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"Newsroom culture clash" at CBS News

A producer for the CBS Evening News quit, and released an angry letter:

www.newsbreak.com

CBS Evening News Producer Reportedly Quits in Fiery Note — Calls Out ‘Shifting Set of Ideological Expectations’ at Bari Weiss-Led Outlet - NewsBreak

A producer for the CBS Evening News has abruptly quit the show — citing the "shifting set of ideological expectations" inside the Bari Weiss-run news divis
www.newsbreak.com www.newsbreak.com

barrettmedia.com

CBS Evening News Producer Calls Out 'Shifting Set of Ideological Expectations' In Farewell Letter

"There has been a sweeping new vision prioritizing a break from traditional broadcast norms to embrace what has been described as 'heterodox' journalism."
barrettmedia.com barrettmedia.com

I wonder what she means by "ideological expectations." Once again, the CBS Evening News is the lowest rated newscast in the country. They obviously weren't meeting or serving anyone's expectations.
 
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davideduardo said:
By "religious right" (a term I have never heard before)
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I heard the “religious right” term frequently in the 1960s. Usually referred to religious types who were against the Civil Rights movement, hated the pop culture of the time, were overwhelmingly in favor of the Vietnam War, and thought that rich people should be our lords and masters, who they would serve unquestioningly.
davideduardo said:
In any case, a religion is not a political party.
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Religion and politics are tightly interwoven, and have been so for centuries, even millennia.

Look at the histories of monarchies in Europe, for example. Kings/Emperors/Kaisers/Czars used the churches to legitimize their rule (“The King is ordained by God, and can do whatever he wants. Anyone who is against the King is also against God, and should be repressed or killed.”) In return for the support of the church, the monarch would grant powers to those religious institutions to control the social and economic order in a society.

Look at today’s Russia. Putin is using the Russian Orthodox Church in the same ways the Czars did. The head of that church is reportedly a multibillionaire. How did that happen?

Same thing with the MAGA movement and its religious affiliations. “Trump was sent by God to save America” they tell us. The MAGA crowd is going to be shocked when Trump dies, and is not resurrected on the third day.

Religion and politics. Same as it ever was.
 
The same thing happened in the 80s, when the ownership changed, and Tisch came in.

New ownership means new management, and new management means new directions.

CBS has had very stable ownership for a long time. People get comfortable with the old ways. Then change happens.
 
michael hagerty said:
The question was not whether you could define it (that got hopelessly muddled in between my question and your answer)---it was whether it was credible that you could have not heard it.
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And, in fact, I first became aware of that term as an indicator of a specific movement or manner of thinking in this very thread.
michael hagerty said:
Your answer is that "90% of your life since 1963" has been speaking Spanish. Fine.
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And, as I said, there is no direct translation for “religious right” in Spanish. And while I may have seen the term used, I never thought that it was a specific and finite way of thinking, but, rather, a catchall basket for people who were conservative just as “progressive“ is a catchall for those who are liberal.
 
TheBigA said:
A producer for the CBS Evening News quit, and released an angry letter:h

I wonder what she means by "ideological expectations." Once again, the CBS Evening News is the lowest rated newscast in the country. They obviously weren't meeting or serving anyone's expectations.
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This reminds me of the objections voiced by the Washington Post journalists, whose agenda does not take into account the loss, which apparently exceeds $100 million, sustained by the newspaper with its current content and focus.
 
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The strength and independence of US journalism comes from having the finances and ratings to withstand criticism and government interference.

A lot of these heritage media companies no longer command that financial or popular strength. It makes them vulnerable. As we see here.

We currently have an administration that comes from media. They know how media works. They see weakness, and they're exploiting it.
 
TheBigA said:
A producer for the CBS Evening News quit, and released an angry letter:

www.newsbreak.com

CBS Evening News Producer Reportedly Quits in Fiery Note — Calls Out ‘Shifting Set of Ideological Expectations’ at Bari Weiss-Led Outlet - NewsBreak

A producer for the CBS Evening News has abruptly quit the show — citing the "shifting set of ideological expectations" inside the Bari Weiss-run news divis
www.newsbreak.com www.newsbreak.com

barrettmedia.com

CBS Evening News Producer Calls Out 'Shifting Set of Ideological Expectations' In Farewell Letter

"There has been a sweeping new vision prioritizing a break from traditional broadcast norms to embrace what has been described as 'heterodox' journalism."
barrettmedia.com barrettmedia.com

I wonder what she means by "ideological expectations." Once again, the CBS Evening News is the lowest rated newscast in the country. They obviously weren't meeting or serving anyone's expectations.
Click to expand...
How do you know the 4 million that did watch them weren't having their expectations be met? The point of journalism is just to get ratings and nothing more?
 
tall_guy1 said:
How do you know the 4 million that did watch them weren't having their expectations be met? The point of journalism is just to get ratings and nothing more?
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Let's put it this way: If the point of journalism is to serve 4 million people, you have to do it with a smaller budget. Somebody has to pay.

Network news isn't just ratings. It has to have the support of the affiliates who carry the shows. They are not a given. If they don't like the direction of the new anchor or news team, they might drop the Evening News. So far, we haven't seen that.

The strength & independence of NPR News comes from the fact that it has a strong financial base that was able to withstand the loss of government funding. I think the commercial news organizations could learn from NPR News.
 
tall_guy1 said:
How do you know the 4 million that did watch them weren't having their expectations be met? The point of journalism is just to get ratings and nothing more?
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The point of journalism on a commercial station or newspaper is to provide desirable content to potential users of the medium so that the journal or broadcaster can pay for its service and make a profit for its owners.

Just as music radio listeners seek out the kinds of music or content they personally like, news followers may have different peak interests; some want more business news, others want more international content, still others only want local news.

ABC, NBC and CBS, with more subtle differences, seem to seek the same viewers. It appears that CBS now wants to be different enough to attract a portion of the news audience.
 
TheBigA said:
Once again, CBS News is in last place. What does that say about what they've been doing?
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Once again, you know damn well what the ideological expectations line meant. Trying to deflect to another question isn’t going to work. We get it, there’s no line, there’s no ethical boundary, there’s no fundamental responsibility. That has been made abundantly clear.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Once again, you know damn well what the ideological expectations line meant. Trying to deflect to another question isn’t going to work. We get it, there’s no line, there’s no ethical boundary, there’s no fundamental responsibility. That has been made abundantly clear.
Click to expand...

The administration knows that. That's why they can do whatever they want to the media with no blowback from anyone, including the public. The purpose of that letter was to get public support. Most of the public isn't watching CBS News.

There IS no ethical boundary. We all can see that. We saw it with Bondi's testimony yesterday. The public doesn't care. If the public doesn't care, it's very hard for the media to claim the high ground. Especially when they're so vulnerable.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Once again, you know damn well what the ideological expectations line meant. Trying to deflect to another question isn’t going to work. We get it, there’s no line, there’s no ethical boundary, there’s no fundamental responsibility. That has been made abundantly clear.
Click to expand...
When newspapers were truly vibrant in New York City, we had every possible focus.....

The New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, New York Journal-American, World Telegram and Sun, New York Mirror, Daily News, and New York Post were all published daily.

We had everything from a local crime and sensationalism focus to the serious Times and the more international Herald Tribune. And that list does not include New York's equally famous business daily, the WSJ.

If CBS is going to try to differentiate itself from the other two, it needs to look back to when major markets had multiple daily papers and each had a different focus and news item hierarchy.
 
TheBigA said:
Once again, CBS News is in last place. What does that say about what they've been doing?
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Maybe it says that CBS News was doing something right all along before the Ellisons bought the network.

Look! democracy and capitalism are not the same thing. The first is a government based upon citizen involvement in that government and full and truthful information about what the government is doing, both good and bad, so that the citizenry will have proper information and context on which to vote in elections. For democracies to work, the media, regardless of whether they are making a profit or not, must be able and willing to tell truth to power, not only to government power but also the power of the ultrawealthy.

Capitalism, on the other hand, is a system of gathering wealth. While it has worked best under democracies, it does not need a democracy to survive (think of China under Deng Xiao Peng). While democracy tends to work well with capitalism in some areas, most notably truthful and honest information about corporate behaviors (assuming that requirement is written into statutes), both can also be at odds, especially when it comes to supporting the poor and disadvantaged.

What has all this to do with CBS, you ask. As I said at the top, if CBS and the other networks bow to pressure to kiss old-fashioned journalism goodbye and do not hold our elected leaders and wealthy corporate owners accountable for their actions in the kinds of stories they run, and especially if they do this to gain higher ratings and therefore gain more profit, then the democratic republic that is the U.S. is lost, probably forever. It is for this reason that I strongly oppose @TheBigA's assertions about CBS having to change because it is always in third place. We need that traditional journalism, now more than ever, even as it is under attack by the owners of capital and dictators both at home and abroad.
 
ted chittenden said:
Look! democracy and capitalism are not the same thing.
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Democracy is why CBS News is in last place. The people have a choice and they chose something else. They did that long before the Ellisons got involved.

ted chittenden said:
We need that traditional journalism, now more than ever, even as it is under attack by the owners of capital and dictators both at home and abroad.
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That's why you shouldn't count on CBS News or any other profit making news service. Because they will do what they have to do to survive.

Somebody has to pay. If the owners of capital won't pay, find someone else. That's where we are now.

The people don't watch network TV or read print newspapers. Those platforms are in decline. The new journalism has to learn the new media.
 


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