Is There A Bigger Problem At CBS News?

[babylonsister]

Is There A Bigger Problem At CBS News?
Debunked Obamacare, Disability and Benghazi Reports Raise Doubts
Blog ››› November 15, 2013 10:43 AM EST ››› ERIC BOEHLERT



Addressing the falling standards at CBS News and its hallmark Sunday night news magazine program, Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hilzik recently lamented how 60 Minutes "used to stand for rigorous, honest reporting. What's happened to it?" Hiltzik accused 60 Minutes of practicing a "ghastly" brand of journalism.

snip//

So why in early October, prior to the Benghazi fiasco, was Hiltzik bemoaning the appalling journalism sponsored by 60 Minutes? The columnist took aim at an October 6, scare report the CBS program aired, alleging widespread fraud within the Social Security disability program. ("A secret welfare system.&quot Told from the perspective of a crusading Republican lawmaker, Media Matters noted at the time the CBS report relied almost entirely on anecdotal evidence to dishonestly portray the social welfare program as wasteful, despite the fact that award rates fell during the recession and that fraud is less than one percent of the program.

After watching the report, Hiltzik denounced CBS correspondent Steve Kroft's "rank ignorance about the disability program: how it works, who the beneficiaries are, why it has grown." The columnist was hardly alone in expressing his amazement at CBS's deficiencies. Kroft's one-sided, badly flawed report sparked widespread criticism.

But the disability and Benghazi debacles have hardly been isolated incidents. CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson this week aired a Republican-sponsored attack piece on the supposed security lapses of Healthcare.gov based entirely on a partial transcript leaked by President Obama's most partisan, and untrustworthy, critics on Capitol Hill. (Upon closer review, Attkisson's erroneous report completely fell apart.)

And during the roll-out of Obamacare when lots of news outlets were badly misreporting about the implications of insurance companies sending out health care plan cancellation notices, CBS News' Jan Crawford produced perhaps the most misleading and factually challenged report of them all; a report that came to symbolize the mainstream media botching the health care coverage with misleading scare coverage.

Viewed as a whole, it seems something is unraveling inside CBS News, as it now produces gotcha reports that are quickly proven to be flat-out wrong; reports that appear to be built around attempts to obfuscate the truth. And yes, in all these instances the target is the Democratic administration and those cheering the loudest are President Obama's most dedicated critics.

more...

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/11/15/is-there-a-bigger-problem-at-cbs-news/196915

[malaise]

1. Isn't a big ex-Fox hack manager running the CBS

'news' set up?
They are worse than Fox because they still pretend to be presenting the truth.

[alsame]

2. And they hired Frank Luntz last

year. That tells me all I need to know about CBS.

[Berlum]

5. Behold teh Luntz (R - Propagandist, now running CBS "news")

[Thor_MN]

18. Is he trying to become the new Lee Raymond?

[librechik]

20. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

[Joe Bacon]

21. CBS = Conservative Bull Shit

CBS is just another cog in the right wing propaganda machine.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

43. Someone else came up with "See BS" so I did this...

[rock]

54. You got several actual LOLs from me

About 4.

[otohara]

22. OMG I Forgot

Here's an updated pic of his new gig at CBS - The hit piece on the disabled was it for me - I have felt the wrath of people who think "we" are moochers takers from all this bashing of the disabled.

[Berlum]

30. Well there you have it

CBS, Inc. (R) has chosen its path, and it obviously has nothing to do with truth, or service to the American public.

[DallasNE]

34. So CBS News Is Now Focus Group Testing Their News

And tell their viewers what they want to hear. Excuse me but that is not news, that is propaganda.

[Hissyspit]

41. Don't forget. Many posters here thought the disability piece was great.

And that the video of the guy pushing the rock over in the national park proved they were right because he had APPLIED for disability.

[Mojorabbit]

63. AS someone on disability for Multiple Sclerosis, I have not forgotten.

I was appalled at those threads. As if you can waltz right in and get disability just like that. Snap fingers.

[liberalmike27]

39. Well

"unraveling," or perhaps better "festering."

They're all corporate--not far from each other.

It's necessary for them to maintain the fake corporate left/right paradigm, with no true left.

[DFW]

44. I was wondering what became of Luntz

His slimy trail leading to CBS and their phony reports do make a logical coinciding of paths.

Luntz goes where the money is. Maybe the Republicans told him his services were no longer required when they started losing elections, so he went elsewhere. Fox=Republican Party, so if he's gone form one, he's gone from the other. But he doesn't change his spots, just his benefactors. I'd predict that CNN was next except that CNN has already gone so far right that I don't know how much further in that direction Luntz could take them before they fall into the ocean.

[grandpamike1]

65. They are

David rhodes <head of News> - Former Fox exec

Mart Matalin <head of Threshhold Editions> was the publisher of the Davies book - Under Simon & Shuster, owned by CBS.

Other less significant members probably recruited from Fox. So you guess the bias.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Not just CBS

It's just about all of them. They are in the "anger" phase in the aftermath of the re-election of Barack Obama. After failing their benefactors (i.e., those who who poured billions into the media coffers for ads thanks to Citizen's United) by failing to crown Rmoney, they are now, a year after that historic election, viciously trying to cover for their failure, and are on a full-blown assault to nullify that election and him.... and they don't care if they destroy their own credibility (what little they had left) or the nation.

White supremacy is a powerful, multi-generational psychotic issue, and we are seeing the reaction to the demographic shift on the supremicist world-view, play full out.

[lake loon]

7. It is all of them

The MSM has grown so jaundiced that there are no longer any checks and balances at work. They are all forces for the corporate fascist state. Worse, truth has been fully sacrificed. We were still watched NBC's nightly news up until last year when the pace of bullshit had grown to tsunami proportions. If these networks and their advertisers only knew how few people were actually watching their trash any more.

[loudsue]

16. Bingo. All of the MSM -- EVEN NPR -- have been thoroughly infiltrated with the corporatist state

that has become the usa.

[BumRushDaShow]

25. They used to have special "panels" hosted by media think tanks

discussing "what went wrong" with their reporting. Many of these sessions used to even air on CSPAN and they would discuss ways to move forward and "do better".

Now they don't even bother.

[NBachers]

68. EVEN NPR! National rePublican Radio

They were my remaining source for dependable news. Now, if I try to listen to them, it's a short, short time before I want to throw my shoe through the radio and down the news staff's throat.

[loudsue]

70. My reaction exactly. Propaganda 24/7 everywhere you look.

Now I know how communist russia and china felt/feel.

[tavernier]

71. Is it a wonder then

that the country turns to the comedy channel for the truth?

[RagAss]

10. You nailed it !

And it's going to get much worse and may never get better until the "Networks" concept becomes a thing of
the past.

[Eleanors38]

36. Networks and even mass media may become things of the past...

but what replaces them? How will we communicate and legitimize concerns? How will we learn of the new Movement? Will we recognize it?

[erronis]

24. And watch out for internet freedoms

Since the MSM has been bought, paid for, and totally coopted by the white (sorry Herman Cain) corportatists, their next challenge is how to choke the free speech on the tubes.

I'm on Comcast currently and I know they have the same profit-oriented daddies. Are my emails being read, are my posts being analyzed, do my messages get "dropped", are my messages manipulated?

Does your service provider have a nice fine print way to opt-out of their snooping, or QoS/no-net-neutrality features? Thought not.

What are our options?

[SomeGuyInEagan]

51. Bingo! Internet is under attack ...

... they just don't want us talking.

Honestly, how there has not been some sort of uprising until this point either reinforces my faith in humanity to try to find a peaceful compromise or is evidence of that fact the the upper 0.05% truly have us under their thumb.

MSM News (and NPR) is dead to most under 60.

[Berlum]

4. When CBS, Inc. sold out to right-wing Republicon propagandists, it lost its soul

...and it's credibility.

America hardly needs yet another right-wing propaganda catapult. CBS is late in it's attempts to exploit that -- and so they have turned their backs on the citizens of the United States, and the truth.

Lots of people have noticed.

[spanone]

6. broken. partisan. media.

[badgolfer]

8. Not only

Not only Frank Luntz but also Major Garrett a former Fox reporter.

[Berlum]

9. Knoweth thy CBS Propaganda Pimps: Major G. (R - SpinMeister)

[valerief]

11. There is no US news. It's ALL US propaganda for the right. nt

[LittleGirl]

12. fox lite eom

[RoccoR5955]

13. I always knew that CBS News was Fox Lite News. n/t

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. Walter Cronkite must be spinning in his grave.

CBS used to be one of the best news outlets; now they're just FOX with less bombast. Pity. I used to watch 60 Minutes faithfully when they did real reporting, up until maybe about 10 years ago. Now I won't waste the electricity.

[Eleanors38]

37. The spin will be a turbine when Moyers goes.

[mountain grammy]

15. We have a good friend in Denver who's been a cameraman for the local news

for 40 years. His boss used to be NBC, but the station switched to the CBS network. He's retiring next month. He never really wanted to. He loved his job and won many awards, but as he put it: "bullshit is bullshit" and he's sick of it.

[WCGreen]

17. That is why the Daily Show is out there to have at least one voice in the hurricane

shouting to at least take a look at what American boundaries of throatiness really starts and end.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

27. And Amy Goodman

and Bill Moyers. Unbought!

[TeamPooka]

48. Michael Hiltzik wrote a book called THE PLOT AGAINST SOCIAL SECURITY a few years back

Kindle version is on sale right now for .99 cents.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Plot-Against-Social-Security-ebook/dp/B000SHTUV0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384716490&sr=8-1&keywords=hiltzik+social+security

If you care about this issue it's a must read as is his Pulitzer Prize winning column for the LA Times.

[RBInMaine]

19. No. The ONLY problem is it is RIGHT WING CORPORATE SHIT,

[TwilightGardener]

23. CBS figured out that it doesn't need journalistic credibility to make money and gain viewership.

Just needs to serve up what the baggers want to hear. Older Repubs are the target market, because they're the only group with money who still watches network TV news. It's a business decision and nothing more.

[penndragon69]

26. CBS,NBC & ABC = Fox lite.

[rhett o rick]

31. Looks like CBS is going for "Fox Like". nm

[watoos]

28. Yes, it is all of the M$M

I hate to break this to everyone, but even MSNBC. There are stories that have been censored by MSNBC. The narrative is the same, the cable news broadcasters on MSNBC can put a liberal slant to the narrative but they are not allowed to change the narrative. Just ask, Donahue, Olbermann, Ratigan Uygur what happens if one changes the narrative at MSNBC.

[GoneFishin]

38. Sad but true. I noticed Rachael dialed it back too when she climbed the ladder. n/t

[octoberlib]

29. K&R

[rhett o rick]

32. If we had a representative government we could ask our reps to write a law

that prohibited propaganda. This bullshit is clearly propaganda and someone should be held accountable.

[Lint Head]

33. The right wing has always hated Dan Rather with a passion. This is a planned change at CBS.

Last edited Sun Nov 17, 2013, 04:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Documents were faked, but told a true story about George Bush being AWOL, causing Dan Rather to be excoriated and quit CBS. Now the slow process of 'boiling the frog' of propaganda can easily take hold. The right wing is now on a mission to do as much damage to progressive ideas and objective news reporting as is humanly possible. I fear for people like Rachel Maddow. I think there will be an attempt to silence her and other progressives voices before the 2016 election. Objective news reporting is already dead. I don't know if most people have noticed but there are no longer any 'real' news television channels. CNN started as 24 hour news. It has turned into a "show" and "fluff" channel. Even when a disaster happens CNN messes things up. The Wolf Blitzer "thanking God" question to an atheist comes to mind just to name one.

[Berlum]

45. Planning to dump on truth and honesty in favor of "ideology"

How republican is that?

[WinkyDink]

61. Agree 100%.

[Stainless]

35. Even Letterman has become a pimp for the CBS lie machine

His monologue the other night included a slam against Obama and the ACA roll out. The worst thing he did was joke about the mixed race marriage of New York Mayor de Blasio. He also made a snarky comment about de Blasio's wife being an "ex-lesbian". I turned off the TV and will no longer watch Letterman. Letterman's right turn and racist homophobia is sickening bullshit and is not funny. He is following in the footsteps of Dennis Miller (not a compliment).

[Spitfire of ATJ]

40. It's like the file cabinets of the Right Wing "Think" Tanks in DC have been handed over to CBS....

This is expected considering the Republican Party that USED to accept them are busy dealing with the Tea Party and places like "The Heritage Foundation" are seen as "Respected" in comparison.

[Jack Rabbit]

42. Maybe CBS is afraid of losing ad revenue from Georgia Pacific or Dixie Cups

I'm drinking my Sunday morning coffee right now and ridiculous thoughts come to my mind. C'mon, Rabbit. Do you know of any reason to think those two Koch creeps have any leverage at CBS?

However, the entire MSM is lowering itself to the level of FoxNews and doing it all at once.

[TeamPooka]

46. Michael Hiltzik is a friend of mine and a great writer. You should check out his

non fiction books like COLOSSUS and THE NEW DEAL.

[tavalon]

47. It's weird to see others who actually are journalists

getting around to seeing what we've seen for at least a decade or more. Slow on the uptake.

[deutsey]

49. Jan Crawford does a lot with the Federalist Society

https://www.fed-soc.org/publications/author/jan-crawford

I remember when Obama fumbled the first debate with Romney, she nearly had an orgasm while reporting on it. She also was one of the "too-close-to-call" types leading up to the election.

We often have CBS This Morning on just be default because it comes on after our local news. Her "reporting" has had a definite agenda behind it.

[ReRe]

50. K&R

Yes. The big problem at CBS, it seems, is none other than Frank Luntz. It shows they are loosing viewers with brains, and the desperation they have for ratings. After all, MSM is privatized an all... they have to make a profit. So they hire that SOB to tell them how to get FOX viewers. I quit MSM a long time ago.

[Major Hogwash]

52. Yes, and the fact that Faux Snooze executives were pushing CBS behind the scenes about Benghazi . .

. . links them together in previously unimagined ways.

60 Minutes has sucked really bad ever since Ed Bradley and Mike Wallace left.
I never watch it anymore.

[Berlum]

55. Kinky Repubbies. Fox & CBS in bed together. Oh my stars. Shameless Republicon Propaganda Fluffers.

[Cleita]

53. There has been a problem with CBS since they canned Dan Rather and then

brought in a series of light weights including Katie Couric to replace him and the other anchors of that era.

[bearssoapbox]

56. The CBS tv station (WHIO7) radio affiliate in Dayton, Ohio broadcasts Faux News talk radio.

Anti Obama 24/7

Starting at 9:00 AM with Herman Cain, then OxyRush, Shammity, etc. the whole crew.

Then at midnight the overnight crazy tin foil hat radio starts.

[mtasselin]

57. unravelling

The problem with CBS is that the gop has infiltrated CBS and now control the conversation. This is further evidence that the gop controls the media in this country, further evidence is Meet the Press with that gop operative David Gregory, I ask tougher questions of the waiter than he does of his guest.

[Isoldeblue]

62. Remembr when people said that the media

was owned by Jews? If only that were true today.....

[Cha]

58. There's a big freaking Problem at CBS and I thank MediaMatters and

all the other online news outlets for holding them Accountable because CBS is not doing that for themselves!

Somebody or bodies at cbs need to Stop before they kill their brand right out of existence.

Mahalo babylonsistah~

[Hekate]

59. Oh crap -- RIP CBS News. KnR. nt

[WinkyDink]

60. IMHO, it is a R-W deliberate action to destroy the credibility of CBS. (See: Rather, Dan.)

[DeSwiss]

64. Turn the shit off.

- K&R

[silvershadow]

66. In a word? Yes. nt

[WowSeriously]

67. It's not an unravelling if it is by design. It is by design.

[Conium]

69. When Newsweek hired Karl Rove

In 2007, when "Turd Blossom" was hired as a Newsweek columnist to balance their "liberal bias", I cancelled my subscription.