“A balanced treatment of an unbalanced phenomenon distorts reality.”
--Political Scientists Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein
CBS, the network that produced and nurtured the finest news team in the history of broadcast journalism, has now descended into the muck where sham outfits like Fox News predominate. The hallowed ground previously trod by titans like Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Bill Shirer, Walter Cronkite, Howard K. Smith and Charles Collingwood among other giants of the CBS broadcast news pantheon, is now going to give way to the likes of Mick Mulvaney, one of Donald Trump’s White House chiefs of staff.
Mulvaney was the execrable, loathsome Trump flunkey and “alternative facts” aficionado who lied incessantly for his boss. His greatest hit might have been when he told the press to “get over it” when Trump withheld $400 million in congressionally authorized and vital military assistance to Ukraine during his “perfect” phone call in which he pressured President Zelensky to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his family. That led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Mulvaney is the hack that CBS apparently feels is the best it can do to provide what it perversely perceives as “balance” in its political analysis. The additional rationale provided by the network is that the Republicans will likely wrest control of Congress from the Democrats come November, which will mandate that it have “access” to the dark side. It is actually going to compensate this lying mouthpiece handsomely for his trenchant analyses of the political scene. It’s enough to make one vomit.
Sadly, fairness and balance are no longer relevant now that the Republican Party has abandoned democracy in favor of autocracy. There can be no “bothsidesism” or “whataboutism” in the current existential battle to preserve the rule of law. We are at the point where one party supports our almost two-and-a-half-century old democratic system while the other party wants to overthrow it by any means possible and replace it with a government of autocrats and oligarchs in the image of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Seditionists do not deserve a place at the media table. However, by hiring a wretch like Mulvaney, CBS has decided to facilitate this corrupt design.
The network has fallen a long way from its early days when quality and integrity were its watchwords and it was the standard-setter for great news reporting and opining. Today it has chosen to abandon that lofty legacy and sink into the cesspool heretofore the domain of Fox, Newsmax, OANN, Alex Jones and their disgraceful ilk. It would be no surprise if its next hire were the QAnon Shaman.
Dick Hermann
April 9, 2022
--Political Scientists Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein
CBS, the network that produced and nurtured the finest news team in the history of broadcast journalism, has now descended into the muck where sham outfits like Fox News predominate. The hallowed ground previously trod by titans like Edward R. Murrow, Eric Sevareid, Bill Shirer, Walter Cronkite, Howard K. Smith and Charles Collingwood among other giants of the CBS broadcast news pantheon, is now going to give way to the likes of Mick Mulvaney, one of Donald Trump’s White House chiefs of staff.
Mulvaney was the execrable, loathsome Trump flunkey and “alternative facts” aficionado who lied incessantly for his boss. His greatest hit might have been when he told the press to “get over it” when Trump withheld $400 million in congressionally authorized and vital military assistance to Ukraine during his “perfect” phone call in which he pressured President Zelensky to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his family. That led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Mulvaney is the hack that CBS apparently feels is the best it can do to provide what it perversely perceives as “balance” in its political analysis. The additional rationale provided by the network is that the Republicans will likely wrest control of Congress from the Democrats come November, which will mandate that it have “access” to the dark side. It is actually going to compensate this lying mouthpiece handsomely for his trenchant analyses of the political scene. It’s enough to make one vomit.
Sadly, fairness and balance are no longer relevant now that the Republican Party has abandoned democracy in favor of autocracy. There can be no “bothsidesism” or “whataboutism” in the current existential battle to preserve the rule of law. We are at the point where one party supports our almost two-and-a-half-century old democratic system while the other party wants to overthrow it by any means possible and replace it with a government of autocrats and oligarchs in the image of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Seditionists do not deserve a place at the media table. However, by hiring a wretch like Mulvaney, CBS has decided to facilitate this corrupt design.
The network has fallen a long way from its early days when quality and integrity were its watchwords and it was the standard-setter for great news reporting and opining. Today it has chosen to abandon that lofty legacy and sink into the cesspool heretofore the domain of Fox, Newsmax, OANN, Alex Jones and their disgraceful ilk. It would be no surprise if its next hire were the QAnon Shaman.
Dick Hermann
April 9, 2022
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