You know all this Scott Pelley comedy got me thinking. What if 60 Minutes became a real honest to goodness investigative reporting show? You know, like it’s claimed to be. Watching the legacy media reporting on Pelley was hilarious because they all used exactly the same wording to describe just how venerable 60 Minutes is; “the gold standard of journalism,” “unbiased and non-partisan,” “acclaimed by both political parties.” Of course, if anyone objective was within hearing of these claims, the eye-rolling was epic.
But imagine it for a moment. What if 60 Minutes did an expose about Somalians in Minnesota running daycare scams to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars? Or suppose they did an undercover investigation to find out which NGOs provide money, equipment and legal aid to Antifa? Then they would really be doing something useful. Even I would watch things like that. Or could you imagine a detailed investigation into Gavin Newsom’s spending on high-speed rail and other boondoggles. Or how about someone doing an audit on the “massaging” of the data used for the global warming studies?
Well, anyway, I don’t actually expect this level of honesty from legacy media but even if all they do is take a more balanced approach to interviewing political figures it would be a revelation. Now the question remains whether a more even-handed approach to reporting would increase the market share for CBS. Well, in my opinion, yes! I used to watch 60 Minutes back in the ancient days before all of journalism became a leftist monolith. Let’s say 1985 as a time when some vestigial fairness could still be found in the media. If Bari Weiss succeeds in convincing the Right that she is willing to give respect to both sides of the country I think she can increase the audience by more than just a few percentage points. And just as importantly if other networks see something like that it will make an impression.
Okay, that’s enough happy-happy talk. We haven’t seen anything substantive yet. Maybe all of this is just a way for Sky Dance to eliminate a lot of high-priced employees from their payroll. I’m sure Scott Pelley was making eight figures and since they fired him for cause they don’t have to pay off his contract (as long as his lawyers don’t win in court). But potentially this could be another case of the economics of angering fifty percent of the country leading to the collapse of another corporate dinosaur. Just as Hollywood can’t both fight off new entertainment technology and also alienate more than half its audience, we may be seeing the breaking point for this crooked industry. And isn’t it just poetic justice that it’s happening under the Trump administration. Tonight, I saw a clip where a reporter asked Trump about Pelley and he said, “I think Scott Pelley’s got his own problems, he’s terrible. Look, Scott Pelley’s a stiff and he’s afraid, and he’s part of this, you know, gang of crooked, stupid people that don’t care about our country.” Well, I think that sums things up admirably. Hopefully from here it will get even funnier.