“Vice President JD Vance will make his first appearance on The View next week,” Deadline reports.
“His guest spot comes as the show is the subject of an FCC investigation, led by President Donald Trump’s appointed chairman Brendan Carr, over the agency’s equal time rule.”
Status: “After Scott Pelley chose to publicly confront management at the Bari Weiss-led CBS News over the firing of several colleagues and cite ideologically motivated changes that threatened to compromise the show’s integrity, correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim released a statement saying that they intended to stay. Not because they disputed Pelley’s characterization of events, but rather because, as they succinctly put it, ‘We don’t want to see ’60 Minutes’ die.’”
“The decision might appear to stabilize a situation that risked seeing the entire franchise implode, or at a minimum, struggle to deliver enough stories to populate a 59th season when the program returns from its annual summer hiatus in September.”
Bloomberg: “President Donald Trump is fighting the British Broadcasting Corp.’s effort to subpoena dozens of members of his inner circle as part of the news outlet’s defense in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit, setting the stage for a fresh fight over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.”
“An ex-girlfriend of Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner is expressing her frustration with The New York Times over the way it portrayed her and others’ experience dating the Democrat,” NewsNation reports.
Oliver Darcy: “Over the last week, as Bari Weiss plunged CBS News into an unprecedented crisis by implementing her ill-advised overhaul of ’60 Minutes,’ other Paramount leaders have been left to deal with the fallout.”
“Indeed, Status has learned that the Weiss-induced turmoil at the David Ellison-owned network is now creating headaches beyond CBS News.”
NPR’s Bobby Allyn writes after he revealed federal investigations into former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) for possible insider trading on prediction markets, Santos called Allyn and said: “This story is going to get you a gun in your face.”
CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss sought to explain her actions to “60 Minutes” staff on Wednesday, after firing correspondent Scott Pelley from the newsmagazine, the Washington Post reports.
Said Weiss: “I know I speak for myself, and I hope I speak for everyone here when I say that I’m only interested in working in a newsroom that is built on trust and mutual respect. That foundation was broken on Monday.”
“CBS News fired veteran ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday, hours after a contentious meeting with management in response to his criticism of the newsmagazine’s new leadership,” CNN reports.
CNN: “The White House Correspondents’ Association announced on Tuesday that a second correspondents’ dinner, with bolstered security measures, will be held this summer after April’s event was halted by a shooting incident at the Washington Hilton.”
Washington Post: “The Defense Department has designated its press office a classified space and banned journalists from accessing it to meet with the public affairs officers who have traditionally answered their questions.”
Oliver Darcy: “On Monday morning, the staff of ’60 Minutes’ convened for an introductory meeting with Bari Weiss’ handpicked new executive producer of the program, Nick Bilton. Bilton, the technology journalist who lacks both broadcast news and managerial experience, opened the meeting by reading from some prepared notes. He didn’t get far…”
“In the extraordinary back and forth, an impassioned Pelley relentlessly pressed Bilton on Weiss’ intentions for the storied newsmagazine, pointed out that he has no relevant experience to helm television’s most prestigious news program, grilled Bilton on what he knew about the firings, and more.”
Said Bilton, according to audio of the meeting: “Bari loves this institution. She loves ’60 Minutes.'”
Pelley countered: “She’s murdering ’60 Minutes.’ She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it—and she’s doing exactly that.”
The Redoubt: “Right-wing extremism is going mainstream, but it’s not getting the coverage.”
Oliver Darcy: “Trump has made it clear that he despises the program. He regularly rants about ’60 Minutes’ and, of course, filed an absurd $10 billion lawsuit against it, which CBS initially called ‘meritless’ before agreeing to settle for $16 million in order to gain government approval for previous owner Shari Redstone to sell Paramount to Ellison.”
“In other words, Trump has wanted the program dismantled for some time—and he has not been subtle about it.”
“Ellison, meanwhile, has done everything in his power to ingratiate himself with Trump… Given that Trump is not shy about demanding concessions to get deals done, and given his very public disdain for “60 Minutes,” it would be surprising if he has not privately communicated his desire to see changes made.”
“It doesn’t take a brilliant mind to connect the dots.”
New York Times: “Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News, signaled a new direction for the nation’s top news program on Thursday, replacing the executive producer of ’60 Minutes’ with Nick Bilton, a longtime tech journalist and documentarian who has never worked in traditional broadcast news.”
“The appointment came as part of a significant shake-up at the venerable Sunday evening news program.”
“Donald Trump has refiled a defamation lawsuit seeking at least $10bn in damages against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, after a judge threw out an earlier version over legal deficiencies,” The Guardian reports.
In a nearly 2 a.m. Truth Social post, President Trump celebrated Stephen Colbert’s demise, writing that it was “amazing that he lasted so long!”
Wrote Trump: “No talent, no ratings, no life. He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he’s finally gone!”
He later added: “Stephen Colbert’s firing from CBS was the ‘Beginning of the End’ for untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts. Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace!”
Washington Post: “President Donald Trump has long been critical of the late-night comedy shows that roast him daily. But his second term has been marked by his hostility toward late-night comics and his administration taking action against the networks that carry these shows. In some cases, networks made programming decisions that carried suspicions of political interference.”
“So, how have the late-night hosts reacted? Not by relenting in their skewering of Trump, his administration or his policies. In fact, they’ve turned up the heat, according to a Washington Post analysis of six late-night comedy shows critical of the president.”
“Since Election Day, Trump has remained the most frequently mentioned individual, and hosts have continued satirizing and critiquing Trump over his policies, scandals and legal troubles.”
“And as his second term progressed, Trump has been mentioned more frequently by these late-night hosts, not less.”
“After 18 months of blackout, of not letting me on Fox, they finally let me on Fox today, four hours into the election. Their slop is selling so they will keep selling it. But listen, I got to watch Fox, also, for the first time in 18 months.”
— Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), quoted by Deadline.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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