CBS News — the once storied “Tiffany Network” built by titans like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace — is succumbing to a strange vision that has woken up completely. It's a modern media institution.
That was proven by the leak of the audiotape that CBS's fake news executives foolishly accused. Real genuine journalists doing their job.
“CBS Morning” anchor Tony Dokoupil is in trouble for pressuring one-sided anti-Israel polemic author Ta-Nehisi Coates about his distorted and historically inaccurate views on the Middle East conflict. I got caught up in it.
This is how a figure like Coates – who still questions Israel's right to defend itself on the first anniversary of the October 7, 2023 massacre – is a challenging figure in modern journalism. This is another example showing that.
What's less public is how these oddities affect CBS' future as a continuing business, and most importantly, how David, the movie producer of “Top Gun: Maverick” fame, – What impact does this have on the pending sale of Ellison's independent studio to Skydance?
David's father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is providing much of the funding for this deal, but from what I can gather, he doesn't seem too happy about the acquisition.
For those who don't know about Rally, here's an introductory guide. He is one of the richest people in the world, one of the most pro-Israel executives in corporate America, and a close friend of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
Let's just say that I know for a fact that Skydance and the Ellisons read newspapers (especially the Post).
For now, they can't do anything about what's happening at CBS. The $28 billion deal to buy the network's parent company, Paramount, from the controlling Redstone family won't close until sometime in the spring.
But it won't be long before they are powerless. “They're thinking of blowing up this place,” a person who knows all of CBS' new owners' players told me.
No one knows exactly what it means to “blow up the place.” Will this result in the firing of CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon and reporting director Adrian Roark, both of whom were leading internal attacks on Dokoupil?
More than condemnation?
Is it the creation of a new ethics department without the DEI insanity? One of the reasons they chose to throw their cars under the bus, many believe, is because Coates is black. Because, in the DEI world, that means he is above reproach.
As I reported last week, the Anti-Defamation League and its director, Jonathan Greenblatt, said that Mr. Dokoupil, who is Jewish, was just doing his job and that he was being held to an absurd double standard. I complained to Mr. McMahon.
The guys at Skydance declined to comment because they don't yet officially own the network (a CBS press representative did not return an email seeking comment), but Skydance said it would reduce the value of its investment. These things are not ignored because you are watching. With the awakened mind virus and the controversy it has caused, the whole mess continues to be in the news, and not in a good way.
CBS' nominal owner Shari Redstone, daughter of the late media mogul Sumner Redstone and architect of the media conglomerate, is also on board. Shari said McMahon & Co. “made a mistake here” in criticizing Dokoupil.
Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks then added to the heat by defending network executives in a memo that appeared to be written by leftists in the DEI department.
The good news is that the Ellisons and their partners at media-focused investment firm Redbird Capital are said to be unanimous that CBS's “woke show” must end, they say. We heard from a person familiar with the idea.
They are aware of another looming controversy that threatens their investment: whether the respected CBS news magazine “60 Minutes'' favorably edited an interview with Kamala Harris.
Yes, the woke suits at CBS are playing with fire and doing their jobs for a variety of reasons, including simple math.
I've read Paramount's balance sheet, and it doesn't reveal how much money the news division makes (or loses) on its own.
Departments are expensive in that respect. It costs money to carry out large-scale reporting operations. In the era of cord cutting, the cost of Wake programming is even higher.
As I point out in my new book, “Get up and break down.” Inside the Radicalization of American Corporations, the companies that continue to move forward are increasingly being crushed by consumers.
That's why Wall Street sources familiar with Ellison and Redbird say the news division could be sold at some point.
They're more interested in monetizing sports programs like CBS' decidedly less political football coverage.
But in the meantime, David Ellison and Pop's Larry want CBS News to return to its roots, people close to them told me.
They don't believe there's a market for woke programming, given the crowded market occupied by the likes of MSNBC. “For CBS to survive, it has to go back to lower-middle programming,” said a person familiar with Skydance's thinking.
And they tell me, if I need to blow up the place, so be it.
