It's all a farce

Tony Dokoupil, CBS Evening News anchor (Photo credit: Michele Crowe/CBS)

There is no Department of War.

There is no Trump-Kennedy Center.

They don’t exist.

Why then does ABC News, The Walt Disney Corporation and Bob Iger, as well as other media outlets insist that things which are not so be reported to the American people as if they are so?

Mickey Mouse isn’t real, and neither is Snow White, just like the Trump-Kennedy Center.

What’s next?

Would David Muir cock his head on “ABC World News Tonight,” and tell us that the Earth may be flat because RFK Jr. said so?

What if Trump issued an executive order that declared California a bad brand and changed the name of the state to MAGAfornia?

Would the spin be that it is a newly humble Trump because he didn’t name it Trumpistan?

It is all a farce.

Why?

Because Bob Iger and Paramount’s Shari Redstone have bent when they should have stood. They cracked like an egg and capitulated to government power by settling absurdist lawsuits, which were actually open air extortion.

Walt Disney would have told Trump to “go f*#k himself” because Walt Disney didn’t tolerate, coddle or appease fascists. Back then, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck had spines of steel.

The names of the Department of Defense and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts are a function of US law, not Trumpian decree.

Why is this so hard to grasp for so many people working in US media?

Are there no style guides or standards, or is it that attention to detail has been completely devalued? Or, is it that they are terrified of Trump?

Seriously, what is it?

Sloppiness?

Or is it purposeful?

Truly, it is unbelievable — and not in a good way.

Tony Dokoupil becomes the anchor on the “CBS Evening News” on Monday, a position once held by the media giant Walter Cronkite. Dopoukil made this statement yesterday:

A lot has changed since the first person sat in the Evening News chair. For me, the biggest difference is this: people don’t trust us like they used to.

And it’s not just us. It’s all legacy media.

I get it. I’ve been hearing about it from just about everybody, for more than 20 years, as I’ve traveled America on assignment. My mom’s neighbors in West Virginia. My own neighbors in New York City. Thousands of conversations in between.

Sometimes they want to talk to me about our coverage of NAFTA or the Iraq War. Other times, it’s about Hillary Clinton’s emails or Russiagate. Or more recently, COVID lockdowns, Hunter Biden’s laptop or the president’s fitness for office.

The point is that on too many stories the press missed the story. Because we’ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.

I know this because, at certain points, I have been you. I have felt that way too. I have felt like what I was seeing and hearing on the news didn’t reflect what I was seeing and hearing in my own life. And that the most urgent questions simply weren’t being asked.

So here’s my promise to you as long as I sit in this chair: you come first. Not advertisers. Not politicians. Not corporate interests. And, yes, that does include the corporate owners of CBS.

I report for you.

Which means I tell you what I know, when I know it and how I know it. And when I get it wrong, I’ll tell you that too. It also means I’m going to talk to everybody, and hold everyone in public life to the same standard. And because I became a journalist to talk to people. I love talking to people about what works in this country, what doesn’t, and not only what should change, but the good ideas that never should.

I think telling the truth is one of them.

Hold me to it.

Let’s see what happens the moment that Trump attacks CBS News for its coverage — or when Bari Weiss decides to spike a story that will upset the Trump regime.

Oh, we already crossed that bridge.

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