The Left’s Media Fortress Has A Breach

The Left’s institutional control is falling apart. They thought they had the government.

Then President Trump won, and the Republicans won, but the Left thought they had the media. More than anything, they thought they had the media.

But last night, that magical world dissolved before their very eyes.

CBS News fired longtime “60 Minutes” anchor Scott Pelley, making clear that the show would no longer be an agitprop outlet for the Left.

But without institutional control, what happens to the Left? What do they do next?

The answer? They move even farther to the Left.

The left-wing and mainstream media narrative today is that “60 Minutes” was a magical place filled with objective journalism. Then right-wing fire-breather Bari Weiss and her evil Zionist paymasters arrived, and now they’re firing stalwarts like old-style journalist Scott Pelley from “60 Minutes.” How dare they touch this bastion of journalistic integrity?

False. “60 Minutes” was never objective. It was always a Left-wing outlet. That’s the reason why the Left is angry that changes are being made.

They saw this as their institutional preserve and now that preserve has been violated. Like a naturally beautiful piece of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge being touched by human hands, it must not be.

They’ve been promoting the notion that Bari Weiss is some sort of flaming Right-winger. That’s crazy. I’m friends with Bari; she is not Right-wing on a huge number of issues. She is pro-LGBT, obviously. She is pro-choice, obviously. She used to describe herself as a center-left person. If you went back about 25 years, she’d be a moderate Democrat.

So what is the actual story here?

The key story here is the Democrats are losing control of a lot of their key institutions. If there’s any overarching sort of theme to the Trump era, it is that Democrats thought they had undeniable control of virtually every key institution in American life and now, one by one, that’s coming apart for them.

“60 Minutes” was considered the tip of the spear in the objective journalism universe.

Those of us who’ve been watching mainstream legacy media for a long time recognize that the so-called objective media is usually anything but objective; usually it is just a Left-leaning group of people who pretend to be objective.

Scott Pelley was fired. The reason he was fired is that there were changes made over at “60 Minutes.” Nick Bilton, a tech journalist and filmmaker, was appointed to shake up “60 Minutes” because the ratings were poor and there were problems with journalistic integrity.

Bilton was publicly accosted by Scott Pelley at a meeting where he introduced himself to the staff. This was after CBS had fired the previous executive producer, her deputy, and a couple of the show’s correspondents.

With absolute self-centered arrogance, Pelley called it Black Thursday.

That’s true for an enormous number of journalists and pseudo-journalists in the online space. They are simply narcissists; the only thing they regret about the camera is that it is not a mirror.

Bilton said Bari loves the institution, loves “60 Minutes.”

Pelley got up in full self-righteous mode, knowing, of course, that he was trying to get himself fired. Let’s be clear: that’s what he wanted. He wanted to be a martyr. If you’re going to have your airtime reduced, it’s better to be a martyr.

If you’re Colin Kaepernick and you’re about to get benched, much better that you go out protesting the national anthem.

So Pelley decided this was his moment of bravery and resistance. (Maybe they’ll make a movie about him.)

He said Bari was murdering “60 Minutes,” that she did not love this place, that she was trying to kill it; that she had no qualifications for her job.

It is incredible to me when people talk about qualifications in the journalistic world. The idea that journalism is a job for which you require a license or a qualification is ridiculous. It ain’t like being a heart surgeon.

Bari Weiss was an editor at the New York Times before she started The Free Press, one of the most successful independent journalistic endeavors in America. But she has no qualifications?

Yet Scott Pelley, who reads stuff from a teleprompter on camera, says she has no qualifications for her job.

Bilton wrote a letter that stated:

I meant what I said in my letter last week to the 60 Minutes team: joining 60 Minutes is the honor of my career and I am grateful to be working alongside the people who have contributed to the most important television journalism brand this country has ever produced. While I’m new to 60 Minutes, I’ve devoted my career to investigative journalism and storytelling. I started this job excited to collaborate and to benefit from the wisdom and experience of the 60 Minutes veterans, with you among them. For that reason, one of the first things I did in my new role was call you to talk and invite you to dinner.

It is a profound disappointment that you rejected that overture and chose ambush instead. Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt. I welcome a diversity of viewpoints and respectful debate among the team, but this was nothing of the sort. Yesterday’s performative display of hostility enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress. I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama.

I am eager to work alongside those who share this goal. Despite yesterday’s misconduct, I had hoped that in sitting down with you today we could find a path forward together. You made clear that you are not interested in such a path.

Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you. I therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. (“CBS”) to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately. Enclosed is your formal termination letter.

A great letter.

Applause for Nick Bilton. This alone means that his tenure has been worth it. This is how you should treat insubordination.

“60 Minutes” pretends that it is an openly objective institution. The notion that “60 Minutes” was a bastion of objective journalism is not true.

It’s another institution that is finally being remade to veer toward objectivity.

And the Left is panicking.