On Our Watch
Tick … tick … tick… The iconic opening to 60 Minutes has long represented the countdown to an investigative news story. Now it feels more like a countdown to the demise of TV journalism. Tick … tick … tick… After last week’s (non) release of the heavily redacted Epstein files, you may have been concerned that America would run out of black ink. Well, don’t worry. Over the weekend, there was plenty left for Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News, to kill a 60 Minutes report on the Venezuelans illegally deported CECOT, a brutal prison in El Salvador. Tick … tick … tick… The highly unusual eleventh hour removal of the segment was criticized by Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran correspondent who reported the segment: “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.” Of course, when Trump ally David Ellison, the new owner of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, took over CBS News, we knew that politics would reign supreme, and that what used to be the media’s finest hour could be turned into amateur hour. But, like so much in 2025, the pace of that dismantling has been faster than many expected. Tick … tick … tick… Why the rush? It doesn’t take an investigative reporter to see the timing has everything to do with the Ellisons’ current attempt to beat out Netflix and acquire all of Warner Brothers, including another news org Trump hates, CNN. Just hours after the CECOT story was killed, we learned that Larry Ellison guaranteed $40.4 billion in Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. As Franklin Foer explains in The Atlantic (Gift Article), CBS and CNN Are Being Sacrificed to Trump. “The fate of Warner Bros. Discovery is no longer a regulatory matter. It is a medieval tournament, in which the king invites rival bidders to compete for his approval. To acquire the media company, the aspirants—Paramount and Netflix—will have to offer a sacrifice: Whoever can damage CNN the most stands to walk away with the prize.” Tick … tick … tick… That may sound extreme, but it’s only been a few short months since the Paramount acquisition, and already, 60 Minutes doesn’t have the same meaning anymore. At this point, Americans can’t even be sure 60 minutes equals an hour. You may be thinking that while this sounds bad, at least we’re only talking about the state media-ization of stale, television media brands that don’t have nearly the impact that they used to. But consider who owns the new media tools: X is owned by Elon. Facebook and Threads are owned by Zuck. TikTok’s US operations are about to be purchased by a group of investors that includes Larry Ellison’s Oracle. Tick … tick … tick… And all of these media moguls have demonstrated their willingness (and even eagerness) to tweak coverage to avoid tweaking the president. As I wrote back when the Ellisons were still trying to take over Paramount and CBS: “We’re not just going to be able to cross our fingers and hope to run out of the clock on Trump’s authoritarian leanings. So let us not talk falsely now. The hour is getting late.” Over the weekend, it got later. Tick … tick … tick…
+ Support media orgs that support telling the truth. From Frontline and ProPublica, coverage of the same news story that CBS canceled. Surviving CECOT: Deported to a Maximum-Security Prison.
