 million in profit — a $55 million swing,” the spokesperson said, calling it “a new business and programming model for late night that proactively addresses a network daypart that was cost prohibitive to continue.”

So in axing Colbert, the network turned the whole slot profitable. It sure sounds like CBS has now been unburdened by what has been.

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CBS News Chief Bari Weiss FIRES Far-Left ’60 Minutes’ Executive Producer and Anti-Trump Correspondents

CBS News Editor-in-Chief continues draining the woke swamp at the long-compromised Sunday news program, 60 Minutes.

The Gateway Pundit has documented for years how ’60 Minutes’ repeatedly targeted conservatives and President Trump with one-sided hit pieces while giving Democrats and their allies soft-glove treatment.

The show’s credibility collapsed further after the disastrous Kamala Harris interview that triggered a major lawsuit and exposed its activist bent.

Bari Weiss, who famously walked away from The New York Times over its radical leftward lurch and cancel culture, is now applying the same standards at CBS.

Under the new Skydance/Paramount ownership, Weiss was brought in with a mandate for “actual viewpoint diversity.”

Weiss announced Thursday that she is replacing veteran executive producer Tanya Simon — a 30-year fixture at the program and daughter of legendary correspondent Bob Simon — with Nick Bilton, a tech journalist, former New York Times columnist, and documentary filmmaker with zero experience in traditional broadcast news.

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HELL FREEZES OVER: CBS News ‘Fact Checks’ Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass From Debate, Says Spencer Pratt Was Right 

Something has shifted in the race for mayor of Los Angeles after Spencer Pratt’s amazing performance in the debate earlier this week.

Even CBS News has done a ‘fact check’ on incumbent Democrat candidate Karen Bass, something that is usually reserved for Republican candidates. It’s extremely rare for the media to call out a Democrat candidate in this way.

The fact check had mostly to do with claims made about the wildfires, which are clearly going to play a much larger role in this race than Democrats were hoping.

John Nolte writes at Breitbart News:

Here is a partially edited transcript from the debate that’s relevant to the first CBS News fact check about the mayor’s epic mishandling of the 2025 Palisades Fire that destroyed nearly 7,000 structures and killed 12 people:

SPENCER PRATT: A lot of people talk about climate change and hurricane-force winds. The winds in the Pacific Palisades never reached higher than 40 mph. For those first six hours, they didn’t go above 27 miles per hour.

The whole point of this exchange is that Bass is running around blaming the fire on Climate Change.

KAREN BASS: He talked about the winds — that is just completely inaccurate. If that were accurate, then the planes would have been able to fly. And so if the winds reached close to 100 miles an hour and the planes were unable to fly.

PRATT: Yes, she mentioned me. So this is — she’s an incredible liar. Everyone on their phones, Google it. 40 weather stations in the Pacific Palisades. It never went above 40 miles per hour. She is referencing the Altadena fire.

BIASED LEFTIST MODERATOR: I have to interrupt you. No name-calling, please.

PRATT: Yeah, but no name calling? She just lied though… No more lying. We need the truth.

Here’s the CBS News fact check:

Weather modeling reviewed for my reporting shows winds in the Palisades during those first several hours of the fire were, in fact under 40 miles per hour. Planes could and did fly. Stronger winds intensified later in the evening. And that distinction matters because the earliest hours of a wildfire are often the most critical for containment.

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WHCD Shooting Suspect Told Law Enforcement He Targeted Trump Officials, CBS News Sources Say

A major development has emerged in the investigation into the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, and the implications are serious. 

According to two sources cited by CBS News, suspect Cole Tomas Allen allegedly told law enforcement after his arrest that he intended to shoot Trump administration officials.

If that statement is confirmed in court, the entire nature of the case changes. This is no longer just about a shooting attempt in a crowded venue. It becomes a case centered on targeted political violence against federal officials, which carries far more severe legal consequences under federal law.

Intent is one of the most critical factors in any criminal case, especially at the federal level. 

An admission like this could open the door to charges well beyond the preliminary firearms and assault counts already announced by U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro. 

Prosecutors now have a potential pathway to pursue statutes specifically designed to protect government officials and the federal government’s functioning.

One of the most relevant statutes in this situation is 18 U.S.C. § 115, which criminalizes threats against federal officials in connection with their official duties. This law applies broadly, covering members of Congress, federal judges, law enforcement personnel, and executive branch officials, including cabinet members. 

The penalties are significant, with up to 10 years in prison for threats alone, and substantially more if an attempt or actual act of violence is involved. 

The reasoning behind the enhanced penalties is straightforward: a threat against a government official is treated not just as a threat to a person, but as an attack on the operation of government.

That distinction matters. Federal prosecutors consistently treat cases involving government officials differently because of the broader implications. 

These cases are not limited to individual harm; they are viewed as potential disruptions to government stability and public order.

The setting of the incident could also play a major role. If investigators determine that Allen specifically chose the White House Correspondents’ Dinner because of the expected presence of administration officials, that could support arguments for premeditation. 

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Blanche Shuts Down CBS’s Margaret Brennan After She Tries to Turn the WHCD Shooting Into a Gun Control Debate

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation with host Margaret Brennan to discuss yet another attempted assassination against President Trump and his administration officials.

Margaret Brennan tried to get Blanche in a debate about gun control after a left-wing would-be assassin stormed the lobby of the Washington Hilton and opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

The shooter, Cole Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, traveled to DC by train. Margaret Brennan tried to get Blanche into a debate about gun control.

Allen sent his family a manifesto parroting Democrat-media talking points and expressing his hatred for “rapist, traitor” Trump.

Margaret Brennan wanted to make the attempted assassination by a left-wing lunatic about gun control.

“Here in the District of Columbia, open carry is not permitted. You just said he traveled from California across the country by train,” Brennan said.

“At this point, are you thinking at the federal level of changing security protocols in any way to, for example, match on trains what you are expected to go through when you fly, when you do have to declare a weapon when you cross state lines?” she added.

Blanche did not take the bait.

“Look, this isn’t about, in my mind, changing the law or making the laws more restrictive around possession of firearms,” Blanche said.

“It appears he purchased the firearms in the past couple of years. We don’t know how the firearms ended up in his possession in DC,” Blanche added.

“We can make some assumptions based on what I said of how he got to DC, but I don’t think the narrative here is about changing laws or making our laws more restrictive,” he said.

“This is about law enforcement who are doing their jobs and a suspect who tried to do something and failed miserably,” Blanche said.

Brennan still wanted to take the conversation back to gun control.

“Well, I’m not talking about changing the law in terms of possession of a firearm,” she said.

“I’m asking about crossing state lines with that firearm and arriving in the capital,” she added.

“Well, look, you are talking about — if we’re asking the question, that’s talking about changing the laws,” Blanche said.

“And I don’t think that that’s something we should be focused on right now in any way, shape or form,” he said.

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Far-left CBS News Runs Desperate Story to Shield Eric Swalwell

CBS News embarrassed itself Thursday by running a laughably desperate story to shield the creepy, fang-fanging, serial lying Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) from a whisper campaign about sexual misconduct allegations that are supposedly coming soon.

First, some background…

Several left-wing activists, led by Gen-Z for Change’s Cheyenne Hunt,  have spent the better part of a week claiming that a number of women are about to come forward to accuse California gubernatorial candidate Swalwell of various forms of sexual misconduct.

“The number of credible women who have come forward since I posted my video is pretty shocking, and connecting them with the investigative reporting teams who have been working on breaking this for years has greatly expedited this process,” Hunt claims. “I am confident this story will break soon.”

An important point here is that, according to Hunt, Swalwell’s office requires staffers to sign nondisclosure agreements, or  NDAs…

“It appears that others may have stayed quiet due to a belief that non-disclosure agreements required them to keep this secret,” Hunt wrote. “While it is true that most NDAs would be unenforceable under these circumstances, most people don’t know that until they speak to a lawyer.”

Other left-wing activists have chimed in to back up the allegation that allegations will soon be alleging these alleged allegations…

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‘Contradictory’ Public Opinions on Iran Are Baked Into CBS’s Polling

A recent CBS News poll (3/17–20/26) declared that a majority of Americans (53%) say it would be “unacceptable” if the United States were to end the conflict with Iran with that country’s current leadership still in power.

Moreover, the poll also found that large majorities of Americans say it is “important” to “make sure Iran’s people are safe and free,” to “permanently stop Iran’s nuclear programs,” and to “stop Iran from threatening other countries.”

These results seem to suggest that most Americans want the war to continue until those goals, including regime change in Iran, are actually achieved.

Much of the rest of the poll, however, suggests the public does not support the war with Iran, even when “conflict” instead of the touchy word “war” is used to describe what’s happening. According to the poll:

  • 60% disapprove of the US taking military action against Iran.
  • 62% disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling the situation in Iran.
  • 57% believe the “conflict in Iran” is going “very/somewhat badly.”
  • 51% do not believe it is important to change Iran’s leaders to ones that are pro-US.
  • 92% believe it is important to “end the conflict as quickly as possible.”

The report notes: “If those desires between goals and a fast end seem contradictory, it connects to the continued call for more explanation from the administration.”

The poll did ask if the Trump administration had clearly explained its goals, and only 32% said it had; 68% said no.

But that is not evidence of the public’s “continued call for more explanation.” There is nothing in the poll that suggests the public is demanding more information, and in the absence thereof, the public exhibits contradictions between its preferred goals and a quick end to the war. The explanation is a non sequitur.

One reason for the contradictions is that the poll asks each question as though it were free from any context. Respondents are not asked to evaluate each goal in light of possible cost. If, for example, regime change is a goal of the war, how long should the US continue to press for that change, given the likely cost in money and lives?

The poll lists several goals, and each one might seem pretty appealing—assuming it could be reached. Respondents hear a goal and say, sure, it’s important, without having to confront the inevitable trade-offs. Reporting such responses as though the public is actually demanding the US pay the costs to achieve regime change, or to make the Iranian people free and safe, is a wild distortion of what the poll has actually measured.

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