Fucker looks right out of central casting. "Needed: someone to play intelligent moderator at a CES panel on global market cap for Intelligent tracking devices. Must have some gray, at least one pair of Tom Ford Fausto glasses, and has firm grasp of rudiments of tech panel moderator gestures: the crossed leg position, the inverted hand 'I'm making this interesting point now' move, the 'I'm parsing I'm parsing, but yes I agree and also want to kiss you' slightly pursed lips, and socks that are colorful, don't match either each other or your Ferragamo slacks."
As Jimi Hendrix is credited with saying, "It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play." Any good corporate "news" person knows exactly what not to say, mainly any truth inconvenient for those up the chain of command and ownership. Their training is so complete they don't even think thoughts that would upset the power structure. It's Hendrix in reverse, the notes they play are the wrong ones, and you will never hear them produce anything else.
"Rather than being transformed into a sophisticated right wing propaganda operation, it is more likely that CBS News is just made dumb and pointless."
Precisely, and that's what many commentators fail to realize. CBS News won't become another Fox News (MAGA voters won't switch networks). It will simply descend into bland irrelevance. Ellison has made a shrewd calculation that Trump -- if he survives the next 3 years -- will be content with the downfall of his critics and leave CBS alone. Maybe he'll even hype the network and buy some CBS shares. And the only downsides will be the destruction of a proud institution and the continuing malaise of investigative journalism. For Ellison, that cost is hardly worth mentioning...
I loved CBS (!). I’m of a generation who reveres this medium. My teenage daughter watches YouTube, the un-natural, ad breaks, is not how I was raised. I remember water-cooler moments and news coverage that everyone saw.
Like so much of techno-capitalism, the ensh**tification cycle hit my favourite TV network. I’d rather watch Downton Abbey reruns, than anything BW serves up.
Apparently lots of people, who think like me, feel the same way. Ratings for all CBS News programming are plummeting. They even talk about it in the NY Post. On something we agree.
People who don’t understand history will repeat it. The same lesson with the same outcome. Pissing off the people who still use your product to court people who NEVER will, fails twice as fast.
Thank you for your service and ever demonstrating worthy and courageous leadership.
I became a journalist in part because of 60 Minutes in the ‘70s. I didn’t want to do TV — hair and makeup were never a big priority for me lol. But watching the 60 Minutes guys (in those days, it was all guys) expose corruption and wrongdoing inspired me to want to do the same.
Watergate got me going. Face for radio until radio died. 36 years in TV, 98% hard news: Cops, killers, trials, corrupt politicians, hurricanes. Murrow, Cronkite, Wallace were gods. So tragic to see CBS burned down by this confederacy of crooks.
I should have been a journalist. My overdeveloped bullshit detector has been inhibitive throughout my work life. At least I could have done something productive with it.
A précis on how to spot weasel words in what lamely passes for journalism today. Today, truth is not on offer -- it has been drowned by disinformation and suffocated by spin. Murrow on journalism: "American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful."
Thank you for the link and confirming that Nick was THAT Nick — just a truly insipid columnist from back in the day. 60 Minutes is a ratings juggernaut with an NFL lead-in, will be fascinating to see if the cratering of ratings and decrease in ad buys outweigh the corporate mission at some point.
The shade is delicious although the topic is tragic. I would rather watch reruns of 60 Minutes from the 1980s than anything Bari Weiss and the new guy will be serving up. It must be so grim for those still on the payroll there (unless they have other options).
"I do not want to caricature him unfairly, but he has always been slotted in my mind in the category of “People who are successful because they put a lot of effort into having fashionable eyewear.”
You are entirely unserious. Have you any of Bilton's of his books?
He is the epitome of no bullshit. Maybe he has been a little too long away from living in NYC, but your diatribe reads mostly like some wishful op-ed that you are the smartest guy in the room.
"... this industry is one of low pay, little prestige, and high instability. The only benefit to being a journalist is that you get to call bullshit on powerful people. If you’re not interested in that, do something else!"
As one who lived this life for more than four decades, I concur with every fiber of my being.
"The ideal leader of a hard-hitting investigative journalism operation is someone who is smart, driven, and virtually unemployable in any other context due to their pathological hatred of the corporate niceties used to obscure the lies of the rich and powerful.": Hmm ... you raise an interesting point. In my life, I've largely avoided having a "real job", and I've sometimes remarked that it's because I'm allergic to bullshit, as organizations with more than a handful of people tend to be suffused with it. I hadn't considered the possibility of becoming an investigative journalist; maybe I should have! Then again, I note that "hard-hitting investigative journalism operations" are an acutely endangered species.
Fucker looks right out of central casting. "Needed: someone to play intelligent moderator at a CES panel on global market cap for Intelligent tracking devices. Must have some gray, at least one pair of Tom Ford Fausto glasses, and has firm grasp of rudiments of tech panel moderator gestures: the crossed leg position, the inverted hand 'I'm making this interesting point now' move, the 'I'm parsing I'm parsing, but yes I agree and also want to kiss you' slightly pursed lips, and socks that are colorful, don't match either each other or your Ferragamo slacks."
As Jimi Hendrix is credited with saying, "It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play." Any good corporate "news" person knows exactly what not to say, mainly any truth inconvenient for those up the chain of command and ownership. Their training is so complete they don't even think thoughts that would upset the power structure. It's Hendrix in reverse, the notes they play are the wrong ones, and you will never hear them produce anything else.
Nailed it!
Just an incredible article on the man with stubble
That extremely subtle Michael Barbaro drive-by was beautiful.
As someone who finds Michael Barbaro intolerable, I came to comment the same.
"Rather than being transformed into a sophisticated right wing propaganda operation, it is more likely that CBS News is just made dumb and pointless."
Precisely, and that's what many commentators fail to realize. CBS News won't become another Fox News (MAGA voters won't switch networks). It will simply descend into bland irrelevance. Ellison has made a shrewd calculation that Trump -- if he survives the next 3 years -- will be content with the downfall of his critics and leave CBS alone. Maybe he'll even hype the network and buy some CBS shares. And the only downsides will be the destruction of a proud institution and the continuing malaise of investigative journalism. For Ellison, that cost is hardly worth mentioning...
Especially since he is one of the comfortable and is so caught up in Trump's corruption that any real expose of the former would nail him too.
I loved CBS (!). I’m of a generation who reveres this medium. My teenage daughter watches YouTube, the un-natural, ad breaks, is not how I was raised. I remember water-cooler moments and news coverage that everyone saw.
Like so much of techno-capitalism, the ensh**tification cycle hit my favourite TV network. I’d rather watch Downton Abbey reruns, than anything BW serves up.
Apparently lots of people, who think like me, feel the same way. Ratings for all CBS News programming are plummeting. They even talk about it in the NY Post. On something we agree.
People who don’t understand history will repeat it. The same lesson with the same outcome. Pissing off the people who still use your product to court people who NEVER will, fails twice as fast.
Thank you for your service and ever demonstrating worthy and courageous leadership.
I became a journalist in part because of 60 Minutes in the ‘70s. I didn’t want to do TV — hair and makeup were never a big priority for me lol. But watching the 60 Minutes guys (in those days, it was all guys) expose corruption and wrongdoing inspired me to want to do the same.
Watergate got me going. Face for radio until radio died. 36 years in TV, 98% hard news: Cops, killers, trials, corrupt politicians, hurricanes. Murrow, Cronkite, Wallace were gods. So tragic to see CBS burned down by this confederacy of crooks.
I should have been a journalist. My overdeveloped bullshit detector has been inhibitive throughout my work life. At least I could have done something productive with it.
Never too late.
You may be surprised how many editors and (more) publishers would intend to inhibit you, regrettably.
I would not be surprised at all. I expect it at every turn these days.
“carefully groomed stubble”🤌🏼
A précis on how to spot weasel words in what lamely passes for journalism today. Today, truth is not on offer -- it has been drowned by disinformation and suffocated by spin. Murrow on journalism: "American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful."
Thank you for the link and confirming that Nick was THAT Nick — just a truly insipid columnist from back in the day. 60 Minutes is a ratings juggernaut with an NFL lead-in, will be fascinating to see if the cratering of ratings and decrease in ad buys outweigh the corporate mission at some point.
The shade is delicious although the topic is tragic. I would rather watch reruns of 60 Minutes from the 1980s than anything Bari Weiss and the new guy will be serving up. It must be so grim for those still on the payroll there (unless they have other options).
"I do not want to caricature him unfairly, but he has always been slotted in my mind in the category of “People who are successful because they put a lot of effort into having fashionable eyewear.”
You are entirely unserious. Have you any of Bilton's of his books?
He is the epitome of no bullshit. Maybe he has been a little too long away from living in NYC, but your diatribe reads mostly like some wishful op-ed that you are the smartest guy in the room.
You are a master at both calling bullshit and wry writing.
"... this industry is one of low pay, little prestige, and high instability. The only benefit to being a journalist is that you get to call bullshit on powerful people. If you’re not interested in that, do something else!"
As one who lived this life for more than four decades, I concur with every fiber of my being.
"The ideal leader of a hard-hitting investigative journalism operation is someone who is smart, driven, and virtually unemployable in any other context due to their pathological hatred of the corporate niceties used to obscure the lies of the rich and powerful.": Hmm ... you raise an interesting point. In my life, I've largely avoided having a "real job", and I've sometimes remarked that it's because I'm allergic to bullshit, as organizations with more than a handful of people tend to be suffused with it. I hadn't considered the possibility of becoming an investigative journalist; maybe I should have! Then again, I note that "hard-hitting investigative journalism operations" are an acutely endangered species.