'If you fall silent, the country is doomed': CBS News' Scott Pelley stresses courage as network faces pressure campaign

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN Business

Published 9:23 PM EDT, Sat June 7, 2025


CNN — A climate of fear is perceptible in the United States today, and it must be resisted no matter what, CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley says. “People are silencing themselves for fear that the government will retaliate against them, and that’s not the America that we all love,” Pelley told Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview after CNN’s Saturday telecast of “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

The Broadway play, which recounts CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow’s unflinching 1954 broadcasts about Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Cold War witch hunts, has stirred comparisons between McCarthyism and Trumpism, and between the CBS network then and now. Fear and courage “are the two themes that run through both of these moments in American history,” Pelley told CNN’s Cooper.

“The most important thing is to have the courage to speak, to not let fear permeate the country so that everyone suddenly becomes silent,” the former “CBS Evening News” anchor added. “If you have the courage to speak, we are saved. If you fall silent, the country is doomed.” Cooper asked Pelley, a nearly 40-year veteran of CBS: “Do you still believe in journalism? Do you still believe in the role of journalists?” “It is the only thing that’s gonna save the country,” Pelley responded. “You cannot have democracy without journalism. It can’t be done.”

Cooper, who also works alongside Pelley as a correspondent on “60 Minutes,” anchored a discussion about the state of journalism after the Broadway telecast Saturday night. One inescapable topic was President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against CBS News. Trump filed a legally dubious lawsuit against CBS over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris last fall.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/07/media/scott-pelley-good-night-good-luck

[SouthBayDem]

1. Any comment about someone with initials J.T., Pelley?

I was surprised that CNN was the network to show that play live. When was the last time it showed a scripted play?

Laughable how the network that spent years digging the current guy free airtime now wants to sit on a high horse.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Since Clooney trashed Biden

pushing his work was right up their alley.

[thesquanderer]

5. Answering your questions about why CNN, etc.

Warner (who owns CNN and HBO) had the rights to the movie, and their cooperation may have been required for the live broadcast of the adaptation of same. As to when they have done something similar...

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/george-clooney-good-night-and-good-luck-live-cnn-1236255646/

CNN received the call from Clooney and found that the programming fit into their larger strategy with CNN Originals, which had previously aired a prerecorded version of Colin Quinn’s Off-Broadway play, as well as concerts and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, among others.

The goal with this is to bring different kinds of programming to the regular CNN viewers and grow the audience, particularly as cable news networks are looking to bring in viewers among a broader linear ratings decline, Entelis said.
...
CNN is well-suited to do more live events, Entelis said, and while she is not sure it will be another Broadway show, the network is looking for “more innovative, experimental ways to move the needle.”

[CBHagman]

3. About McCarthyism and Donald Trump...

I didn't see the program (I don't get CNN), and the attached article doesn't reference Senator Joseph McCarthy's aide Roy Cohn, but I find it astonishing that Cohn's name hasn't come up more, given that Trump learned to attack, counterattack, and refuse to apologize under the tutelage of Cohn.

During the 2016 campaign, there were multiple articles about the Cohn-Trump link, which in fairness is only one of the sources of the current dysfunction, destruction, disease, disaster, and death. I would hope that more journalists, elected leaders, activists, artists, and others remind the public that McCarthyism informs what is happening today.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144/

[kimbutgar]

4. Nosterfrau Miller is the Tacomans current Roy Cohn

Miller was born a year before Cohn died but I’d say he’s a reincarnation and possesses the evil spirit of Cohn.
That’s why him and the orange Hitler are joined at the apex of hate and evil.

[Beartracks]

6. I didn't realize Trump's mentor Roy Cohn was an aide to Sen. McCarthy.

That explains some things.

=========

[CBHagman]

7. I don't remember Cohn's name coming up when I was studying American history...

...but he's certainly been a presence in politics and even culture (theater, television) for some time.

And I'd recommend the documentary Where's My Roy Cohn? to DUers who want a crash course in who Roy Cohn was, how he shaped events in the second half of the 20th century and beyond, and what happened to him. As you say, it explains some things. You can stream the movie by all the usual means, in some cases at no cost to yourself.