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“Varied Ideological Perspectives”: a new goal promised for CBS under Skydance

Skydance has told the Federal Communications Commission that once its acquisition of Paramount Global is complete, it will hire an ombudsman that will report directly to the president of CBS News and “who will receive and evaluate any complaints of bias or other concerns” at the news division.

That's fascinating. BTW NPR also has an ombudsman who has the same role and oversight of NPR News. That seemed to not matter to anyone who attacked NPR News. It didn't come into play during the congressional process. The ombudsman was never brought in to testify. No one evaluated the many posts the ombudsman released. It seems like these things are just lips moving. Whatever we need to do to get to a yes.
 
That will never see the light of day only because David can't wait to dump CBS. But the impetus is on Sinclair or Nexstar (the most obvious buyers for CBS and the owned-stations) doing it instead.

In all seriousness, David Ellison never really wanted CBS and after this continuous fiasco, he wants it less than ever.
 

Here is another one this time changes at the Daily Show with rotating hosts. However this comes as Paramount has to respond to the late show being cut off.

From Comedy Central's World News Headquarters in New York, it's "The Daily Show" with… wait, who is Josh Johnson?

The award-winning news comedy show, which propelled Jon Stewart to fame and saw him return as a one-day-a-week anchor in 2024, is adding a new rotating host to its lineup.

Johnson, who has been a writer on the show since 2017 and an onscreen presence since 2024, will take his first turn as a host this week, anchoring the July 22 show (11 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central). He will join the rotating cast of anchors who have helped to guide the program into a new format after host Trevor Noah (Stewart's first replacement) left the desk in 2022.
 
It is not the responsibility or role of a functional press to “present both sides.” It is their role to report what is. Not everything has two sides. Not everything is neutral. Some things are horrific. Some things are criminal. Some things are not in any serious dispute no matter what some overly loud crackpots say. Giving such utter nonsense oxygen and validity is not in the public interest.
 
You are missing the herd of elephants in the room. Those networks responsible for Mike Wallace and 60 Minutes have less than a fifth of the viewing levels they enjoyed 30 to 40 years ago. And the serious "newsy" approach is rejected by the latest three generations of viewers, who don't want anything like what you describe as the historical news delivery approach. They want TikTok. What you describe is for Boomers, and nobody else cares very much.

And that's tragic! No democracy can survive long if its people aren't interested in the hard news of politics and policies that affect them. Boomers, because of the Vietnam War and the civil rights struggles, instictively knew that; so did their forebears, the greatest generation, because of World War II and its aftermath. I'm in my 60s now. If I manage to make it to my 80s and 90s, the country I will be living in, including its media, what is considered news, and how that "news" will be delivered will be completely foreign to me and, in my view, no longer worth fighting for.
 
It is not the responsibility or role of a functional press to “present both sides.” It is their role to report what is. Not everything has two sides. Not everything is neutral. Some things are horrific. Some things are criminal. Some things are not in any serious dispute no matter what some overly loud crackpots say. Giving such utter nonsense oxygen and validity is not in the public interest.

Thank you!
 
It is not the responsibility or role of a functional press to “present both sides.”
No, it should present all sides.
It is their role to report what is.
Which includes multiple perspectives.
Not everything has two sides. Not everything is neutral. Some things are horrific. Some things are criminal. Some things are not in any serious dispute no matter what some overly loud crackpots say. Giving such utter nonsense oxygen and validity is not in the public interest.
An ant making it across my driveway is news. It just is not relevant to anyone.

The issue is relevance and perspective. I've told many times the story of how a number of us would meet in Quito after any event that got world press attentions, such as a revolution, discovery of oil deposits, etc. Our group included the correspondents for AP, UPI, Reuters, Newsweek and some Latin American agencies. We'd read the stories in everything from Time to Prensa Latina and TASS.

Some of the stories had nearly no resemblance to what we had seen ourselves because the perspective of each reporter was both personal and in line with the world view of their employer.
 
No, it should present all sides.

Which includes multiple perspectives.

So you're telling me Fox News presents all sides? The NY Post presents all sides? OANN presents all sides? Multiple perspectives?

A reminder once again: There is no fairness doctrine. No requirement anywhere that anyone has to present all sides or perspectives.

And the government doesn't get to decide who is biased and who isn't. Not in this hemisphere.
 
I'll simplify this.

If a candidate for public office says migrants are eating cats and dogs in a midwestern American city and they're not, it is the press' responsibility to report the lie ONLY so that the truth has context. There is no "both sides" in that argument.

The role of a free press in a free society is to expose the truth. The guys trying to bury the free press right now aren't looking for equal time for debates of lofty ideas. They want the media to stop examining what they say and reporting it.

It's that great old Bob Loblaw ad in "Arrested Development":

"Why should you go to prison for a crime someone else...noticed?"
 
And I'll go a step further.

All sides? Fine. There are people who believe the earth is flat. Still. Wanna give them equal time and credibility?

Epstien's in the news right now. All sides would involve a full-credibility interview with the North American Man-Boy Love Association, which advocates for pedophilia, campaigns to abolish ages of consent and lobbies to have child sexual abusers released from prison.

Wanna do that?

If not, then tell me where the line gets drawn.

I think at this stage of human existence on earth, and the profession of journalism, we are best served by a press that won't waste our time with utter bullshit that people who should have no influence or power spew.
 
No, it should present all sides.

Which includes multiple perspectives.
No. A fact does not have sides. Pretending every crackpot opinion is of equal value is nonsense. There are no machines controlling the weather and aiming storms or whatever silliness MTG spewed. The earth is not flat. There is no public interest served in “now let’s talk to the person who insists our planet is a pancake.” None. They are demonstrably wrong no matter their “opinion.” They have been proven wrong. Pretending they have a meaningful perspective is inane. As is the “democrats control the tornadoes” idiocy. But thousands of not many more people spout these ideas. They are not facts.
An ant making it across my driveway is news. It just is not relevant to anyone.
Riveting. But the fact is the ant did or did not survive. It is not a matter of perspective, or opinion. Yes or no. Not both.
The issue is relevance and perspective.
The issue is fact. The issue is evidence. The issue is reality.
I've told many times the story of how a number of us would meet in Quito after any event that got world press attentions, such as a revolution, discovery of oil deposits, etc. Our group included the correspondents for AP, UPI, Reuters, Newsweek and some Latin American agencies. We'd read the stories in everything from Time to Prensa Latina and TASS.

Some of the stories had nearly no resemblance to what we had seen ourselves because the perspective of each reporter was both personal and in line with the world view of their employer.
For the love of….this isn’t that. The very point was a functional press is not about a world view. It’s about facts. This did or did not happen. A statement that is demonstrably false is a lie. It rained or it did not rain. Dinosaurs existed. JFK Jr is dead. We don’t need to be wasting time on rebuttals to established reality.

And when a preponderance, an overwhelming preponderance, of actual experts make a statement it is valid to say that it is a widespread consensus, because it is, without pretending the wingnuts online screeching the conspiracy du jour should be treated as serious equals. They are not.
 
And I'll go a step further.

All sides? Fine. There are people who believe the earth is flat. Still. Wanna give them equal time and credibility?

Epstien's in the news right now. All sides would involve a full-credibility interview with the North American Man-Boy Love Association, which advocates for pedophilia, campaigns to abolish ages of consent and lobbies to have child sexual abusers released from prison.

Wanna do that?

If not, then tell me where the line gets drawn.

I think at this stage of human existence on earth, and the profession of journalism, we are best served by a press that won't waste our time with utter bullshit that people who should have no influence or power spew.
True and we will find out in the White House Lawsuit against Murdoch and Wall Street Journal. Yes as always it ends in 1st Amendment issues.
 
Apparently someone in the white house is claiming they have the power to cancel The View:

You are engaging in hyperbole. One person said that, were ratings to continue to decline (unsubstantiated), the show could be cancelled just like..."

The View responded with ratings data that showed that statement to be wrong.

This is just another partisan pissing contest. In this kind of situation, each side wins with its own partisans.
 


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