Chapter 1: What is the main issue with CBS and mainstream media today?
Good morning, Lemonheads. Did you have your stretch this morning? Did you have your Wheaties or your cereal? Weird thing. It just reminded myself. I had cereal. I haven't had cereal in years. I stopped eating it because they said it was a sugar bomb. But I was like, what the hell? I want to try it. It was in the supermarket for the holidays. I know I'm crazy. I'll get to the news in a second.
And I went by the cereal aisle and I was like, wow. I haven't had cereal in forever. And I was looking, I was like, the sugar is not as bad as I thought. I mean, it's not great. And so I bought a bowl of frosted flakes, a box of frosted flakes and some milk. And I had been eating cereal. Yeah, let's see if I'm going to try it.
Chapter 2: How has CBS's approach to journalism changed under Bari Weiss?
Not every day, but every couple of days I might have some. I had some like right around Christmas. And then when I got back from New Year's, I had a bowl. Do you guys still eat cereal? Cereal had just fallen from my diet, hadn't done it. So good morning, everybody. Let me know where you're from. I see there are folks, someone's from Philly in here.
Oh, can you turn the light on in there, please, in that room? Thank you. There's someone from Philly in here, Corn Flakes. Tell me what cereal you like and tell me if it's still a thing. Someone said I would eat a whole box. I've started a whole thing. Let me know your favorite cereal. Maybe I should get some like Don Lemon cereal with like little logos and see if I can make it tasty and healthy.
And I don't know what lemon, I don't know. Maybe there's like a lemon tea flavor. I don't know. I don't know. Colorado, Edinburgh. Wow. Amazing. North Carolina, Moyock, North Carolina. Someone says Rice Krispies. Anyways, hello, North Dakota. Hello, North Dakota. Hello, cereal is trash, someone says. Hello, Northern California. Glad that you're here.
First order of business, you guys know what that is. It is, thank you, I think this is my... Is it not UT or Tennessee University? I did a speaking engagement for them. I may have done their commencement and they gave me this really cool thing and it's very collegiate. So then I put on my collegiate looking hat. So good morning, everybody, Savannah. I see people saying good morning, Nikki.
So, yeah.
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Chapter 3: What does the shift in media coverage mean for democracy?
So thank you so much for that. I appreciate you joining us this morning. You know what the first order of business is, and that is to hit the thumbs up and the like. And because that affects the algorithm, more people become aware of our conversation. OK, and it's an important one. And, you know, I was asking my team today, I was like, should we do two days in a row a media story?
But it seems like. That's where it is going. So I just want to, as we get started here, I just want to talk to you for a second, okay? I just want to talk to you for a second. I don't want to talk as a broadcaster, but... You know, I've been in these rooms before.
And not as a headline, not as a broadcaster, just as someone who has been doing this a long, long time and knows something, doesn't smell right about this. Just because I've been doing it so long. When I say old people be knowing. So if you've ever watched the news, and then halfway through you lean back and you say, wait a minute, what the hell? What am I watching right now?
Like, what is this right now? That's what this CBS rollout felt like. Not confusing at all. A little chaotic, but not so much that. But more unsettling, I think, is the right terminology, at least for me. Because it wasn't just awkward. It's not just awkward. It's revealing. This moment is revealing for the state of the news.
And I think CBS right now is exemplary of what is happening with the entire news media or broadcast journalism or corporate journalism in general. And before anyone takes us the wrong way, okay? It's not that I'm going to pull any punches or anything. I want to be very clear.
This is not about piling on one anchor because I think that's lazy because you have to figure the biggest, the bigger context here. Although the anchor is a big part of it, okay? But just by focusing on that, I think, misses the point. And I'm not interested in mocking delivery or tone or style or any of that. This is about a choice. It's about choice.
It's about a personal choice and a professional choice for the anchor. Don't get me wrong. But this is about a choice, a journalism choice. And we've seen this story before.
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Chapter 4: How does the January 6th incident reflect on CBS's reporting?
Most recently, as you may know, with a cable network that decided the way forward was to make the news more palatable to people in management offices and C-suites. Softer. Let's move it in a certain direction. Too liberal. Because the people in the C-suites were sitting there and they're like, oh yes, this is what I like to hear. This makes me feel more comfortable.
Mostly white guys who wanted to have their beliefs reinforced what they believe they wanted that reflecting back to them. Less confrontational. Easier to digest in the boardrooms. We want to be safe. That experiment didn't end well. It's still not going well now. Because that's not what the news is about. And that's not what journalism is supposed to be.
So let's talk about what's happening and that is sort of exemplary of everything that is happening. People don't learn their lessons. They really don't. And so I'm here to maybe help them learn their lesson. So let's talk about January 6th, because this is where everything becomes clear.
This is what, part of what I'm talking about, this CBS broadcast, you know, January 6th, yesterday, the anniversary. January 6th was not a misunderstanding, even though it may have been presented that way. That's how it felt on the CBS Evening News. It wasn't a protest that got out of hand. It wasn't people feeling disappointed. Differently, right? It wasn't that. People feel differently.
That's not what it was. This was an attack on the United States Capitol, on the certification of an election, on democracy itself. And when a broadcast treats that like just another political disagreement, that's fucked up. That's not balance. That's not what it is. That is like, what are you afraid of? What are you afraid of?
It seems like you're operating out of a place of fear or disingenuity or disingenuousness. Out of fear of backlash from who? Perhaps the administration. I don't know. Fear of angry emails from people who work in the administration or call from the White House or someone who's going to call you from the company head of the owner, the corporate overlord and say, well, what is this?
We don't want people knowing the truth about January 6th, even though the evidence is right in front of our eyes.
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Chapter 5: What accountability should journalists uphold?
It's fear of uncomfortable meetings upstairs. It's what this reeks of. So here is what people inside corporate media still don't seem to understand at this point. That viewers are not confused about January 6th. They are not. Executives are. And they are confused. Well, they aren't really confused because they know what the hell January 6th was.
But what they don't want is Donald Trump being mad at them because they want their business uninterfered with, uninterrupted in Washington, D.C. And Donald Trump controls all of that, pretty much, most of it. Not all of it, but pretty much. So viewers are not confused about that. And the executives are confused.
And they are, they have the journalists and the people running the companies and this sort of thing. Like, what do we do? What do we do? And then, but those, most of the people are just relenting. Not all, but just most. Not all, but most. Because they're still trying to split the difference between truth and comfort, hoping that no one notices. Should I say that louder for the people in the back?
Because they are still trying to split the difference between truth and comfort. And then hoping that no one's going to notice. People notice. People notice. People are not stupid. The viewers are not stupid. They notice. They know. And when you try to, you know... make fun or make a joke about Marco Rubio. It's like, there's, then there's that Marco Rubio moment, right?
So let's just be honest about what that felt like. And we're going to show you these moments in a moment. That didn't feel like journalism. It didn't feel like accountability. It felt like admiration. That's how it came up. I just being honest here. Okay.
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Chapter 6: How does corporate influence affect news coverage?
The tone, the posture, the energy, it felt like admiration, more frat house than fourth estate. And the truth may hurt, but that is the truth. I'm just being honest. And who you challenge and who you flatter, that tells the audience everything that they need to know. Marco Rubio didn't need a fan. Marco Rubio needed questions. Marco Rubio needed to be held accountable.
He needed accountability to the American people and for the American people. He needed real questions, real ones about power, about democracy, about January 6th. Instead, he got something closer to like a hangout, right, with that assessment of what is being done. portrayed on CBS. And again, this isn't about one anchor's personality. That's not what this is about.
This is about the lane that CBS has put that anchor in. This is about the lane that CBS has put that anchor in, okay? The posture they allowed, the tone that they endorse. Did I stutter? People keep asking, And we asked this question, is he ready? And, you know, I think that's the wrong question. I do. And I asked that question, is he ready?
I asked that question to Colby Hall from media yesterday. Is he ready? And Colby was like, he's a very nuanced answer. He had a very, I think, blunt answer and then went back and said, you know, maybe I shouldn't be so harsh and then became more nuanced or hedged a little bit, softened it a little bit. But the real question is, ready for what? Ready for what?
If the job is to smooth edges, to lower the temperature, and to make sure nobody in the C-suite gets nervous, then maybe this is exactly what they wanted. But if the job is to anchor the evening news in 2026 when democracy is fragile and truth is under assault, readiness isn't about polish. It's about having a fucking backbone. And backbone cannot be staged.
You cannot manufacture it with a dramatic pause, a teary moment, or a segment designed to feel authentic. People aren't asking for emotion. They're asking for honesty. They're asking for truth. They're asking for the news media to stand and be what it is supposed to be without fear or favor. And this rollout showed us a pattern here.
The boat sizing, the softened language, the admiration for power, the caution masquerading as balance.
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Chapter 7: What lessons can be learned from CBS's recent decisions?
This isn't accidental. This is intentional. CBS chose safety over clarity, access over accountability, comfort over truth. And here is the lesson they seem determined not to learn. Presenting the news in a way that is palatable to corporate leadership is not journalism. It's marketing. And it fails every single time. It failed before. It is failing again.
Trust doesn't erode because audiences are cynical. It erodes because people can feel when they're being managed instead of informed, when you're hedging instead of being real. And so here's what I personally keep coming back to. I wonder if what it really takes to fix this isn't another rebrand or another rollout or another anchor swap. I wonder if it takes journalists now.
I think this is what it's going to take. I'm wondering here. If it's going to take journalists having the courage to look at management and say one simple word. No. No. No, we are not both-sizing this. No, we are not softening that. No, we are not flattering power. No, we are not pretending this is normal. No, we're not going to sell our souls to corporate interests.
It's been said that no is the most powerful word in the English language. And being a good communicator and a good journalist is knowing how to convey words, how to use the English language. And it's time for the journalist to say no. And learning to say no might be the most important thing a journalist can do for themselves and for the public they serve.
Because if the lesson is that we didn't learn from other people's mistakes or our own, then by all means, keep doing exactly what you're doing. But if CBS and corporate media more broadly want to regain even a sliver of trust from the American people, then honesty has to come before comfort, even if it makes people upstairs uncomfortable, especially then. So yes, CBS is the face of it this week.
Media fail. Again. That's what they're the face of this week. And unless journalists remember who they work for and what they're supposed to protect, this won't be the last time that we have this conversation. That's where we are this morning. And we're going to talk about it. Oliver Darcy is here, but first a word from our sponsors. Support comes from lean.
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Chapter 8: What is the future of journalism in the face of corporate pressures?
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This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. A new year doesn't require a new you. Sometimes it just means a less burdened you, and I've learned that a lot. of what weighs us down isn't obvious. It's the stuff that we keep carrying because we think we're supposed to. Old habits, old expectations, old guilt.
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Thank you to our sponsors. And so let's get with it now. I want to bring in Oliver Darcy. He is a veteran media journalist and the author of the Status Newsletter and of the podcast, a co-host of the podcast Power Lines that you can find on YouTube and anywhere you get your podcasts. I would encourage you, if you want to know what's going on in the media, you need to read Status.
It is the best out there. And I'm not just saying that to blow smoke. Oliver happens to be a friend, but Oliver, you do the best job. And everywhere I go, people talk about the job that you guys are doing over at Status and with your podcast. So thank you for joining us this morning. How are you doing? Happy New Year to you, by the way. Well, thank you, Don. I'm doing good. How are you?
I'm doing very well. So I don't know. What did you think of? First of all, let me put this is Oliver's reporting in status about what we're talking about this morning. He's called he calls it the DeCoppo debacle. And we'll discuss that. But he also talks about the broader implications of what's happening with journalism and with news. What did you am I off on my opening monologue at all?
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