Posts filed under ‘CBS Inc.’
The American Military Industrial Complex is Smiling Tonight!
I read something a few weeks back about how ISIS in Iraq has commandeered a huge amount of military equipment we paid for with Our Tax Dollars during the 2013 invasion. The supposed “training” of the Iraqi army George W. and Co. said they were doing was a farce and when ISIS emerged, the so-called army cut and ran, leaving billions of dollars of weapons (like humvees at $200,000 a pop) lying around. So now we’re bombing Iraq again and the the billions of dollars of military equipment we paid for are being blowing up by the people we paid to build them in the first place.
Aye yie yie. I’m sure the military industrial complex is drinking up a storm tonight but I’m SMFDH. Our tax dollars down the shit hole, again:
(Image via Wikimedia)
When President Obama announced US airstrikes in Iraq, most observers understood that the US would be bombing members of ISIS. What many did not know was that, in a twist of such bitterly symbolic irony that it could only occur in the Middle East, the US would also be bombing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of American military equipment.
Here’s why: in the decade since the 2003 US-led Iraq invasion, the US has spent a fortune training and arming the Iraqi army in the hopes of readying it to secure the country once America left. That meant arming the Iraqi army with high-tech and extremely expensive American-made guns, tanks, jeeps, artillery, and more.
But the Iraqi army has been largely a failure. When ISIS invaded northern Iraq from Syria in June, the Iraqi forces deserted or retreated en masse. Many of them abandoned their American equipment. ISIS scooped it up themselves and are now using it to rampage across Iraq, seizing whole cities, terrorizing minorities, and finally pushing into even once-secure Kurdish territory. All with shiny American military equipment.
So the US air strikes against ISIS are in part to destroy US military equipment, such as the artillery ISIS has been using against Kurdish forces.
If it weren’t for the military equipment the U.S. walked away from, ISIS wouldn’t be near as powerful and we might not be re-inserting ourselves into that country 11 years after I stood on the protest line doing what I could to stop it because I knew it would be a disaster. But, voila, here we are.
That said, guess who’s on the corporate media? The people who want to make more war.
Geezus.
Ted Cruz Thinks We’re as Dumb as a Rock
Ted Cruz had the gall to tell a bold-faced lie on CBS this morning thinking, apparently, that people who hear it are too dumb to know it is a lie. Or else he doesn’t care that he’s known as an outright liar which tells me that he’s a pretty scary dude.
Then again, it’s also a testament to how absolutely awful our so-called-news media has become i.e., it’s outrageous that a politician feels he or she can tell a humongous lie on live television and not have the show’s host jump up and down and scream in disgust.
It’s Time to Write Off CBS News as News
Jay Rosen is my go-to guy for all things journalism:
Here’s what he’s talking about: Accounts Differ to F.B.I. and CBS on Benghazi
Get Ready For Two Years of Trump-Might-Run Coverage Even Though Everyone Knows He Won’t
It would be one thing if “E! News” did this but when the supposed “real” news outlets do it it’s pretty disgusting. In short, get ready to get played:
Here we go again.
More than three years ahead of the 2016 election, Donald Trump is already hinting at a presidential run, and the media — though certain this time around that he can’t be serious — are covering it anyway.
Dubbed a “sideshow” by NBC’s Chuck Todd and a “serial presidential campaign explorer” by CBS News, Trump is being accused by the press of engaging in yet another publicity stunt. “Folks,” the NBC News political team flatly declared this week, “he isn’t going to run.”
But don’t for one second think that means an end to Trump coverage. And lots of it.
Even as reporters suggest that Trump should not be taken seriously, many media organizations continue to cover him as a potential legitimate candidate, as they did in 2012. The reason for that is something Trump, the executive producer and host of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” is very familiar with: ratings.
Profiles in Courage (Not)
CBS News: No GOP Backers Of Gun Control Filibuster Would Agree To An Interview
CBS News called out 14 Republican senators on Tuesday for declining requests to be interviewed about their proposed filibuster of an upcoming gun control bill.
The senators—including minority leader Mitch McConnell—are part of an effort, led by Kentucky’s Rand Paul, to block any potential expansion of gun laws in the wake of the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. On Tuesday’s “CBS This Morning,” congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes reported on the lobbying being done by families of some of the Newtown victims. She then said that none of the potential filibustering senators had agreed to an interview.
“We asked all 14 Republican senators for an interview about their filibuster threat, but none of them were available,” Cordes said.
CBS Lets NRA Write its Headline
There’s an article up this morning over at CBSNews.com titled: Is America Irreversibly Pro-Gun? These two sentences appear at the end of the third paragraph:
The biggest prize for gun control advocates is a national background check system for gun purchases. But after talks on the issue between Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., broke down in recent weeks, even that proposal, which enjoys 90 percent supporting the latest CBS News poll, will be difficult to enact.
So, CBS cites a poll showing 90% of Americans support a national background check system but the headline asks if America is “irreversibly pro-gun?” What? Is the NRA writing CBS’s headlines?
CBS Trying to Make Itself Relevant
The big headline at CBSNews.com tonight:
Twitter: 250,000 Users’ Data Compromised in Hacking Attacks
Twitter said today that it recently detected a series of attempts to hack into user data, and that the attackers may have successfully absconded with some users’ information.
In a blog post Friday afternoon, Twitter explained the situation, and the steps it has taken to fight off the hackers.
We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later. However, our investigation has thus far indicated that the attackers may have had access to limited user information – usernames, email addresses, session tokens and encrypted/salted versions of passwords – for approximately 250,000 users.
Twitter said in the post that a very small number of users were affected by the hacking, but it encouraged everyone who uses the service to ensure that they are practicing “good password hygiene, on Twitter and elsewhere on the Internet.”
Here’s the perspective CBS “News” doesn’t give: In 2012, there were 500 million Twitter users. So when 250,000 of them are hacked that’s BIG news? Really?
My sense is that CBS is desperate to insert the word “Twitter” into its “news” feed so it can get — wait for it — Twitter hits. Aaaah.
CBS’s CEO Doesn’t Get Why CBS News is in the Tank
Is it any wonder the news we get from CBS is cheaply produced (do it have any foreign correspondents anymore?), boring, rote and unimaginative? CBS’s boss isn’t all that into it:
This morning CBS CEOLes Moonves participated in a forum sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, a portion of that conversation focused on CBS News. Moonves talked about how happy he was with the current state of the news division, and how he viewed it as part of the company. In something of a throwback Moonves said that while CBS News makes money, it is not primarily viewed as a profit engine, rather, it is part of the public interest.
“When you are a network, a public company like CBS, there is a public trust factor, and I take that really seriously. Our news division does an extraordinary job of providing a public service,” Moonves said. “You talk about how the early ratings were off this year, well, part of the reason is that we had four nights of debates, which pre-empted — God forbid — “Two and a Half Men,” and we took a hit.
[…]
“I think as long as you have a network you have to have a news division. People say, well, your news is in last place so what do you need it for? You could make more money — which is true — with other things [in those time periods],” Moonves said. “I think right now with the terrific new shift of Jeff Fager and David Rhodes, our news has gotten very serious, we have gotten back to basics, right now our early show is the only one that is growing, our evening news is the only one that is growing. We are doing legitimate, hard news and people really want that.”
Poor Les. He doesn’t get it. I haven’t watched CBS television news for along time (other than my local Denver station) because it doesn’t tell me anything I don’t already know (here’s lookin’ at you Internets) and no way would I say it’s “hard news” unless I harken back to the days of Walter Cronkite.
If CBS’s ratings are “off this year” Les, I really don’t think it’s because there were four debate nights. I have a feeling they’re “off” because anyone who’s really into news can get way more news by clicking on a few websites than they can watching your “public service” broadcasts.
Geezus. After reading this I have no hope whatsoever that the CBS news division will ever improve if this is the attitude at the top.
TV News Cares More About Ryan’s Fitness Routine Than Arctic Ice Melt
When, oh when, will we have a better media?
Since June, the major TV news outlets have devoted seven full segments to Paul Ryan’s physical fitness and P90X workout routine, and only one to Arctic sea ice loss. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and MSNBC have each covered Paul Ryan’s workout routine as much or more than Arctic sea ice loss.
(Via.)
One — one — mention of Arctic sea ice loss amongst six “news” outlets in four months. F-o-u-r months.
Stunning.
News in the USA
Lyrics:
Dirty Laundry by Don Henley:
I make my living off the Evening News
Just give me something-something I can use
People love it when you lose,
They love dirty laundryWell, I coulda been an actor, but I wound up here
I just have to look good, I don’t have to be clear
Come and whisper in my ear
Give us dirty laundryKick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em all aroundWe got the bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who
Comes on at five
She can tell you ’bout the plane crash with a gleam
In her eye
It’s interesting when people die-
Give us dirty laundry
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/don+henley/dirty+laundry_20042033.html ]
Can we film the operation?
Is the head dead yet?
You know, the boys in the newsroom got a
Running bet
Get the widow on the set!
We need dirty laundryYou don’t really need to find out what’s going on
You don’t really want to know just how far it’s gone
Just leave well enough love
Eat your dirty laundryKick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re downKick ’em when they’re up
Kick ’em when they’re down
Kick ’em when they’re stiff
Kick ’em all aroundDirty little secrets
Dirty little lies
We got our dirty little fingers in everybody’s pie
We love to cut you down to size
We love dirty laundryWe can do “The Innuendo”
We can dance and sing
When it’s said and done we haven’t told you a thing
We all know that Crap is King
Give us dirty laundry!
Video via.
Lyrics via.
Flagstaff Fire — Eerily Beautiful Photo
The Flagstaff Fire is 40% contained but it’s windy tonight and I smell smoke. But hey, I’m still vertical and on the right side of the grass so there’s this: an eerily beautiful photo from a CBSDenvert slide show of the Flagstaff fire.
This is my favorite:
(Image via: Denver.CBSLocal.com)
If It’s Sunday It’s White, Republican Men
From Think Progress and FAIR:
An exhaustive new study by media watchdog Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting shows that the Sunday morning talk shows have been dominated over the last eight months by white, Republican men.
Between June 2011 and February of this year, 70 percent of all one-on-one interviewees on the four biggest political talk shows — NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday — were Republicans. The numbers were even more lopsided in favor of men and white guests:
In the last years of the Bush administration I read an article — don’t remember where or the name of the author — that talked about interviews with several news honchos about the prevalence of Republican men on the Sunday morning talk shows. The honchos unanimously said Republicans were on more often than Democrats because a Republican was in the White House.
Guess we know now that was a big fat lie.
12 White Men
Ah yes, the liberal media (my Tweet of the Day):
Outrageous. I’m so glad I don’t watch them.
I’m sure Up w/Chris Hayes will have both women and minorities as will Melissa Harris-Perry. Watch them!
Sunday’s Face the Nation — Six Republicans, One Democrat
Ah yes, the “liberal media:”
I don’t know who “Barry” is but Debby Wasserman Schultz is the only Democrat among Newt Gingrich, Reince Priebus (the head of the RNC), Michelle Bachmann, Rep. Allen West of Florida (R-Insane), Donald Trump and Diaz-Balart (there are several prominent people in Florida’s Diaz-Balart family. I don’t know specifically which one will be on on Sunday, but they’re Republicans.
Anyway, this is CBS. Righties point to CBS as one of the most liberal outlets in the nation.
Yeah. Right.
Gimmie Some More Politics!
Geezus, as if we don’t already have it up to here with D.C.-centered political “news:”
The half-hour Sunday public affairs program on CBS, “Face the Nation,” will become an hour-long program next spring, matching its rivals on other television networks.
“I cannot remember when I’ve been happier to break a story than I am to tell you this,” the program’s moderator, Bob Schieffer, said as he told viewers about the expansion on Sunday morning.
“Face the Nation,” which dates to 1954, is one of the longest-running news programs on television and is a point of pride for CBS News. Executives within the news division have wanted to expand the program to an hour for many years, but they have not succeeded until now, in part due to the differing schedules of the network’s local stations.
The hour-long format will start in April and will initially stay in place for 20 weeks, at least through the political conventions next summer. The executives hope that the format change will then become permanent.
Blarg.
CBS Rewrites History of the Iraq War
This happened last night on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley:
A December 1 CBS Evening News report about the Iraq War managed to mislead viewers about the start of the war and severely diminish the loss of civilian lives.
Reporting on the handover of the U.S. military headquarters to Iraqi forces, anchor Scott Pelley announced:
What began in 2003 as an effort to overthrow Saddam Hussein became a vicious religious war, pitting Iraqi against Iraqi–with the U.S. caught in the middle.Of course, the United States invaded Iraq with the stated aim of disarming Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, which did not exist. Any serious conversation of the war should include this fact.
And the United States, as the instigators of that war, cannot credibly be considered to be “caught in the middle.”
Ah yes, the poor United States. It got “caught in the middle” of a religious war so hey, the poor widdle country (the US) couldn’t help that it had to stay there for such a long time.
Wow.
In Canada, lying during a newscast is illegal. I wish that were so in the US.
UCDavis Live via CBS
At 9:16 p.m. ET: Here’s a live feed from the campus of UCDavis (see below if you don’t know what’s going on there).
Granted, it’s via the corporate media — CBS — so it could go dark at any minute but it’s on now, here.
CBS’s Scott Pelley Implies The World Has Turned Against Wikileaks
Just minutes ago I was watching the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley. Pelley was reporting on Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, and his impending extradition to Sweden, “to face rape and sexual molestation claims.”
Photo: Graeme Robertson, The Guardian (UK)
Toward the end of his report, Pelley said Wikileaks funding has “dried up,” implying that the world as a whole has turned against the organization. What Pelley didn’t tell his audience is that there has been an organized campaign by the 1%-ers to starve Wikileaks of funding because the documents Wikileaks has leaked (and has the potential to leak) threatens their control of the planet:
Gotta love the “liberal media,” huh?
CBSNews: A Dead Homeless Man is a “Street Creature”
In an apparent effort to reinforce the fascist state, Tom Mustin of CBS4Denver reported this evening about a protest today in Denver calling attention to the one-year-anniversary of the death of a homeless African-American man who died under extraordinarily suspicious circumstances while in custody of the Denver Police Department.
Insofar as the establishment tries to make the police/state look like they’re in the right, and lowly citizen are in the wrong, Mustin referred to the dead man as a “street creature.”
A “street creature?”
What with more and more of us suffering in this financial crisis, how long will it be before we become ostracised, faceless “street creatures?”
When a “news” organization is this cold when referring to a segment of our population, we’re in deep trouble.
Oh, and I say this having spent 8 hours in the last two days at a food bank, handing out food to mothers and fathers and kids. I.e., “street creatures.”
Schwarzenegger Rumor Reported as Fact by CBS4Denver’s Shaun Boyd
This is how rumors get started: The top story tonight on my local CBS4News in Denver was the saga of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The segment, reported by Shaun Boyd
concluded with Boyd reading the text of this Tweet by Patrick Schwarzenegger from minutes ago earlier today:
Boyd concluded her report with: Patrick “signed the Tweet, Patrick SHRIVER.”
He did? Anyone see that?
I don’t know where Boyd got her information but obviously, she didn’t confirm it. It would have taken five seconds.
I know what’s going on with the Schwarzeneggers isn’t Earth shattering but this is indicative of how “journalists” have lost their way around here.
Bottom line? Don’t trust a thing you see on teevee. Rumor, hearsay and gossip is now reported as fact. “Journalists” are apparently too busy or too underpaid or too whatever to do their basic job.
(I will post video if I can find it. I didn’t have my DVR on when this happened.)
The CBS Evening “News?”
Just saw an ad for the Monday — April 11, 2011 — edition of the “CBS Evening News.”
I don’t remember what the ad touted, but that’s not the point. A “news” organization covers the news, right? The “news” means what’s happening at the moment, on that day. So a “news” organization that advertises on a Friday what it’s going to cover on a Monday can’t be about news.
Just sayin’.
Dumbed Down
Oy. Just saw an ad for my local “CBS4 Morning News” (Denver).
They want me to watch because they’ve got a new daily feature: The “word of the day!”
So, they want me to sit through an hour-long show that cycles through the same three “news” stories and the weather and traffic every ten minutes so I can learn a new word? As if there aren’t other, less painful and boring ways of learning new words?
I don’t think so.
Geezus.
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No Labor Officials Scheduled (Thus Far) to Be on Any of the Sunday Talk Shows
UPDATED below.
So hey, what was that again about the “liberal media?”
(Image via.)
I tend not to get into the business of questioning the guest choices made by the Sunday shows. But if there were ever a time the networks would want to book labor officials to appear, you’d think it would be now. The Wisconsin standoff is the most important domestic political story in the country right now, and as many commentators at those same networks have pointed out, both sides view this battle as ground zero in a national war that may determine the fate of organized labor in America.
But labor officials are beginning to fear that none of them will be invited on this weekend to give voice to the labor point of view. This, even as tough-talking anti-union governor Chris Christie is set to do a major appearance on CBS on Sunday.
One AFL-CIO official tells me that reps for the AFL-CIO and other unions reached out to all the big three network shows — ABC’s This Week, NBC’s Meet the Press, and CBS’ Face the Nation — to ask if they would invite on any labor officials. Thus far the answer has been cool to indifferent, the official says.
It is so true that average working Americans don’t have a voice on the corporate media — even on the “public affairs” shows.
UPDATED: After an afternoon of outrage, MTP adds Richard Trumka to its Sunday line up.
Now we wait to see what CBS, ABC, Fox and CNN do.
CBS Reporter Lara Logan Assaulted in Egypt
On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a “60 Minutes” story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy.
In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.
There will be no further comment from CBS News and Correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time.
Wishing you all the best Lara.
Steve Kroft — You’re No Julian Assange
OMG. I just watched Steve Kroft’s 60 Minutes interview with Julian Assange.
HO; Sara Jaye Weiss
Right off the bat Kroft set Assange up to be hated: He’s “eccentric” and he has to wear an “ankle bracelet” because of [he didn’t say dubious] pending charges against him.
Along the way Kroft said, “People in the United States think” you’re a “traitor” and, “There’s a feeling within the community [the corporate media] that you’re not one of them.”
I’m a “people in the United States” and I don’t think Assange is a traitor but then again, my head isn’t stuck in the toilet of DC power politics, protecting the 200-some families who rule the world.
Assange isn’t a member of the corporate media suck-up-to-power club? That’s the biggest complement anyone could pay him. You go guy!
Aaaaaahhh! More later but suffice it to say, Julian Assange will be remembered as a journalist but Steve Kroft won’t be.
Oh, and BTW, per the wingnutOsphere, this is the liberalist of the liberal media we’re talking about here.
More via Glenn Greenwald:
Exactly.
Julian Assange on “60 Minutes” Sunday
On Sunday, corporate media giant CBS will host a man who “some say” should be assassinated point-blank, forget due process and the right to a trial by a jury of his peers.
Can’t wait to see how this unfolds:
Katie Couric Has Been Co-Opted by the Right
Eight minutes into “The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” tonight I hear Couric espouse this Republican talking point: Nancy Pelosi “beat back” her opponent and won the vote to become the House Minority Leader.
“Beat back?” How about: Pelosi “easily” turned “aside a nominal challenge from Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) by a margin of 150 votes to 43 votes.”
I repeat, Pelosi won by roughly a 75% margin. 150 yes votes versus 43 no votes. Is that what you’d call a “beat back?”
I call it a walk in the park er, a “nominal challenge.”
Katie, Katie, Katie. Yes, the people who are talking to you in your ear want us to think they’ve won their $75 million campaign to destroy Pelosi, but they haven’t (see above).
Sorry. No matter how you spin it, you and your corporate buds lost.
(Can’t believe the masses still think CBS is “liberal.”)
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CBS Radio News is Obsessed With Sarah Palin and the Tea Party
I have had Denver’s AM760 radio station on in the background since 7:00 a.m. Mountain Time — five hours.
At the top of each hour there is a news break from CBS News. During every single break today, CBS has lead with a report about Sarah Palin and the launch of the “grassroots” Tea Party Express bus tour, which will “travel through 19 states in 15 days.”
And CBS is “liberal?”
UPDATE: I put the above post up just after noon Mountain Time. It is now 3:04 p.m. CBS lead with the Tea Party story at 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. but just now they lead with a story about the Bank of America. The Tea Party story came second.
Unreal.
Katie Couric and Bill Clinton at the World Cup
I saw a split-second shot of CBS’s Katie Couric sitting next to Bill Clinton today during the US/Ghana playoffs at the World Cup.
Let’s take bets as to how long it will takes Faux News to wave that in front of its zombie viewers as “proof” that the MSM is “liberal.”
Say It Ain't So Already 