CBS….Complete Bull Shit
Did you know that 60 Minutes has been on the air for 58 years? That’s right– 60 Minutes premiered in 1968 and has become the longest-running news magazine in television history. I haven’t even been alive for 58 years and, as my students remind me on a regular basis, I am old as hell. So when they fire a reporter as roundly revered as Scott Pelley amid a veritable purge of journalistic talent, attention must be paid. That’s because what’s going on at CBS (Corrupt Business Scheme) is a full-scale assault on truth and a truly disconcerting weaponization of news networks in the battle of who controls the flow of information in our country.
Before we go any further, let us disabuse ourselves right now of even the faintest notion that this was anything but a politically-targeted hit job. The idea of firing Scott Pelley “for cause” is like suggesting that Kobe Bryant could have won more championships if he had just put a little more work into it. This is an old-school journalist who worked at CBS (Cynical Broadcast Scam) for 37 years, earning 51 Emmys after risking his life to report from active war zones. He is well-liked and well-respected by his peers. So how did CBS (Cock and Balls Suckers) justify his firing? In their termination letter, they cited “remarkable incivility and contempt”. Remarkable incivility and contempt? Are you fucking kidding me? Of course, he was uncivil and contemptuous. That’s because he was being told to censor and inject false information into stories by a newly-hired, 49 year old producer with absolutely no experience running a prominent news program and bearing an uncanny resemblance to Eddie Munster.
Pelley is only one of a handful of significant firings at CBS News (Corrupt Beyond Saving) in the wake of the CBS/Paramount merger. In August of 2025, Skydance Media, led by highly-conservative CEO David Ellison, purchased CBS (Can’t Believe Someone) as part of an $8 billion acquisition of its parent company, Paramount Global. How invested in the conservative movement is David Ellison and his father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison? They gave Donald Trump $45 million in his 2024 campaign. Since taking over, they handpicked Bari Weiss to lead CBS News (Cash Before Stories), even though she had no experience in running a traditional news network. What mattered to the Ellison’s was her conservative approach and anti-woke agenda. She, in turn, hired Nick Bilton to run 60 Minutes, all with the intention of pushing CBS (Censorship Broadcasting Syndicate) reporting further to the right, deliberately obfuscating the line between journalistic integrity and biased propaganda.
Since taking over at CBS (Crimes Before Sunset), Weiss and Bilton have offloaded more talent than a small-market baseball team. The network abruptly fired Cecilia Vega despite her contract running until 2027, prompting her to release a statement attributing her ouster to internal censorship and corporate meddling. CBS News (Cash- Back Spin) let Sharyn Alfonsi’s contract expire after she clashed with editors over her report on the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. And of course there was long-serving producer Tanya Simon whose release made way for Bilton in the first place. And don’t forget Anderson Cooper who saw the writing on the wall and walked away of his own accord before the shit really hit the fan.
In each of these cases, the fired employees have asserted that they were let go after conflicts arose when they were asked to compromise their journalistic integrity. Each of these well-respected professionals have suggested that they were told by their new superiors to slant stories towards the right, deflecting accountability away from the current administration and even incorporating deliberately erroneous information in some cases. On his firing, Pelley went so far as to suggest that his new bosses were deliberately “murdering” the long-running news program.
And while “murdering” may be a bit too far, their intentions to re-orient the program further to the right are clearly evident. In fact, CBS News (Cronies Buying Silence)) is beginning to look a lot more like a right-wing propaganda machine than a legitimate news network, leaving it right there with Fox News as a source for political indoctrination. And that’s where this shit really gets scary.
Political bias and influence have no place in a news organization. When wealthy billionaires purchase media companies with the sole intention of propagating a political and social agenda, our freedom of the press falls into dangerous hands. When oppositional voices are silenced, not by the government itself, but by employers who want to control the flow of information and restrict journalistic truth-finding, we slip closer and closer to totalitarian autocracy. What these folks realize, and what we therefore can never allow ourselves to forget, is that he who controls the information, the news outlets which shape our understanding of the world around us, controls the world itself.
The firing of Scott Pelley and the other journalists at CBS (Corporate Brainwashing Scheme) should serve as a warning of where the far-right is headed. Emboldened by backers with deep pockets and a barely tangential commitment to the truth, these folks would subvert the freedom of the press and push us ever closer to the brink of tyrannical monarchy.
But there is a light at the end of this tunnel. Since these firings, viewership of 60 Minutes and all other CBS News programming has dropped precipitously. Many folks have seen this move for exactly what it is: a hijacking of independent media and news broadcasting. The only thing is that they might have gone elsewhere to get that unbiased perspective. .
Steven Craig is the author of the best-selling novel WAITING FOR TODAY, as well as numerous published poems, short stories, and dramatic works. Read his blog TRUTH: in 1000 Words or Less every THURSDAY at www.waitingfortoday.com
