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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCBS is unraveling -- and it goes beyond Bari Weiss
( Salon). In the span of months, one of Americas most storied broadcast institutions has managed to alienate its most recognizable late-night host and lose one of its most respected journalists, all while inviting scrutiny over whether it is voluntarily bending the knee to political pressure from the Trump administration. The optics are catastrophic.
CBS looks to have made a strategic blunder when it announced plans last year to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert but decided to keep host Stephen Colbert on air until May 2026. The decision created a lame-duck host with a nightly platform and a growing sense of grievance. On Monday, Colbert told his studio audience that CBS lawyers had called his show in no uncertain terms to block an interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico. According to Colbert, the network didnt just want to censor the content it wanted to censor the censorship itself, informing him that he couldnt even mention that hed been prohibited from airing it.
Because my network clearly doesnt want us to talk about this, he told his audience, lets talk about this. He ultimately posted the interview to YouTube, where it has since drawn more than 5.2 million views far more than it ever would have attracted as a routine late-night segment. (CBS said it had not prohibited Talaricos interview from running but admitted it had provided legal guidance and given Colberts team options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled.)
Its amazing how long weve known about the Streisand effect, the phenomenon where an attempt to censor or suppress information ends up drawing more attention to it, yet institutions still cant resist stepping on the rake. CBS handed the shovel to the very man they were trying to bury, and he dug himself out. Colbert knows he has nothing to lose now. Its worth noting that his public criticism of CBS parent company Paramount Skydances $16 million to settle Donald Trumps lawsuit over a 2024 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris a lawsuit that legal scholars widely regarded as meritless is widely believed to be the real reason CBS canceled The Late Show. ...........(more)
https://www.salon.com/2026/02/18/cbs-is-unraveling-and-it-goes-beyond-bari-weiss/
WSHazel
(664 posts)Who would have thought that putting a Nepo baby in charge of a major entertainment enterprise would turn into a train wreck? Even Fox had enough sense to keep the news and entertainment businesses separate. Paramount is going to have a really hard time getting anyone to bring their shows to that network. They will likely have to overpay compered to other networks.
PCIntern
(28,129 posts)The entertainment division undermines traditional values: Family Guy, Simpsons , Married with children, the X-Files
The news division then rails against undermining American culture and values
The entertainment division then parodies the news division and makes fools of them.
And on and on.
UTUSN
(77,377 posts)yardwork
(69,136 posts)Clever business model. Evil, but clever.
PCIntern
(28,129 posts)NJCher
(42,852 posts)When you have to pay out $787.5 million in fines, it wipes out a good deal of profit.
Not so clever.
progressoid
(52,889 posts)mdbl
(8,368 posts)They will just go down the drain. If Paramount Skydance had any brains, it would divest itself of CBS before it becomes a dead relic.
spooky3
(38,447 posts)In lawsuits.
bucolic_frolic
(54,616 posts)are like a corporate form of CIA.
Picaro
(2,365 posts)bucolic_frolic
(54,616 posts)Thanks.
LR3
(158 posts)The point being, these are not "strategic blunders" or "stepping on rakes"...it's carrying out WHAT BARI WEISS WAS HIRED TO DO, i.e., destroy CBS as a credible news source.
The Ellison's don't give a shit about CBS news; rather, they are simply using its destruction as a tool to curry Trump's favor and get rulings that benefit them, i.e., Warner Brothers and other future moves they want to make, all in the correct belief that licking Trump's orange ass will clear the way for them to do whatever the fuck they want to do.
Errors my ass...I have no idea if Weiss actually believes herself to be a genius or whether she knows she is a very well paid tool of destruction for billionaires, but either way she is accomplishing exactly what her owners want.
They don't care about the rep of their News dept. The want to make money on properties and support Trump. All else is meaningless to them.
BidenRocks
(3,014 posts)Warner Bros. not Brothers.
Catches my eye ever since.
I agree with your points!
LR3
(158 posts)Technically Warner Bros Discovery
multigraincracker
(37,249 posts)History will not be kind to these people
gerryatwork
(98 posts)The US is fortunate enough to have history
maxsolomon
(38,461 posts)I won't be around when History renders its judgment.
multigraincracker
(37,249 posts)LiberalArkie
(19,554 posts)Initech
(108,186 posts)Last edited Wed Feb 18, 2026, 11:50 AM - Edit history (1)
It came crashing down in a minute because half of this country is so brainwashed by propaganda that they actually wanted the deranged sick fuck back in charge when he did nothing to deserve it. And now their reputation has been completely destroyed because they have to cater to every demand of the fucking asshole or the fucking asshole will pull their broadcasting license, because he is a sick, sadistic piece of shit.
Everything Trump touches.
hay rick
(9,498 posts)They don't care. They sat on the porch with cocktails and turned the accident into a home movie.
Initech
(108,186 posts)Hey MAGA - it's not the immigrants who are destroying America, it's the billionaires!
UTUSN
(77,377 posts)WEISS to the curb." After that it has crossed my mind that perhaps she had targeted him and that leaving was cover. But it's just a pop-up in the mind, an unsubstantiated imputation of cynicism. After all, he had already turned down her offer to anchor, which might be a burr under that saddle. Good for him.
kimbutgar
(27,049 posts)Initech
(108,186 posts)If genocidal maniac Mohammed Bin Salmon gets his hands on our media, it's game over. He will be able to control a large majority of all the content we see, hear, and consume. It will be the end of the free press as we know it.
Fuck the Saudi oligarchs.
OGBuzz
(133 posts)Fiendish Thingy
(22,568 posts)poli-junkie
(1,528 posts)Bozos Washington Post. He doesnt care its fallen as long as he gets those government contracts for his Blue Horizon.
Ritabert
(2,203 posts)The only thing I'll miss is "Jeopardy".
dem4decades
(13,906 posts)watch the local CBS news anymore, they get fed CBS shit stories to air. I'll watch Jane Pauley on Sunday because I know she'll quit if they ask her to kiss Trump's ring.
Ritabert
(2,203 posts)DownriverDem
(6,999 posts)CBS is dead. Walter Cronkite is spinning in his grave.
Ritabert
(2,203 posts)BidenRocks
(3,014 posts)It sure sounds good until you find out that Tiffany is associated with CBS from the 1950s when CBS was selling televisions from their high end stores.
Thus the Tiffany Network.
This was built on the PERCEIVED excellence of the network.
Memories of Murrow from the War were still strong and then comes Walter Cronkite.
Nobody ever questioned why it was The Tiffany Network.
Doesn't seem so special anymore, does it?
Tiffany no longer sells televisions and CBS no longer has any credibility.