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"Newsroom culture clash" at CBS News

It is for this reason that I strongly oppose @TheBigA's assertions about CBS having to change because it is always in third place.

You are free to oppose it. Just as the people at CBS News are free to quit and work someplace else.

The real problem isn't the government. It's that the public has left traditional media. It's the same problem killing broadcast radio.

The traditional media reported on the current president's issues for ten years. The people elected him twice anyway. That shows the power of traditional media. Perhaps it doesn't have the influence you & others think it has.
 
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.
CBS is not making changes to please their viewers. They're making changes to please their bosses.

The Russian media didn't all either go dark or become Putin sycophants because "that's what the viewers wanted".
 
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.



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.
World News with David Muir survives just fine. And all 3 of these are among the top watched non-sports linear content on TV. Its the rest of the programming thats in decline, but they hold up fine.
 
You are free to oppose it. Just as the people at CBS News are free to quit and work someplace else.

The real problem isn't the government. It's that the public has left traditional media. It's the same problem killing broadcast radio.

The traditional media reported on the current president's issues for ten years. The people elected him twice anyway. That shows the power of traditional media. Perhaps it doesn't have the influence you & others think it has.

Actually, I think it has that influence. That's why the current administration and its allies is spending a lot of time and effort to tear it down. And I don't believe that, especially if you include Fox, all of the traditional media were on board with pointing out the current U.S. president's past misbehaviors.
 
The changes at CBS have been subtle anyway. If you watch an average Tony Dokoupil broadcast, it's not that different than Norah O'Donnell. If there hadn't been stories about behind the scenes, I don't think anyone would notice.
 
CBS is not making changes to please their viewers. They're making changes to please their bosses.
And they want to see improved ratings as that is the only way to improve revenue.
The Russian media didn't all either go dark or become Putin sycophants because "that's what the viewers wanted".
That is different as Russia is a controlled economy with a virtual dictator.
 
The changes at CBS have been subtle anyway. If you watch an average Tony Dokoupil broadcast, it's not that different than Norah O'Donnell. If there hadn't been stories about behind the scenes, I don't think anyone would notice.
Why is it that many here on RD expect changes to be almost instant and total? In many instances, they are the opposite with slow transformations.

To start, CBS is buying out about 25% of its newsroom. All these things take considerable time.
 
You are free to oppose it. Just as the people at CBS News are free to quit and work someplace else.

The real problem isn't the government. It's that the public has left traditional media. It's the same problem killing broadcast radio.

The traditional media reported on the current president's issues for ten years. The people elected him twice anyway. That shows the power of traditional media. Perhaps it doesn't have the influence you & others think it has.
He was elected in large part due to the media.
 
Why is it that many here on RD expect changes to be almost instant and total? In many instances, they are the opposite with slow transformations.

To start, CBS is buying out about 25% of its newsroom. All these things take considerable time.
Elon's takeover of Twitter/X, you could see the changes relatively quickly. And so far the public/media perception of the new CBS News is a lot different than it actually is at this point. Per instance, if you see CBS's coverage of ICE, it is not very favorable. They did a favorable story about Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance too.
 
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Yes, that was the phrase . I want to say Thursday and Monday. It was Costa’s newsroom tag to his package.

Okay, I just went through 14 days (January 28 through yesterday) of the CBS Evening News.

On the CBS Weekend News on Sunday, Willie James Inman had a follow-up on the seizure of election records in Atlanta. There was a soundbite from a newsmaker that Trump couldn't admit he lost, but that was not from Inman or any other CBS talent. CBS News Election and Law contributor David Becker said "disinformation was being spread by the president".

On the CBS Weekend News on Saturday, Inman covered the Trump social media post with the heads of the Obamas on the heads of apes. Trump has said the video was about election fraud, but the CBS story on Saturday didn't reference that.

Last Wednesday (2/4), Weijia Jiang covered the seizure of records in Atlanta and used the phrase "President Trump continues to insist the 2020 election was rigged."

Prior to that, the last CBS Evening News piece involving Trump and elections was January 29, the day after the seizure. There was a quote about "no evidence that the 2020 election was rigged", but that was from a newsmaker, not Costa, who did not appear in or adjacent to the story, nor from any other CBS talent.

On January 28, in a live tag regarding the seizure, Scott McFarlane, CBS News' Justice Correspondent, said "Trump continues to make baseless claims about winning Georgia in 2020."

So, none of those were Costa, and none used the phrase "continues to lie", and yes, there is a BIG difference between the phrases used and that one, as "lying" implies willingness to deceive and a knowledge that the facts are other than what you're saying while "baseless claims" and the others don't make a determination of motive, just a statement of fact.
 
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That is different as Russia is a controlled economy with a virtual dictator.
You know that didn't used to be the case. Russia was a functioning democracy with legitimate elections and an independent press. Deeply flawed, yes, but functional -- just like the US.

Then what changed, and what lessons can we learn from them, so we don't repeat their mistakes? I suggest you take some time to consider those questions.
 
Elon's takeover of Twitter/X, you could see the changes relatively quickly.

But X doesn't have in-house salaried union correspondents and news anchors. They are user-generated content. Very different kind of thing.

There may come a day when CBS News is basically a vehicle for YouTube video. But they're not there yet.
 
But X doesn't have in-house salaried union correspondents and news anchors. They are user-generated content. Very different kind of thing.

There may come a day when CBS News is basically a vehicle for YouTube video. But they're not there yet.
Still, by altering people's feeds, he was able to shift a largely left wing platform to a largely right wing one in not long at all. Right now, CBS is still pretty neutral.
 
Still, by altering people's feeds, he was able to shift a largely left wing platform to a largely right wing one in not long at all.

I think a lot of that came from the users themselves, who deserted Twitter in large numbers for other platforms such as BlueSky.

It wasn't as much about politics as it switched from being profitable to being a loser.

I agree that CBS is neutral because nobody wants to kill the golden goose known as 60 Minutes. Evening News is another story.
 
I think a lot of that came from the users themselves, who deserted Twitter in large numbers for other platforms such as BlueSky.

It wasn't as much about politics as it switched from being profitable to being a loser.

I agree that CBS is neutral because nobody wants to kill the golden goose known as 60 Minutes. Evening News is another story.
Even Evening News hasn't really been as right leaning as people make it out to be. If it was, it would clearly take a pro-ICE stance in its stories and would have glossed over what Trump and allies have done more. That really isn't happening like people are assuming.
 
In terms of legality, Abraham J. Simpson's take is (mostly) correct though it is under attack by the religious right as I have defined above. Just because you believe you have a valid and just reason against discriminating another person doesn't mean you have the right to actually put that belief into practice in public spaces (and sometimes in private spaces as well). Though the U.S. Supreme Court has been whittling away at minority rights for some time now (a big decision is coming later this year on the Voting Rights Act), for now, discrimination against minority populations remains (mostly) against U.S. law.

One personal note as we are veering far away from the topic of radio and the media here. As a blind person, I have been discriminated against, including at Loyola Marymount University's college radio station, KXLU, back in the early 1980s. (I've written about that incident elsewhere on this site.) I can tell you from personal experience that discriminating against someone because of who or what they are, especially if it's something that person can't change (like skin color or lack of vision) is *very hurtful to the victims of said discrimination.

Okay. I'll post no more on this.
I've felt like I've needed to say something here, but have been reluctant to do so because it's off-topic and this thread has had difficulty staying on-topic. So I will be brief. I've felt the sting of anti-LGBT+ discrimination in several ways, most subtle. Got beaten up once, too. Things have gotten better over time, but they're still not where they need to be. Moreover, anti-LGBT actions and attitudes have left a legacy of deep distrust. This is especially true with respect to certain religious groups, most of an evangelistic and/or fundamentalist nature. These groups have aligned themselves with the Republican party in hopes of forcing their beliefs onto the general population. That's what is meant by "the religious right". Calling them "conservative" is, in my mind, a misnomer because a true conservative would adopt a laissez-faire philosophy toward personal identity. Instead these groups want to force their identity and their beliefs on everyone else. From this perspective their attacks on transgender people serve as a wedge, to make a start toward reversing hard-won rights and acceptance and instead roll everything back to the way it was in the 1950s. Marriage equality, for example, is something that seems to infuriate these people. I don't know why; my marriage doesn't affect a single damn thing about them. So I do not trust these people. I do not trust their radio stations, either, even if they're mostly playing music. I always suspect what their real agenda is. I suspect they want to enact an official religion, their religion, so that they have power over everyone else. In other words, a theocracy. Look at how they've cozied up to a president whose personal life is, to put it mildly, not something they would normally have embraced. That says a lot right there about their lust for power.

Now we return you to As CBS News Turns ... or maybe The Kind-Of Young and Kind-Of Restless Despite CBS Demographics ... already in progress.
 
I've felt like I've needed to say something here, but have been reluctant to do so because it's off-topic and this thread has had difficulty staying on-topic. So I will be brief. I've felt the sting of anti-LGBT+ discrimination in several ways, most subtle. Got beaten up once, too. Things have gotten better over time, but they're still not where they need to be. Moreover, anti-LGBT actions and attitudes have left a legacy of deep distrust. This is especially true with respect to certain religious groups, most of an evangelistic and/or fundamentalist nature. These groups have aligned themselves with the Republican party in hopes of forcing their beliefs onto the general population. That's what is meant by "the religious right". Calling them "conservative" is, in my mind, a misnomer because a true conservative would adopt a laissez-faire philosophy toward personal identity. Instead these groups want to force their identity and their beliefs on everyone else. From this perspective their attacks on transgender people serve as a wedge, to make a start toward reversing hard-won rights and acceptance and instead roll everything back to the way it was in the 1950s. Marriage equality, for example, is something that seems to infuriate these people. I don't know why; my marriage doesn't affect a single damn thing about them. So I do not trust these people. I do not trust their radio stations, either, even if they're mostly playing music. I always suspect what their real agenda is. I suspect they want to enact an official religion, their religion, so that they have power over everyone else. In other words, a theocracy. Look at how they've cozied up to a president whose personal life is, to put it mildly, not something they would normally have embraced. That says a lot right there about their lust for power.

Now we return you to As CBS News Turns ... or maybe The Kind-Of Young and Kind-Of Restless Despite CBS Demographics ... already in progress.
For the general population outside those people the "LGB" has gained acceptance but there's still bigotry even outside religion towards "T" though I am sure LGB don't have it super easy due to that group's societal influence.
 


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