Tony Dukoupil emotes on camera

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• The New Yorker’s Clare Malone has a new piece out: “Inside Bair Weiss’ hostile takeover of CBS News.” In the story, Malone writes that many at CBS News see Weiss as an “uneasy fit.”

  There’s a lot to Malone’s story, including the time before Weiss joined CBS News, so it's worth checking out.

  One of the more interesting nuggets included how CBS News staffers said that it was “offensive” that Weiss has bodyguards.

  • That says something about her psyche. Needing protection-- from what, who?

• Well, that says it all. READ MORE at Barrett Media https://shorturl.at/QMc5T
  CBS News is taking some of the heat off CNN. Which network is more biased? Everyone has an opinion and it's all just water cooler chat.
  I don't have to get my news from any tv network! I know right now, and the answer is no! NO! Doggone it! They sit around and spin their little webs and they think the whole world believes their talking points and lies. Well, it doesn't! In the... in the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say tv news networks are nothing but scurvy little spiders!

• '‘We’ll Sue"....

  White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CBS News to air an interview with President Donald Trump in full or face a lawsuit, according to an audio recording of the exchange reviewed by The Washington Post.

  "If it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off.”

  (See BS hopelessly compromised by Trump.)

  "Bari Weiss’s early tenure has been marked by layoffs and consternation among staffers about their new leader’s direction, story ideas, and deference to the government."
  -- Washington Post

  • September 23, 2025
    Press Release
    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, thanks to the oversight of Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Google commits to offer all creators previously kicked off YouTube due to political speech violations on topics such as COVID-19 and elections an opportunity to return to the platform.

    Google also admitted the following to the House Judiciary Committee:
    The Biden Administration pressured Google to censor Americans and remove content that did not violate YouTube's policies.
    The Biden Administration censorship pressure was "unacceptable and wrong."
    Public debate should never come at the expense of relying "authorities."
    The company will never use third-party "fact-checkers."
    Europe's censorship laws target American companies and threaten American speech, including the removal of "lawful content."
    These major admissions come after Chairman Jordan's subpoena to Google and a years long investigation into the company.
    *********
    Memogate 2004
    In the final stretch of the 2004 presidential election, on September 8, CBS's 60 Minutes II (the Wednesday version) aired a bombshell report anchored by Dan Rather. It featured four memos allegedly from the files of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, George W. Bush's former Texas Air National Guard commander, claiming Bush skipped a required physical exam, was grounded, requested to miss drills for political work in Alabama, and benefited from pressure to "sugarcoat" his performance review due to his father's influence (the infamous "CYA" memo). The story, supported by interviews including Ben Barnes' account of helping Bush get into the Guard, aimed to portray Bush as having shirked duties and received favoritism—contrasting sharply with John Kerry's Vietnam service record.

    The backlash was immediate and fierce. Within hours, conservative bloggers (Power Line, Little Green Footballs, Free Republic) spotted glaring issues: the memos used proportional fonts, curved apostrophes, superscript "th" (like 111ᵗʰ), and layouts resembling modern Microsoft Word—features impossible on 1970s military typewriters, which were monospaced.The story unraveled quickly. CBS defended it for over a week, even airing a follow-up featuring Killian's former secretary calling the content "fake but accurate." But on September 20, source Bill Burkett admitted misleading CBS about how he obtained the documents (claiming a mysterious "Lucy Ramirez" provided them; he said he burned the originals). CBS apologized, admitting they could no longer vouch for authenticity.Here is Dan Rather during his on-air apology segment:politico.com

    An independent panel (Thornburgh-Boccardi) later slammed CBS for rushing the story with "myopic zeal," poor vetting, and ignoring expert red flags. Key personnel were fired or resigned, including producer Mary Mapes. Rather stepped down as CBS Evening News anchor shortly after and left the network in 2006. 60 Minutes II was canceled.The scandal, often called Rathergate or Memogate, highlighted the rise of citizen journalism via blogs and damaged CBS's credibility. Rather later sued CBS (unsuccessfully), and Mapes defended the underlying claims in a memoir that inspired the 2015 film Truth (starring Robert Redford as Rather and Cate Blanchett as Mapes).
    *******
    Biden media coverups -Guardian
    With a new book out about Joe Biden’s failed re-election campaign, a media reckoning is in full swing.

    It goes something like this: mainstream journalism failed the voters. Reporters were complicit; they didn’t tell us how much the elderly president had declined. They didn’t dig beneath the surface of what Biden aides were doing as they covered up the physical and cognitive decline of the leader of the free world.

    And some of that is valid, no doubt. Under fire in recent days, CNN’s Jake Tapper, co-author of Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, has even nodded to his own role in downplaying Biden’s increasing frailty.

    There’s plenty of blame to go around for Biden’s ultimate loss – and the horrors that it brought the whole world in the election of Donald Trump to a second term. Bruce Springsteen laid it out to a concert audience last week as he opened his European tour: “My home, the America I love, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”
    ************
    New Yorker - July 2024
    Last weekend, the Biden Administration sent out an e-mail that sounded a touch Trumpian. Addressing the immense scrutiny that the press has placed on the President’s cognitive abilities after his disastrous debate, the e-mail, written in Joe Biden’s voice, read, “I want you to ask yourself, what have these people been right about lately? Seriously. Think about it.” The e-mail then went on to list what the Biden Administration apparently thinks “these people” have got wrong, including Biden’s chances in the 2020 primary and the general election, the “red wave” that was supposed to materialize during the 2022 midterms, and a host of uphill policy issues, including gun control and climate-change legislation. “Folks, listen. Forget the pundits,” the e-mail went on, distancing the Biden Administration from the wrongheaded press and its gallery of pundits, and casting the defenders of democracy as “me and you,” which, presumably also means not them.

    Biden’s move against the press was probably inevitable given the volume of criticism he has received since the debate, the seemingly endless stories that have been filed featuring anonymous aides and allies, and the near-unanimity with which the press has called for him to step down. There’s also the problem of the polls, which, despite not showing the dramatic cratering that some had predicted, still have him as a clear underdog to Donald Trump. As I wrote after the debate, if Biden wants to hang on and try to beat Trump, he needs to hope that both the polls and the pundits are wrong. Defiance is his only option at this point, not only with regard to the press but also with the dissenters and grumblers in his own party.
    *****
    Key aspects of Clinton press bias & tension:
    Perceived Liberal Bias: Republicans and conservatives frequently accused the mainstream media of having a liberal bias that favored Clinton.
    Focus on Scandal: During the Lewinsky scandal, the press was criticized for sensationalism, poor fact-checking, and relying on potentially biased anonymous sources, though the public also thought there was too much coverage.
    Internal Press Concerns: Some journalists felt they might have under-covered Clinton's policy successes, while others believed coverage was adequate.
    "Negative Bias": Some scholars argue the media's bias leans towards negativity and conflict, highlighting flaws over accomplishments, a pattern evident in coverage of Clinton and politics generally.
    Campaign-Media Relations: The Clinton campaigns, like many, actively managed media relationships, using "spin" to frame narratives, leading to ongoing tension, as seen with Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2015.
    *****
    When has press coverage not been an issue to Dems? When the press has been favorable to the incumbent Democratic President. When Trump calls out press coverage that is false -- he faces a backlash of criticism.
    These reactions are nothing new with Presidents, both Dem and Republican.
    ******
    CATO Institute
    In the early 1960s, President Kennedy’s administration launched one of the most successful censorship campaigns in U.S. history. The subjects of Kennedy’s ire were conservative radio broadcasters, who constantly attacked the administration’s policy proposals. Worried about his reelection chances, Kennedy instructed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to target the offending broadcasters with tax audits and heightened regulatory scrutiny. Within a few years, this censorship campaign had driven conservative broadcasters off hundreds of radio stations; it would be more than a decade before the end of the Fairness Doctrine enabled the resurgence of political talk radio.

• Tony Dukoupil ain't cutting the mustard, and that is transparent. Dukoupil promised transparency. The newest CBS Evening News anchor doesn't measure up to the legendary names of Murrow and Cronkite. https://t.co/OKgP1sR6wt

• The FBI searched the home of a Washington Post reporter as part of an investigation into a government contractor’s handling of classified material.

  "Press freedom advocates worry that raid on Washington Post journalist’s home will chill reporting"
  -- Associated Press

  Both ABC and NBC talked about just how rare and remarkable Wednesday’s events were, and how press advocates were concerned about the potential threat to a free press. PBS did a four-minute segment, including a live interview with Gabe Rottman, vice president of policy at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

  The “CBS Evening News” ignored the story.

  Not every network newscast is going to line up, but the Post story was a major one, and it was a strange editorial choice for CBS not to mention it.

• Regarding Bari Weiss: a nugget both interesting and ironic.

  The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin report that Weiss sent a note to staff as they prepared for Dokoupil to launch his new gig as anchor.

  Weiss wrote to staff, “Let’s make sure every single night has something with viral potential. … The goal for this road show is not to deliver the news so much as it is to *drive the news*. We need to *be the news* for these 10 days.”

  You want viral moments? You want to be the news?

  • Hey there! Look at me! My name is Sideshow Bob. Tell your friends!

• After airing a bizarre “salute” to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, there was the equally cringeworthy Evening News segment on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
  Dokoupil: “President Trump today accused Democrats of failing to prevent the attack on the Capitol, while House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the president of ‘whitewashing it.’”

  “Dokoupil’s breathtaking both-sides framing of an attack carried out by a mob of ardent Trump followers sparked swift and widespread criticism, both inside and outside CBS News.”
  -- Oliver Darcy, Status newsletter

  “Some high-profile CBS News staffers were aghast … when Dokoupil's brief mention of the Jan. 6 anniversary was a both-sides mess. Very Fox-y, right?”
  Brian Stelter, Reliable Sources newsletter

  As one observer put it, "The Jan. 6 'both-sideism' comment from Dokoupil was surely welcome at the Trump White House."

• Bari Weiss is a partisan hack, with no prior TV news experience. One CBS News staffer said, ''We are a prideful newsroom, and she’s rubbing people the wrong way.”
  Devil's advocate: Doukopil looks and sounds like a traditional evening news anchor.
  After initial missteps (and firing a senior producer), the “CBS Evening News” felt a bit more stimulating and tighter than the last version of the newscast with multiple anchors. But it doesn’t look all that different from a traditional evening newscast. Not a criticism, merely an observation.
  Worth noting: CBS Saturday Morning with the two new hosts...unwatchable.

  • Bari may not have TV news experience but, she was and is a blogger (theFP.com) - Fully qualified to handle the new position. I'm sure there were no backroom meetings or pressure to knuckle under to some outside source. This is CBS recognizing the power and expertise of Internet content creators and therefore handing over control of the network tv news to a blogger. I'm thinking the other content creators given consideration were Gavin McGinnis, Adam Carolla, Lilly Gaddis and maybe Stuttering John Melendez. The best of the best.

• Dukoupil will always have a place co-hosting the Drew Barrymore show or The View.

• Transparency was promised by Tony Dukoupil and he delivered. We see through him. He is a fraud. And yeah, he is no Walter Cronkite. Say goodnite, Tony.