Tag Archives: news

Up, Up, and Away

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Space X Launch

I have not held back on my feelings for Elon Musk. But his persona and his work for the Trump administration notwithstanding, I will concede that he is the greatest marketer since P. T. Barnum. Barnum was a 19th century showman, self-made entrepreneur, and co-founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. He is often credited for coining the phrase, “There’s a sucker born every minute” although there is no evidence that he actually said it. Elon Mush might have been able to sell shares in his company, SpaceX (Ticker: SPCX), to Barnum. He did manage to sell shares to millions of retail investors.

As of this writing, SPCX had overtaken Amazon to become the world’s fifth-most valuable public company. It trails just behind Microsoft. Its market capitalization sits at approximately $2.66 trillion. This is all within days of setting records as the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history. SpaceX priced its shares at $135 each, offering 555.6 million shares and raising about $75 billion.

It is an amazing achievement when one considers the fact that, on paper, this valuation is unsupported by any reasonable standard. Mainstream financial analysts note that the company’s $2.66 trillion market cap trades at a staggering, speculative 142x price-to-sales ratio, especially considering the company logged a $4.9 billion net loss last year.

Bulls are pricing in Elon Musk’s projection that SpaceX could achieve $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030 following its merger with xAI. xAI is another one of Musk’s companies. It develops artificial intelligence tools and is the creator of the AI chatbot Grok. According to its prospectus, SpaceX has accumulated a total loss of $41.3 billion since it was founded in 2002.

There is a third leg to the SpaceX story. Musk, who became the world’s first trillionaire based on his combined stakes in SpaceX and Tesla, may have started the company as a reusable rocket maker, but the only profitable part of the business today is the Starlink satellite internet division. It has brought the Internet to the world.

The sight of rocket ships (SpaceX Falcon) landing upright on their tails, ready for reuse, excites anyone who, like me, watched Flash Gordon’s spaceship do the same thing on Saturday morning television as a child. But SpaceX is already on to the next thing. It has a new rocket, Starship, which is still in its test phase, and failing spectacularly. SpaceX has also stimulated competition, and one has to consider the future market for launch services to value its profit potential in the years ahead.

Musk wasted no time in putting his company’s new cash infusion to work. Less than a week after the IPO SpaceX announced a $60 billion purchase of Cursor, a privately company currently owned by Anysphere. Cursor is the hottest AI coding tool in the world. It helps developers write, edit and review computer code. This will be one of the biggest AI acquisitions ever. Anthropic, which has filed for its own IPO, currently dominates the AI coding market with its Claude-based tools.

SpaceX share prices rose following the IPO and jumped when the Cursor acquisition was announced. But rational investors still scoff at the idea of paying 140 times revenue for a company. A rational investor will also note that only about five percent of SPCX is in play right now. That makes supply short and raises prices. Beginning sixty days after the IPO (mid-August), the various lockout periods begin to expire. At that point, insiders who had shares before the offering either as employee benefits or private investment, can begin selling their shares. There are hundreds of newly minted millionaires who will want to do that. This will increase supply and would be expected to push the stock price down.

So, the rational investor will stay away and compare buying of SPCX shares to rolling the dice in Las Vegas. Personally, I’ve always enjoyed the shows and the restaurants in Vegas but am not inclined to gamble there. I take a few wild shots on Wall Street instead. This may be one of them.

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Poof! It’s Gone. Maybe.

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We think Donald Trump‘s name has been removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. At least, that what Trump’s handpicked board of directors told the District Court for the District of Columbia in a filing on Saturday. The removal had been ordered by the court two weeks earlier in a decision enforcing the Center’s original statutory name.

Trump’s name was added in December 2025 after he replaced the Kennedy Center’s leadership and the new board voted to rename the institution. The court found this action illegal, ruling that the board cannot unilaterally change the name of a national memorial.

In his 94-page decision, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote, “The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

The renaming triggered a large outcry and a boycott of the Center by patrons, performers, and donors. A crowd of several hundred people gathered on Saturday at the Center to witness the removal of Trump’s name from the exterior. Which brings us to my use of the word “maybe.”

While the Trump lettering was put up by workers on simple lifts, workers Saturday first erected an expansive scaffold in front of the lettering. Then they draped a large curtain or tarp to prevent people from watching their work. Several web cams had been pointed on the sign, transmitting the image around the world. The curtain remains up on Sunday morning. We have only the sworn statement of Trump’s board of directors that the name has been removed.

Why is the curtain still up? Perhaps Trump just couldn’t stand to see the empty space his name once filled. And didn’t want to watch his name coming down.

This is not the end of the lawsuit, which had been brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio trustee who sued her fellow trustees for adding Trump’s name to the title of the Kennedy Center. Hours before Friday’s deadline, two courts denied the Kennedy Center’s last-ditch attempt to delay the removal, even as crews erected scaffolding next to the building.

Judge Cooper ruled at 1 p.m. that the Kennedy Center’s lawyers failed to demonstrate they were likely to win their appeal or that the center would suffer “irreparable harm” if Trump’s name were removed. At 3:46 p.m., Justice Department lawyers representing the center appealed Cooper’s denial, filing an emergency motion for a stay with the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Shortly after 7 p.m., the appeals court denied the second attempt. But the appeal will continue.

The addition of Trump’s name sparked immediate backlash from the arts community and members of the Kennedy family, who argued that the renaming desecrated a living memorial to the assassinated president. Congress established the center in 1964, two months after Kennedy’s death, designating it “the sole national monument to his memory within the city of Washington and its environs.”

Trump’s Department of Justice, paid for by taxpayers, represents him in these cases.

Last week the Center was also sued by the Washington National Opera. The WNO performed in the Center for fifty years but decamped when Trump took over. The opera claims the Center is refusing to return more than $17 million dollars of endowment contributions, gifts and donations which it managed on behalf of the WNO.

June 16 Update

Official word from The Kennedy Center is that the tarps will stay up for the “two-year renovation” and “replacement” of the marble facade slabs. Trumpian subtext, “OK, my name may be removed, but I’m not going to let you see it!!!! Na Na Na Na-Na.” And make no mistake about it, Trump is still the Chairman of The Kennedy Center, and his “Board” are 100% partisan sycophants.  The Kennedy Center is still in mortal danger.

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Trump Meets the Press

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This goes on my list of most memorable television interviews. And I have seen many.

Donald Trump sat for an interview with Kristen Welker, host of NBC’s Meet the Press. I have no idea why. Welker announced that she and her crew had been invited to follow Trump to a rally in Wisconsin, where Trump addressed farmers, one of his most supportive constituent groups. Why they continue to overwhelmingly support him is something else I don’t understand. His policies have crippled their export markets and put them on government subsidies, welfare, and threatened their livelihood. Still, he found himself addressing a friendly crowd. Then he sat down with Welker in a barn in the midst of a pouring rainstorm. As the interviewed progressed, the storm moved inside.

You can find both the transcript and the full video here. You should really see it for yourself.

It began as most Trump interviews do. They spoke about the war with Iran, the “anti-weaponization” fund, and the economy. Trump told his usual lies and Welker just moved on. Then something happened. When Welker moved on to talk about elections, including the recent primary in California, and Trump repeated his lies, Welker followed up and demanded proof. That is a rare event. Welker asked the president for any evidence on the gubernatorial race being fraudulent. He responded by accusing the reporter of being “crooked”. “They’re crooked, just like you’re crooked, your press is crooked. And Meet the Press is crooked,” said Trump.

Welker then defended herself and tried to ask additional questions, with Trump replying: “You’re either crooked or you’re stupid. You play right into their hands with this crap. You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they’re rigged.” Trump then brought up previously repeated false claims that he won the 2020 US presidential election.

When Welker tried to ask additional questions, Trump continued to assert that NBC was “crooked” and ended the interview. “Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” said Trump, taking off his microphone. “Thank you, darling. Have a good time.” He stomped on the microphone as he left. These broadcast-standard microphones typically cost between $350 and $450.

I’ve seen interview subjects walk out on interviews before. But never a president. Some mental health experts have analyzed the walkout through the lens of political psychology. They argue that his sudden exit and verbal attacks (e.g., calling the interviewer and networks “crooked”) illustrate his inability to cope with objective pushback. Professionals point out that because he is used to an environment where his statements are frequently accepted without challenge, being confronted with factual discrepancies causes significant volatility.

Here are the last few minutes from NBC’s transcript:

KRISTEN WELKER:

This $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund that’s going to compensate people who say the federal government weaponized the legal system against them. It’s been blocked by the courts, met with opposition from Republicans –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And Democrats.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– in Congress, and Democrats.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Most, excuse me, mostly Democrats.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mostly Democrats and some Republicans.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Some. Very few Republicans.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Just to be very clear, are you backing off the fund completely as your acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has said, or are you looking for another avenue to revive the fund?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

So let — let me explain what the fund is. People have been hurt so badly by radical left lunatics that worked for the Biden administration and Sleepy Joe. They’re vicious. They’re violent, what they did to people. And of course they went after me more than anybody else. They raided Mar-a-Lago and all the other things. But people have been badly hurt. They’ve committed suicide. They’ve lost their jobs. They’re lost their families. They’ve lost their wives. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost everything over a fake weaponization of government. Now, let me just tell you –

KRISTEN WELKER:

So are you looking for a way to revive it?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Well, look. If it was up to me, I’d pay them the kind of money that they deserve. People have been destroyed. Lives have been destroyed. Many suicides, think of it. People have committed suicide because a bunch of thugs went after them.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You don’t –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

So me, personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea, and so do many other Republicans. You have to get it approved. If they get it approved, that’s great. If they don’t get it approved, I’d be disappointed.

KRISTEN WELKER:

All right. We’re going to motor through this.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

But you have to understand, people have — have been destroyed by crooked politicians, and they should be reimbursed for that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Do you think anyone who attacked police officers on January 6th should get taxpayer money?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I wouldn’t be inclined to say so, but I have to see it. I can tell you this: 97% of those people, you look at them, the FBI or whoever it was, cause you had a lot of crooked cops, you had dirty cops. Comey was a dirty cop.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, there is no evidence to –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

A guy like Bolton was a dirty cop –

KRISTEN WELKER:

But there is no evidence that– but there’s no evidence that people who –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Oh, you think Comey was a straight cop?

KRISTEN WELKER:

We had 170 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Comey was a dirty cop.

KRISTEN WELKER:

No, no, but the people who assaulted police officers.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

They had FBI — listen to me. They had FBI agents ushering them into the building. They had FBI “Go into the building.” Those people are walking around, they’re looking, “Oh, isn’t this nice?” They weren’t in– they were being ushered into the building.

KRISTEN WELKER:

There’s no evidence of that, sir. There’s no evidence of that.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You had a bunch of dirty cops, and frankly, what they did was weaponization of our government.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But sir, there– there’s no evidence of that. More than a thousand people pleaded guilty to crimes –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, well, yeah, no, there’s none. You know what they do?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Would you –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Try looking at the tapes one time.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Would you take it off the table?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Look at the tapes one time.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay, but 172 people did plead guilty to assaulting police officers.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You know why they pled guilty?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Should they be exempt –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Because they told they were going to jail for 15 years –

KRISTEN WELKER:

– from receiving funds?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

– if they didn’t.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Should they –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

They pled guilty because they were frightened. They went down. They were ushered into a building. Many of them were arrested without even going into the building.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You’d be okay with them receiving taxpayer dollars?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

The people were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization. Many of those people should be compensated. Now, with that being said, the, as I understand it, the weaponization fund was going to set up a group of people, people that could be picked by anybody, fair people, smart people, and they will go on an individual case basis.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Okay.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen with the weaponization fund. I love the idea, because people like you, the fake dirty press, the crooked press, people like stupid Biden, he’s not smart enough to know what’s going on, but people that surrounded him, surrounded his beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, what they did to the lives of people, they destroyed people. They sent people to jail who did nothing wrong.

KRISTEN WELKER:

All right, this is, just to be very clear, there’s no evidence of what you’re saying, but let me ask about Todd Blanche.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

There’s a lot of evidence.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let me ask about Todd Blanche.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Listen — listen to me — listen to me.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s talk about Todd Blanche.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

There’s tremendous evidence. There’s nothing but evidence.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, it’s not been presented in a court of a law.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

The election was rigged. It was a dirty election.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And it’s happening again right now in California.

KRISTEN WELKER:

— you’ve never presented evidence –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It’s happening right now in California

KRISTEN WELKER:

– that the 2020 election was rigged.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Right now, it’s look at what’s happening in California.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Where’s the evidence to that?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It’s four days –

KRISTEN WELKER:

The Republicans are doing well in California.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

In California, it’s, no they’re not. They’re dropping fast because it’s a rigged election. Let me tell you, it’s four days and they aren’t even close to coming up with the –

KRISTEN WELKER:

That’s how they count the votes in California.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Do you know why they’re doing that? Because they’re cheating on the election.

KRISTEN WELKER:

There’s — What? Do you have evidence to support that?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

It’s– all I have to do is look. All I have to do is look.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But that’s not evidence.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And I listen. And I listen to people. And let’s see what happens.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But sir, that’s not evidence, and that’s how they count the votes in California–

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Do you think it’s appropriate that they have an election and five days later, they’re nowhere close to picking a winner?

KRISTEN WELKER:

State and local officials acknowledge they are slow. They’re urging–

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

No, they’re crooked.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– they’re urging the votes to be counted quickly. That’s how they vote in California.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

They’re crooked just like you’re crooked, your press is crooked. And Meet the Press is crooked.

KRISTEN WELKER:

To be fair, I’m not crooked. But let’s continue.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Really? Well, you play right into their hands then.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s continue.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You’re either crooked or you’re stupid.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s continue.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You play right into their hands with this stuff. You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they’re rigged. Do you know that I won an election in a landslide and I got 94% bad press.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But Mr. President –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You know why I got that?

KRISTEN WELKER:

– you’ve never presented –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Because you have no credibility.

KRISTEN WELKER:

-evidence. But you’ve never presented evidence it was rigged. Let’s keep talking about, I want to talk about Todd Blanche.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You have more evidence, there’s more evidence than ever presented.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let’s talk about–

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Your elections in this country –

KRISTEN WELKER:

– you went to court.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

We’re like a third world country.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But sir –

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

Your elections are crooked and you’re crooked, and Meet the Press is crooked.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But Mr. President–

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

And so is ABC and CBS and CNN.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But Mr. President–

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

You’re a one-sided crooked network. Sorry. Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President, let’s — please, I traveled all the way to Wisconsin.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I’ve sat in the rain with you–

KRISTEN WELKER:

I traveled all — I know. I traveled all the way–

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

I sat in the rain with you for an hour.

KRISTEN WELKER:

–to Wisconsin.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

On and off in the rain, and I’ve given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press, because you know what?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Mr. President–

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:

A country can never be great with a dishonest press.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– we traveled all — listen. We traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview.

This is one for the record books.

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If It Ain’t Broke…

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The maxim reads, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Advice which generally means don’t try to fix something that works. The odds are you’ll mess it up. In the context of the CBS blockbuster newsmagazine Sixty Minutes, it seems to apply. Unless of course, fixing something broken is not the goal of the new owners of CBS.

Just to bring you up to date, take a deep breath here. Skydance Productions, founded and controlled by David Ellison with a big investment by his father, Oracle founder Larry, bought Paramount Global, parent of CBS, from Paramount’s controlling owner, Shari Redstone. Now breathe in.

As I’ve reported previously, Paramount needed antitrust clearances from several federal agencies to clear the $8 billion merger and observers thought that might be difficult to achieve because Donald Trump was a frequent critic of CBS News, which he had sued, and the CBS program The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Redstone had tried to remain apolitical during her stewardship of Paramount and CBS but faced with the need to get a green light for the sale, she settled Trump’s lawsuit against the advice of most legal advisors, who thought the suit frivolous. That cost CBS $16 million. The Skydance purchase was approved. Skydance is now seeking approval to buy Warner Brothers Discovery for about $111 billion. That would include CNN.

Just in case you have any doubt about the quid pro quo in the Paramount deal, the Federal Communications Commission, one of the agencies that had to sign off on the deal, released filings publicly on July 23, 2025, just one day before formally voting 2-1 to approve the acquisition. The filings were submitted by Skydance’s General Counsel, Stephanie Kyoko McKinnon, and addressed directly to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. They served as a binding framework of concessions to secure regulatory approval.

The official filings outlined several explicit actions to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Dismantling DEI Infrastructure: the combined company would completely eliminate Paramount’s “Office of Global Inclusion” and dissolve any teams or individual job roles focused on DEI. Scrapping Hiring Goals: Skydance committed to ending all numerical and “aspirational goals” related to the race, ethnicity, sex, or gender of job applicants and employee hires in the United States. Scrubbing Public Messaging: The company promised to remove all references to DEI from its public messaging, websites, social media, internal training materials, and corporate messaging. Ideological Bias Mandate: In a related move to satisfy the Trump administration’s scrutiny of CBS News, the filings also committed to establishing a corporate “ombudsman” for at least two years to investigate internal and external complaints of ideological bias.

It should not surprise anyone that Skydance fell right in line with the Trump administration’s demands. Both Larry and David Ellison are widely considered to be closely aligned with Donald Trump and his political movement. Both have developed strong business and personal relationships with Trump. Larry Ellison is a major bankroller of Republican campaigns.

David Ellison proceeded to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the number one rated broadcast in late night. Trump cheered. He hired Bari Weiss, an opinion columnist who had started her own web site, to run CBS News as editor-in-chief. Wiess had no broadcast experience and proceeded with a wave of firings. She replaced co-anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois with Tony Dokoupil on the CBS Evening News, the house that Walter Cronkite built. Both Dickerson and DuBois quit. Dickerson had been with CBS 16 years. DuBois 21 years. She then shut down the entire CBS News Radio department, firing 90 staff members and leaving 700 affiliates without a source of network news. That was the 99-year-old house that Edward R. Murrow built.

Then she turned her aim on Sixty Minutes. For the other actions, Ellison and Weiss justified themselves on financial grounds. But they did not supply convincing evidence to show that they were eliminating losing positions. In the case of Sixty Minutes, they didn’t even try to make that argument. It would have been a lie.

The 2025-2026 season of 60 Minutes experienced a significant ratings increase, averaging 9.1 million viewers. This represents a +9% growth in linear viewership and a +5% increase in the key adults 25-54 demographic compared to the prior season. In fact, 60 Minutes ratings on television have exhibited a resilient and broadly upward trend, retaining its title as the #1 news program in America for 52 consecutive years.

And for those who argue the future for CBS is on the digital realm, note that the show’s total reach has been bolstered by significant multi-platform growth, expanding its audience beyond traditional TV broadcasts. Digital metrics reflect massive gains… 2.5 billion video views across major social networks (more than double the previous year), 85% year-over-year growth on TikTok. This is not a failure. It is instead proof of legacy media making the transition to the digital age.

CBS’s motivation for attacking Sixty Minutes is transparently clear. Donald Trump doesn’t like the program, so the new owners don’t like it either.

In short order Bari delayed the broadcast of a report by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi about the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan men to the maximum-security El Salvador prison known as CECOT. A new statement from the Trump administration was edited in. Alfonsi was public and vocal in her outrage, calling the decision “political, not editorial.” Correspondent Anderson Cooper announced he would leave the program after twenty years. He did not explain why. He will continue to anchor Anderson Cooper 360° on CNN. Of course, Skydance may wind up owning that too.

After Sixty Minutes ended its season in May, Bari fired executive producer Tanya Simon, a 30-year veteran of the program, alongside executive editor Draggan Mihailovich and correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Former CBS correspondent Steve Kroft and current correspondent Scott Pelley openly revolted.

Bari replaced Simon with Nick Bilton, a tech journalist and filmmaker with no traditional TV broadcast news experience. At his first meeting with the Sixty Minutes staff, Bilton was confronted by an outraged Pelley. Pelley relentlessly grilled the newly installed executive producer and accused Weiss of “murdering ’60 Minutes.’ She does not love this place; she was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.” Leaked audio was obtained by media outlets, which they haven’t posted but are reporting extensively.

The next day Bilton ripped Pelley’s “performative display of hostility” in a letter to the journalist, firing him “for cause.”

Dear Mr. Pelley:

I meant what I said in my letter last week to the 60 Minutes team: joining 60 Minutes is the honor of my career and I am grateful to be working alongside the people who have contributed to the most important television journalism brand this country has ever produced.

While I’m new to 60 Minutes, I’ve devoted my career to investigative journalism and storytelling. I started this job excited to collaborate and to benefit from the wisdom and experience of the 60 Minutes veterans, with you among them. For that reason, one of the first things I did in my new role was call you to talk and invite you to dinner.

It is a profound disappointment that you rejected that overture and chose ambush instead. Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt. I welcome a diversity of viewpoints and respectful debate among the team, but this was nothing of the sort. Yesterday’s performative display of hostility — enacted in front of the staff instead of in a civil, private conversation — demonstrated that you have no interest in contributing to the future success of the show, or approaching my new tenure with a mind open to collaboration and progress.

I am here to deliver first-in-class news programming, not to make headlines about newsroom drama. I am eager to work alongside those who share this goal.

Despite yesterday’s misconduct, I had hoped that in sitting down with you today we could find a path forward together. You made clear that you are not interested in such a path. Your antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear. And I have heard you.

I therefore write on behalf of CBS News, Inc. (“CBS”) to inform you that your employment with CBS is terminated for cause effective immediately. Enclosed is your formal termination letter.

Sincerely,
Nick Bilton
Executive Producer, 60 Minutes

Pelley released his own letter, repeating many of the arguments he reportedly made during the meeting.

There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.

The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58th season, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.  

“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.  

The waste is heartbreaking.

Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.
 
For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.

At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.  

I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.  

Scott Pelley

Weiss addressed Pelley’s statement herself on the regular staff conference call the next morning….

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. We cannot do our work without it. That foundation was broken on Monday, and despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back, unfortunately we weren’t able to do so, and so we had to part ways.

We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose. That unfortunate outcome does not discount from the amazing contributions and work that Scott Pelley has done for CBS and for 60 Minutes over the course of his career.”

Bari Weiss

And that caused Pelley to send out a second statement of his own:

I’m saddened to see the transcript of the CBS News morning editorial meeting.

Bari Weiss knows wbat she said is not true. In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to “find a way back,” as Weiss said in the editorial meeting. At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution. Weiss and Tom Cibrowski were openly hostile from the start. ”Firing” was raised by Cibrowski in the first 15 seconds. No CBS executive, at any time, suggested “a way back.” To say so now is disingenuous. And they know it.

In fact, Weiss, Cibrowski and Nick Bilton refused to answer my questions. I asked Weiss a number of questions about why she fired the entire senior staff of 60 Minutes a few days before and without cause.

“I’m not answering that question,” she said.
I asked why she did not come to 60 Minutes’ offices to explain her actions.
“I’m not answering that question.”


Why did she fire 60 Minutes Executive Producer Tanya Simon?
“I’m not answering that question.”
Why fire correspondent Cecilia Vega?
“I’m not answering that question.”
Why fire correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi?
“I’m not answering that question.”


Throughout the meeting, the CBS executives were abrupt, dismissive and uninterested in dialogue. Suddenly, and to my surprise, Cibrowski declared, “This conversation is over!”
“Why?” I asked. “I’m happy to answer your questions.”
“This conversation is over!” Cibrowski repeated, raising his voice and standing to show me the door.
“I’m happy to keep talking,” I added.


No constructive dialogue was allowed by the CBS executives at any point. I was stonewalled for about 10 minutes and then, for no apparent reason, “This conversation is over.”


I am pained that the staff of CBS News was misled in the Wednesday morning conference call. These executives cannot gain the trust of the staff with lies. This is antithetical to everything ·we stand for and reveals contempt for what journalists do.

Scott Pelley

The lawyers can battle over contracts and obligations. I’m sure Pelley, who is 68-years old and has been earning millions each year for decades considered his action before taking his very public step to confront his new bosses. When you do that to the boss there are consequences. A bigger question will be what becomes of the property that revolutionized news programs on television. And what will become of responsible journalism overall.

Sixty Minutes was not perfect. A product created by humans never is. But Sixty Minutes tried its best to adhere to a standard and it did so better than most. I find the allegations Pelley makes in his letter most disturbing.

The Society of Professional Journalists, to promote ethical journalism, emphasizes four principles. I teach these to students in my course on Media Law and Ethics. The first is, “Seek truth and report it.” If journalists are denied the right to do that. If they are required instead to report what their owners, publishers, or government tell them to report. We are lost.

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Memorial Day

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Memorial Day is a day for reflection. The day honors the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Observed every year on the last Monday of May, Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day in a nod to the tradition of placing flowers or other decorative displays at gravesites.

Memorial Day dates back to the Civil War, in which 620,000 soldiers died. The high death toll due in part to the fact that the total includes the fallen from both sides. Approximately 360,000 Union soldiers and 260,000 Confederate soldiers. All Americans.

What we now call Memorial Day became a federal holiday in 1971. Today, we remember our fallen from all our wars.

Post-Civil War Military Death Tolls
War or ConflictYears of U.S. InvolvementTotal U.S. Military Deaths
World War II1941–1945405,399
World War I1917–1918116,516
Vietnam War1965–197358,220
Korean War1950–195336,574
Global War on Terror (Iraq & Afghanistan)2001–2021~7,073
Spanish-American War18982,446
Persian Gulf War1990–1991383

It is common on this day to visit cemeteries and memorials, such as the Arlington National Cemetery, to place American flags and wreaths on the graves of the fallen. At 3:00 p.m. local time, all Americans are encouraged to pause for a minute of silence to reflect on those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Many communities host local parades and commemorative ceremonies to honor their local fallen heroes.

It is also common for the civilian leaders of our government to pay tribute by placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Solder. Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and Pete Hegseth performed those duties at Arlington on this day. Trump paid special tribute in a formal address at Arlington to the thirteen soldiers killed, so far, in our current war in Iran.

The United States has a long tradition requiring the military to answer to the civilian leadership. The Constitution makes the president Commander-In-Chief but at the same time assigns to Congress the power to declare war. Congress hasn’t done that since June 4, 1942, when it declared war against Axis-aligned Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania during World War II. Prior to that, Congress declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941, followed by Germany and Italy on December 11, 1941.

Yet at least in my lifetime, we almost always seem to be at war. Since World War II, the United States has engaged in major conflicts—such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the post-9/11 wars—without formal declarations of war. Instead, military actions have been conducted under Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMFs) passed by Congress. Or via unilateral executive action. Congress did pass a so-called War Powers Resolution which is supposed to give the legislative branch the ability to stop a president’s unilateral military actions. But historically, Congress has rarely been willing or able to invoke it. And presidents, including the current administration, argue the Act is UnConstitutional.

The Framers feared concentrating the decision to go to war in the hands of a single person. James Madison noted that the executive branch was “most interested in war, and most prone to it,” which is why they entrusted the power to the legislature. The original draft of the Constitution gave Congress the power to make war. The Framers specifically changed this to declare war, with Madison recording that this substitution empowered the president only to repel “sudden attacks” on the country.

Presidents have gone well beyond that “original intent.”

Something to reflect on.

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Funerals at CBS

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There are two funerals on tap this week at CBS, Inc., the company where I spent the first decade of my professional career. When I joined it in 1974, it had recently changed its name from the Columbia Broadcasting System to better reflect its position as a major media company, not just a broadcaster. Its four core lines of business were Broadcasting (TV and radio), Records (music), Publishing (books and magazines), and Musical Instruments/Toys.

One thing it did not change was its leadership. William S. Paley was the legendary media tycoon who built CBS from a small, struggling 16-station radio network into a multi-billion-dollar global broadcasting and entertainment empire. He is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern American broadcasting. Paley entered the picture in September 1928, when his wealthy family bought a majority stake a struggling radio company. He was subsequently named president at just 26 years old, going on to transform the then tiny network into a media empire. In 1974, he was firmly in control.

I can’t imagine what he would think of today’s CBS. Faced with a business climate which seems to value size over all else, CBS has gone from owner to owner in the post Paley years. Today it is owned by Paramount Skydance (formally known as Paramount, a Skydance Corporation). The network’s ownership structure underwent a massive shift when Skydance Media, led by tech heir and filmmaker David Ellison, officially completed an $8 billion merger with CBS’s previous parent company, Paramount Global, on August 7, 2025. Ellison’s takeover of the storied broadcasting was aided by a cash guarantee from his father Larry. Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, played the critical role of primary financial bankroller and majority equity owner in the Skydance acquisition of Paramount Global (and by extension, CBS).

Which brings us to this week’s funerals. Not unplanned deaths. These are self-inflicted executions.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

First to die will be The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It will air its final episode on May 21. The Late Show franchise originally began on August 30, 1993, when David Letterman launched the inaugural Late Show with David Letterman. It was a bold attempt for CBS to compete in the late-night hours, where NBC’s Tonight Show had reigned supreme seemingly since the beginning of time. I remember gathering with my dormmates around the communal television after a long day of classes and studying to relax with Johnny Carson. When Carson retired, Letterman, who had a program which followed Carson, seemed the heir apparent. NBC instead chose comedian Jay Leno, leaving Letterman free. CBS swooped in.

When Letterman retired in 2015, after hosting for 22 years, CBS selected Stephen Colbert, host of his own show on the Comedy Central channel, to succeed him. In the picture above you can see Letterman and Colbert, together last week to throw their own wake. What better way than by gleefully tossing CBS office furniture, including a desk chair and sofas, plus watermelons — a signature Letterman gag — off the side of the building, aimed at the target below: a giant CBS logo.

The official reason provided by CBS for canceling The Late Show is financial, though the decision is heavily shadowed by a massive corporate and political timing controversy. CBS did not reveal detailed financial information. For many the show’s cancellation carries the stench of suspected political interference. Publicly, media critics, industry insiders, and even former host Letterman have vehemently rejected the financial excuse, calling CBS executives “lying weasels” and accusing them of political cowardice.

In July 2025, Paramount paid a $16 million legal settlement to Donald Trump after he sued over how 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris. Days later, Colbert ruthlessly mocked his own parent company on air, calling the payout a “big fat bribe”. At the exact moment Colbert made these comments, Paramount was desperately seeking crucial regulatory approval from the Trump administration’s FCC for its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. Just days after Colbert’s monologue, CBS stunned the industry by canceling the show. Weeks later, the FCC approved the multibillion-dollar Skydance merger. Trump later gloated publicly on social media, bragging that Colbert had been “fired.”

CBS Radio News

The second funeral will be held at the end of the Friday. On that day CBS permanently shuts down CBS News Radio, brining a historic 99-year era of American broadcasting to a sudden end.

Sometime when I was in grade school, I set my clock radio to wake me up at 7AM Chicago time. The radio was tuned to WBBM, the CBS owned station. At that time, I heard The CBS World News Roundup. I have started my day with that broadcast most days since. That is something in the neighborhood of 65 years. But the CBS News Roundup, and the CBS News Hourly reports at the top of every hour of every day, can trace their history back to 1928. This shutdown, ordered by Larry Ellison’s pick as Editor-in-Chief of CBS News, Bari Weiss, completely dismantles the original foundation of William Paley’s media empire and eliminates all remaining jobs within the radio news division.

Finances again are blamed. Legacy media has been heavily battered by years of declining advertising revenue and shifting listener habits as audiences steadily migrated toward podcasts, social media, and digital streaming platforms. But creative leadership could have explored options. The audio medium of radio is perfect for podcasts and streaming. The new bosses at CBS clearly had their eye only on the issue of paying down the Ellison’s debt. The shutdown functions as part of a larger 6% staff reduction across the entire CBS News workforce under the network’s new Paramount Skydance corporate ownership.

There was a time when the government insisted broadcasters devote time to news and public affairs. And they insisted content be fair and balanced and provide opportunities for differing viewpoints to be heard. This was the price one paid for the privilege of controlling one of the limited number of broadcast channels available, as the words of the Communications Act read, “In the public interest, convenience, and necessity.” There were also station owners who took that requirement to heart, desiring to serve their communities and their nation. Those visionaries are long gone.

The CBS Radio Network’s sudden exit leaves roughly 700 local affiliate stations nationwide without their primary hourly national news feeds. Major local all-news stations, like KNX in Los Angeles, WBBM in Chicago, and WWJ in Detroit, had to immediately assure listeners that local reporting would continue while they frantically negotiated new contracts with national syndication competitors like ABC News, Fox News, or NBC News.

Media historians and former network legends have reacted with grief, with former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather lamenting, “It’s another piece of America that is gone”. Until this final week, CBS News Radio was the absolute last of the three original national U.S. radio networks (alongside NBC and the Mutual Broadcasting System) still operating under its original parent brand.

The World News Roundup was the longest-running continuous program in broadcast history. And the network famously invented modern wartime reporting with Edward R. Murrow’s London Blitz broadcasts.

I will have to find another way to start my day.

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Ted Turner 1938-2026

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Some people are visionaries. Some people are great leaders. Few people can do both at the same time. Ted Turner was one of those special people.

In the wake of his death on May 6 at the age of 87, much has been written about his brash in-your-face style. I never met or worked for him. But I have many friends and colleagues who did. To a person, they sing his praises as a tough but fair leader. That he was a visionary is clear when you consider his impact on media in general and journalism in particular.

I remember sitting in the WBBM-TV newsroom in Chicago in 1979, when Turner announced his plans for CNN, the Cable News Network. I was a writer and producer at the CBS owned station and most of the people in our newsroom though Turner’s idea was crazy. I thought otherwise.

Turner has already had a major impact on the media landscape. The 1970s saw the spread of cable television systems across the nation. These stations repeated the broadcasts of the TV stations in their markets, offering better TV pictures but little else. Turner saw an opportunity. That’s what visionaries do.

Operating out of Atlanta, in 1970 Turner bought WJRJ-TV, a struggling UHF station launched in 1967. He renamed it WTCG (Turner Communications Group), jokingly claiming it stood for “Watch This Channel Grow”. On December 17, 1976, Turner used a satellite to beam WTCG’s signal nationwide, creating the first nationally distributed independent station. He allowed the cable companies to use it for free. He made money selling what was now advertising for a nation-wide audience. In 1979, the call letters were changed to WTBS. Over the years, it used various brands like “SuperStation WTBS,” “TBS Superstation,” and finally just “TBS”.

That was just the start.

Turner’s defining achievement was CNN, the Cable News Network. which he launched in 1980. At a time when television news was confined to fixed evening broadcasts, he gambled that audiences would want a constant stream of reporting, and he was right. CNN’s live coverage of the Persian Gulf War made the network a global force and helped normalize the modern era of 24-hour news.

He was never content with one success. Turner expanded into entertainment with TNT, Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies after acquiring valuable film and animation libraries. He also bought the Atlanta Braves, giving the city a beloved team and tying his name to Atlanta’s rise as a major sports and media center.

Turner’s public image was as memorable as his business record. He was outspoken, impatient with convention, and comfortable being controversial. That directness earned him the nickname “The Mouth of the South,” but it also reflected a confidence that helped him bet on ideas others dismissed.

Beyond media, Turner devoted much of his later life to philanthropy and conservation. He gave about $1 billion to establish the United Nations Foundation, co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and used his land holdings to support wildlife restoration, especially bison conservation.

He also became one of the country’s great landowners and a passionate advocate for the natural world. His ranches, herds, and preservation efforts made him a larger-than-life figure in environmental circles, while projects like Captain Planet reflected his desire to teach younger generations about stewardship.

In his final years, Turner lived with Lewy body dementia, which he disclosed in 2018. Even as his health declined, his influence remained visible in the media world he helped create and in the institutions that grew from his philanthropy. He is survived by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Turner had three wives, including the Oscar winning actress Jane Fonda. They all survive him.

Turner’s life was marked by audacity, reinvention, and outsized effect. He turned cable television into a global platform, made philanthropy part of his public identity, and left behind a media landscape that still bears his imprint. For better or worse, much of modern television carries the stamp of Ted Turner. He was one-of-a-kind.

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