Change is Coming for CBS News and the Mainstream Media

 Today Paramount Skydance, the parent of CBS News, announced the acquisition of The Free Press (https://www.thefp.com ) for $150 million in cash and stock, a hefty price for a news organization that has 1.5 million subscribers, but only 175,000 pay. With the acquisition comes Bari Weiss, an outspoken journalist, with a large following. In four short years The Free Press has gathered a stable of writers that include Nellie Bowles* (Weiss' spouse), Jed Rubenfeld, Tyler Cowan, Niall Ferguson, Jonathan Haidt, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Charles Lane, among others. 

Weiss will become CBS News' editor-in-chief and will directly report to Paramount CEO David Ellison. Weiss' strong positions against wokeness in the newsroom and her support for Israel will bring a breath of fresh air to stultifying  leftwing conformism of CBS. Her goal will be to broadcast news for the broad middle of the American public, namely the center-left and the center-right. "60 Minutes" and the evening news will soon look quite a bit different. 

If she succeeds it would help breakdown the algorithmic programming of social media that is designed to split the country apart in rage. It would also be a wake up call for NBC and CBS as well as the hoity toity New York Times from where Weiss was forced out by a woke ruled newsroom in 2020.

It is said that living well is the best revenge. With the takeover of The Free Press, founders Weiss, Nellie Bowles and sister Suzy Weiss are now quite rich. Dare I say it, Weiss is now richer than anyone in the New York Times newsroom. Needless to say, this will not go unnoticed.

As a paid subscriber to The Free Press, I can only wish Bari the best.

 *- Just to note I was banned from publishing book reviews on Amazon over Nellie Bowles' book. (See: https://shulmaven.blogspot.com/2024/06/my-amazon-review-of-nellie-bowles.html )

There is a Method to Trump's Madness

 This week the politico/media world is abuzz with the suspension of late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel over blame shifting comments on the Charlie Kirk assassination. The suspension by ABC/Disney was exacerbated by FCC Brendan Carr’s mafia like threats to suspend the broadcast licenses of its affiliate stations. This time the pearl clutchers on the Left are legitimately concerned about the very real threat to free speech that Carr represents.

 

But there is more here than meets the eye. The move on Kimmel is part and parcel of Trump’s plan to attack the power centers and funding sources of the Left. Think about it; Trump Administration has moved against high level government bureaucrats with DOGE, NGO’s funded by A.I.D., elite universities, Big Law, alternative energy by removing its tax credits, and now the media. The Trumpistas understand that politics are downstream of culture and so it should not surprise anyone that the media is in their crosshairs.

 

Indeed, a sea change in late-night television is now underway. With Stephen Colbert soon to be gone and Kimmel apparently on the way out, late-night television will no longer be a monopoly of the Left where it functioned as both a cheer leader and a therapist for those who tuned in. Further with the Skydance takeover of Paramount, CBS News will no longer exhibit its Left bias and if Paramount moves to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN will move in the same direction. As Bobby Dylan said, “the times, they are a changing.”  All you have to do is look at Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center.

 

With respect to funding, look at how hard Trump has hit the big funders of Democratic and leftwing causes. As stated above, look at the contributors from Big Law, government employees, academia, nonprofit organizations, the media, Hollywood, and the alternative energy producers. The next obvious step will be for Trump to use the IRS to intimidate tax exempt organizations that flow big bucks into the Democratic Party and progressive groups.  

 

Historically Silicon Valley has been a huge source of funds for the Democrats, but no more. Just watch the leaders of Big Tech suck up to Trump.

 

As a result, step-by-step the Trumpistas are seizing the organs of power that made the Democratic Party a viable, and many times, dominant political force. Trump is rapidly accumulating power, and the Democrats are cuddling up to the Socialist wing of the party that will bring with it electoral disaster. And it is my guess, that is part of Trump’s plan.

The State of the Presidential Race

 Over the past two months the Democrats have risen from their severely depressed state of being in mourning over Joe Biden to an exalted manic state hailing Vice President Kamala Harris as their new savior. Last week’s very successful convention cemented Harris’ leadership in the party, and she is now a small favorite to win the election in November.  However, I would caution that the current manic phase can quickly turn once again to a depressive state.

 

The most important thing that happened at the convention was what did not happen. As many feared, including myself, the convention did not turn out to be a rerun of 1968. It went off flawlessly and Harris came out of the convention as a forward-looking optimist as opposed to Donald Trump’s backward-looking pessimism. Indeed, somehow the sitting vice president became the candidate of change and Donald Trump became the de facto incumbent. As I wrote in July, this will be the year of the anti-incumbent and if Harris can maintain her image as challenger she will win. ( See: Shulmaven: Incumbents Beware )

 

Further buttressing her position is that the propaganda organs  of the state (ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, Facebook, and TikTok)  gushed over her acceptance speech. (See: Shulmaven: America's Party Line )  So craven have the mass media been is that their unqualified support for Harris has yet to pass the test of a single interview. In fact, Time magazine did a hagiographic cover story on her without an interview, truly unprecedented.

 

Meantime Harris’ economic proposals have drawn criticism from even normally left-of-center quarters. Her proposals for price caps on groceries, rent control and a $25,000 tax credit for new home buyers make little sense. Of course, Trump’s proposals calling for mass deportations, tariffs on all imports and executive branch control over the Federal Reserve are zanier than what Harris has proposed.

 

The critical tests for Harris will come when she actually has to do real interviews and the September 10^th debate with Trump where she is the presumptive favorite. If Harris is to maintain the mantle of change, she will have to successfully answer the following question: On, what policies do you differ with President Biden? My guess is that she will be hard pressed to answer that question which will leave a big opening for Trump.

My Amazon Review of James Stewart's and Rachel Abrams' "Unscripted: The Epic Battle......"

Sex, Lies and a Boardroom Battle

 

James Stewart and Rachel Abrams have really written two books. The first is about the sexual proclivities of the media mogul and Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone and the second one is about the boardroom battle for the control of CBS which also involves the sexual proclivities of its CEO Leslie Moonves.

 

Sumner Redstone, a self-made billionaire, who in his 80’s has two live in paramours who try to take him for all he has got. The two paramours Sidney Holland and Manuela Herzer end up with over $150 million and almost succeeded in taking over his entire estate. They ultimately fail because Redstone’s estranged daughter Shari prevails in a legal fight to gain control over her father’s estate. The Redstone family seems to have put the “dys” into its dysfunctionality.

 

The second part of the book deals with Shari Redstone gaining control over CBS in an epic battle with Les Moonves. There are quite a few of boardroom machinations, but Moonves falls victim to the investigative reporting of the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow. Moonves’ very aggressive behavior towards too many women finally caught up to him in the growing #MeToo climate. What is striking is that the CBS board was very nonchalant in dealing with all of the accusations facing Moonves. If Moonves didn’t mislead his board and its attorneys from the start, he just might have survived. Further all of the incidents discussed occurred prior to his becoming CEO of CBS. All of this corporate dysfunction is going on when CBS and Viacom should have been focusing on the competitive threat coming from streaming.

 

It is obvious that Shari Redstone talked the writers into adopting her view as to all that happened with her father and CBS. My guess is that her version of the events described are not quite accurate and she might be far from the aggrieved daughter depicted in the book.

 

Nevertheless, despite overdoing their view of “white male privilege” when they are really talking about the privileges of the very rich and powerful, Stewart and Abrams have brought us a behind the scenes of view of what can happen in the upper echelons of the media business.

For the full Amazon URL see: Sex, Lies and a Boardroom Battle (amazon.com)

From Murrow's Boys to Oppenheim's Girls

At the start of World War II in Europe Edward R. Murrow, the legendary CBS news chief operating out of London, put together a team of radio broadcasters that would bring the realities of the war in Europe into millions of American homes. His team included such luminaries who would build CBS news into a television powerhouse in the postwar era included William L. Shirer, Eric Severeid, Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith and Richard C. Hottelet.

The modern day analogue to Murrow's Boys appears to be what I would characterize as Oppenheims's Girls. Oppenheim being Noah Oppenheim, NBC's current news chief. His "girls" are anchor/correspondent Katy Tur, chief White House correspondent Hallie Jackson, and political correspondents Kasie Hunt and Kristen Welker. These four women acting as a team are covering Washington and the Trump Administration as if it were a foreign country and just as Murrow's boys did 77 years ago they are bringing insightful reporting into the homes of millions of Americans.  

Nevertheless there is one problem that this all-star team has to deal with; they are associated with highly partisan Left that appear nightly on MSNBC at night thereby hurting their credibility. So my advice to Noah Oppenheim is not to let the partisans get in the way of straight news.