Dan Rather had a stark warning for America that Paramount changing into the proprietor of NCS could be dangerous for his former employer CBS News — and a part of a worsening development for America total.
In a dialog on “Radio Andy” with host Andy Cohen, Rather broke down the experiences that Paramount, beneath new owner-CEO David Ellison, is trying to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery, which might add NCS to a portfolio that already contains CBS News.
This, Rather mentioned, couldn’t solely deal a “very serious wound” to CBS, as a part of the bigger drawback of billionaire media consolidation, it’s “not healthy” for America both.
“I think if they were to buy NCS, it would change NCS forever and it might be another very serious wound to CBS News,” he mentioned. “I do think, Andy, without preaching about it, but that we, all of us, all the Americans, have to be concerned about the consolidation of huge billionaires getting control of nearly all of the major news outlets. This is not healthy for the country, and it is something to worry about. You know, you and I know each other well enough to know that we are optimists by experience and by nature. You and I are both optimists, but it’s pretty hard to be optimistic about the possibilities of the Ellison’s buying NCS.”
Last week The Wall Street Journal first reported that shortly after buying Paramount Global, the Ellison Family had been getting ready a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. As a part of that potential buy, they might achieve possession of NCS.
Rather additionally defined how the shifts already taking place inside CBS News to lead to a extra right-leaning protection is affecting programming on the community. Ellison’s imaginative and prescient for a extra conservative lens information focus was bolstered with experiences that Bari Weiss was tapped to run CBS News.
The rent comes after CBS News had a $16 million settlement with Donald Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. As a part of the Skydance merger, Paramount agreed to place an inner ombudsman to be certain that the information group was even-handed as a part of its negotiations with the Trump administration.
“What’s going on now, I think most people may be vaguely aware, but CBS and now CBS News has had another change, yet another change in ownership and the Ellisons who are among the world’s richest people have bought it, in effect,” Rather mentioned. “They are great supporters of President Trump, and there’ve been several instances in which the previous owners who were also supporters of President Trump had tried to sort of dictate what kind of news comes on. Even on ’60 Minutes.’ You know, within CBS News, ’60 Minutes’ is considered, you know untouchable.”
He continued: “My own feeling is that it is a particularly tough time for anybody working at CBS News and I still know many people there and I’m not ashamed to say that my heart is still there and probably always will be in a way, but this is an extremely tough time for them, and it’ll be interesting to see how much, if any, pressure the new owners put on them to change the coverage to be more pro-Trump than to being independent news.”
