Cowed and Neutered: CBS News and the Washington Post [View all]
By Joel Connelly
When our Republic has been in danger, from demagoguery and a paranoid President, reporters for CBS News and the Washington Post have stood out by standing up for the First Amendment. But these days, the stature of both news organizations would allow them to hide only in a field of stubble.
CBS, once the Tiffany of networks, is terminating Stephen Colbert, who poked fun at our prima donna President. CBS recently paid out $16 million to settle a bogus Trump lawsuit. The suit was over how 60 Minutes supposedly edited an interview last year with Trump ‘s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Post fired 11-year columnist Karen Attiah, who committed the sin of pointing to extreme positions taken by slain right wing influencer Charlie Kirk, such as opposing landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960s. With a new life and a new wife, Post owner Jeff Bezos has taken to hobnobbing with Trump, who has decried our press as “the enemy of the people.” Bezos is recognizing that with this POTUS, flattery will get you somewhere. Trump has lately taken to saying that criticism of him is “illegal” and “no longer free speech.”
What a world of difference from a half-century ago when The Post faced down the Nixon Administration. Recall campaign manager John Mitchell’s threat to The Post’s then-owner Katharine Graham, saying if the paper ran one Woodward/Bernstein investigative piece: “Katy Graham is going to get her tit caught in a big fat ringer if that’s published.”
https://www.postalley.org/2025/09/23/cowed-and-neutered-cbs-news-and-the-washington-post/
I didn't know Mitchell had said that. He ended up going to prison.
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