'The guy [David Rhodes] who cut his teeth in the news business, beginning as a Production Assistant and working his way up to become VP at Fox "News", is now the President of CBS News.'
Rhodes was VP of News as Fox News. Now, since he came on as head of CBS News, we have "60 Minutes" offering a (debunked and since retracted) story on Benghazi, an NSA puff piece, an Amazon press release, and, detailed here, a crazily slanted story on the "crash" of the "cleantech" industry.
It's not, I don't think, about some vast Murdochian conspiracy on behalf of the Koch Bros. or something like that. But it is, it seems to me, about coming up with flashy stories that try to draw current Fox News viewers over to boost CBS's ratings. "Hey, look! They're not the only ones smearing solar energy! We're doing it, too! Watch us!" That it has nothing to do with actual news is, apparently, not germane.
Perhaps instead of "cleantech" we can harness the power of Edward R Murrow spinning in his grave.
(h/t +George Wiman)
The BRAD BLOG : The Fox ‘News’-ification of CBS News and ’60 Minutes’: ‘The Cleantech Crash’
Odd that you should write about this today. I have been a long time viewer of 60 Minutes and even after the Benghazi thing, I decided to give them the benefit of at least a quarter of a doubt. Then…came Sunday evening and Leslie Stahl. Good night and good luck indeed, because we’re going to need it. And these are alleged journalists. It is to weep.
Really, the down fall of 60 Minutes as a news source began here:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/10/07/60-minutes-report-denounced-for-disability-misi/196317
Sadly it was also a story that was on NPR’s planet Monkey and This American Life a month before that, and none of them have yet to apologize.
@bd – Ah … I remember that coming out. Yeah.
"Perhaps instead of "cleantech" we can harness the power of Edward R Murrow spinning in his grave."
…comes under the heading of "Wish I Had Said That!"
@bd
In my opinion, NPR and public television left credibility behind some time ago, when they embraced Woo, put forth rabid anti-vaxxers as “concerned parents” and in the case of PBS, invited every snake oil salesman/woman out there to shill their products. The fact that they will tell lies regarding news, is unfortunately, not a surprise. It is a disappointment, because I still remember when public television first came to my city. I was a teenager, and actually went door to door to hand out literature about it so people might make donations. I was very excited about this marvelous new thing, not realizing that it had feet of clay.
It took me slightly longer to become disenchanted with 60 Minutes.
@Ellie – I’ve never been as enthused by “60 Minutes” as some … the ambush interview thing can be amusing, but the show always struck me as being just a bit too self-satisfied with itself. That said, they also seemed to be interested in real investigative journalism. I haven’t watched in years, but the current regime seems unlikely to do anything to convince me to do so.
@ Ellie
re: NPR.
Yeah, the Woo stuff got in my craw, as well as the pro war cheerleading and saying torture is not torture…to the point that they have a pro toture apologist on air twice this week. Oh…and this weekend’s “The Science of Reincarnation” story is just a bridge too far for me.
They have become a joke.
@bd – I still find them more readable / listenable-to than anything else resembling “news” on the radio. Plus, usually, no commercials. The shouting-at-the-radio rating continues to climb, though.