The Media Research Center continued to have issues with non-right-wingers defending “60 Minutes,” as summarized in a May 31 post by Nicholas Spinnato:
On Thursday, after the announced broad changes to CBS’s 60 Minutes, MS NOW’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle decried the changes to the broadcast network’s premiere Sunday night news show, as political contributor Jason Johnson called the changes part of a “State Capture of CBS” and Ruhle asked, “What does this mean for our democracy?”
Ruhle introduced the segment with basic details, as she described Bari Weiss as “the controversial editor-in-chief.” She had a brief eulogy on the fired Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, noting Alfonsi’s “abruptly” pulled report on El Salvador mega prisons.
[…]Johnson first made reference to how long-form news was on the decline due to the prevalence of short-form content. He then called the changes to 60 Minutes “damaging,” and acted as if the program had been pulled from the air by CBS and Weiss, which it was not:
But Weiss did, in fact, pull the segment on the CECOT prison abruptly before its original scheduled airing in December. The fact that Weiss relented and allowed the segment to air a month later without any notable changes does not change that she shelved the segment in the first place.
Spinnato went on to complain:
Ruhle then, after she read a provocative statement from Vega, said, “Cecilia Vega is not a provocateur. She is not a firebrand. We have never, ever heard anything like this from this woman.”
There has been many examples of Vega’s bias and provocativeness documented here at NewsBusters, including her comments calling Trump’s messaging “as dark as it has been” about immigrants during 2024 election night coverage.
Spinnato offered no evidence that Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric was, in fact, dark. He then pushed his employer’s new talking point, that CBS really isn’t as right-wing as critics claim it is:
The part never mentioned in all the reports about CBS and Weiss that worry about the “state capture” or the future of democracy was how much of their news has remained biased, like a recent story from CBS Sunday Morning that was mesmerized by Iranian A.I. LEGO propaganda
As much as Ruhle and Johnson worry about “democracy” amid CBS changes, it is most definitely not right-wing MAGA CBS as some liberals allege.
If CBS wasn’t right-wing, then Curtis Houck wouldn’t be so aggressively defending and gushing over Weiss-installed CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil.
As if to hammer home that point, Geoffrey Dickens served up a June 9 compilation of the supposed “worst” of “60 Minutes”:
Ever since his firing from 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley has been on a personal press tour, bellyaching about CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss wrecking – in his belief – one of the last bastions of truth in the news media.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Of course Dickens would feel that way — like every other MRC employee, he thinks every right-wing narrative is the truth, and he gets offended when others point out their falsehoods. Indeed, Curtis Houck whined that the Weiss-spearheaded changes to “60 Minutes” were being taken well in a June 11 post:
The sanctimonious behavior continued to spew from the hallways of CBS News this week as longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl told Puck on Sunday the past few weeks have been “awful,” “the hardest chapter of my career,” and “by far the worst experience I’ve been involved in, or even witnessed.”
She also supposedly, as per the creeps at Status, “convened a champagne toast on Monday for” 60 Minutes staff to celebrate her decision to stay and that, as first reported by fellow anti-CBS-obsessed Guardian reporter Jeremy Barr, Paramount Skydance boss David Ellison “called her and pledged that the show would be independent and also apologized for some of the recent turmoil and said things would get back on the right track.”
Just like with former colleague Scott Pelley comparing the turnover to a spouse and immediate family being “murdered” in one swoop, Stahl showed how dense and pampered her multi-million dollar ego is and a remarkably offensive world view compared to those who have actually lost everything.
The fact that Houck considers Status to be “creeps” hasn’t kept him from whining loudly when they threaten to cancel his Status subscription, presumably for his history of having meltdowns over Oliver Darcy and crew.