The Chuck ToddCast
Special Mailbag Episode: CBS News, Political Satire, Heritage Foundation Shakeup & More
08 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Chapter 2: Should CBS News maintain neutrality as a public network?
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Chapter 3: How should public figures respond to political satire?
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Chapter 4: What factors are causing staff departures from the Heritage Foundation?
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Chapter 5: How do prediction markets influence political coverage?
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Chapter 6: When does a presidential term become irrelevant?
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Chapter 7: What if Biden had pledged to serve only one term?
Welcome to another special episode of the Chuck Todd cast. This is part two of my super mailbag episodes that I promised for the beginning of the year. Look, we're all let's be realistic here. Right. Do you want.
Chapter 8: What impact would Russia not selling Alaska have had on the U.S.?
two month old interviews archived and launched in the first week? Or do you want, you know, do you want fresh content, even if it's questions that are a few weeks old? And I think you want fresh content. And I think you want fresh answers and fresh thoughts rather than a stale interview. And we know booking around the holidays is difficult. So yes.
While I fully confess this is supposedly, you know, an episode you put together instead of having a guest. Yes. But I kind of sort of dig this. And the most important part that I come away with is I get a sense of of helping to shape. uh, the content that I'm going to offer you for the year ahead based really on, on what, uh, is most animated in, in the Q and a sessions.
So without further ado, we're going to dig in. Look, mailbag one was very policy focused. A few people had, uh, questions about that. A few things about constitutional amendments, um, and a tiny bit on media. This I will choose to answer some of your personal questions that you ask about me. I, I will confess that I, I reveal what I think is I'm okay with public.
And there's some things that I always want to stay sort of keep, keep out of the public sphere. So with that, I'm going to plow forward. All right. First question of part two. In your conversation with Mike Peska, he said he's fine with Barry Weiss turning CBS into a right-leaning outlet, but doesn't that ignore two key issues? CBS is still a publicly regulated network. It should serve everyone.
And caving to Trump and Brendan Carr isn't just leaning right. It's enabling state pressure on speech. Am I wrong, Max W., Alexandria, Virginia? Um, so I, I think you're both right here.
And I think that, that in fairness to Mike, I don't think what Mike is saying is that it's, it's sort of, um, and, and I think where I agree with him, it's like, look, um, every news organization has a bias, a bias, even if your bias is to try to be, um, sort of neutral or, um, sort of boring, whatever you want to call it, that it's just a form of a bias, you know?
So I think the question is whether, um, what is it that, that, that they're hoping to do, um, with, with, uh, CBS? I, the problem I have is, is the, the stuff they're trying to do with late night comedians, right. To try to, um, forced late night entertainment or any entertainment through the purview of government censors, if you will. Right. I think that's that to me.
And I think that's why you saw bipartisan outrage at Brendan Carr and what he attempted to do with Jimmy Kimmel and to try to bully Disney into getting rid of Kimmel. And they wouldn't do it. Or frankly, what Trump did do to Colbert with the Ellison's or it appeared to do this. Right. So, you know, ultimately, I think the problem is, is that it's a while it's a publicly regulated network.
It only is servicing its shareholders. So I think the problem I have is the fiduciary responsibility that these media companies have to shareholders and why their news divisions aren't allowed to be fully independent, that they are subject to potential ā coercion because these companies have other business in front of the government, right? Other government regulatory things.
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