CBS News Prominently Featured on White House’s ‘Media Offenders’ List Despite New Owner’s Pledge To Rid Network of Liberal Bias

CBS’s new owners pledged to produce fair, fact-based journalism in order to win government approval to acquire the Tiffany Network. But despite some initial, positive comments from President Trump about the new management, the White House said very publicly this weekend that CBS News’s coverage is biased and false.The White House’s new “Media Offenders” portal’s front page has a section labeled “Media offenders of the week,” which lists three mainstream media outlets: the Boston Globe, the Independent, and CBS News.That mention comes despite pledges from the chairman and chief executive of Paramount, the parent company of CBS, David Ellison, and his media company, Skydance, that under its governance, the Tiffany Network would produce fair, fact-based journalism. The White House lists several examples of what it says are stories that exhibit left-wing bias. Two of the examples come from incidents that occurred before the Skydance takeover. The White House listed two examples of CBS News discussing illegal immigrants, facing deportation, in a way that made it seem as though they were born in America. One story focused on a Cuban-born migrant, who was described as a “Colorado grandfather.” The other story referred to alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a “Maryland dad.” Two other examples of alleged bias focused on moments that occurred after the Skydance acquisition. One was the morning after the murder of Charlie Kirk in September, when a morning show host, Nate Burleson, asked a former House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, if it was a moment for Republicans to “reflect on political violence” and the “responsibility of our political leaders and their voices and what it does to the masses as they get lost in misinformation or disinformation that turns in and spills in to political violence.”The comment was made before officials had publicly stated that the suspect in the shooting held left-wing views. However, some left-wing commentators had tried to blame Kirk’s death on his rhetoric.The other post-acquisition example of bias listed by the White House of misrepresenting Mr. Trump’s “call for Members of Congress to be held accountable for inciting sedition by saying that he called for their ‘execution.’” The example focused on a question from CBS News’s Nancy Cordes, who last month asked the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, if Mr. Trump wants to execute members of Congress.Ms. Leavitt responded, “No.”Since taking over CBS, Mr. Ellison’s management team has taken steps to try to eliminate a left-wing bias at the network, such as bringing on the pro-Israel, anti-woke journalist Bari Weiss to serve as the editor-in-chief. CBS also hired a former president of the right-leaning Hudson Institute, Kenneth Weinsten, to serve as an ombudsman and “review and evaluate editorial concerns.”Those changes won praise from Mr. Trump, who said during an interview with “60 Minutes.” The president told journalist Norah O’Donnell, “I think one of the best things to happen is this show and new ownership, CBS and new ownership.”“I think it’s the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press,” he added.He called Ms. Weiss a “great new leader.”Meanwhile, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, said he is pleased with CBS’s new owners for, in his view, following through on their written commitments to “more fact-based, unbiased reporting.”Nevertheless, “60 Minutes” has continued its series of fiercely anti-Trump segments criticizing his administration’s policies. One segment focused on family farmers suffering from his tariffs. Two other segments were sympathetic interviews with Biden Administration holdovers fired by Mr. Trump and his team. Yet another anti-Trump segment lamented cuts to scientific research resulting from the Trump Administration suspending federal grant money from a few elite universities until they curbed antisemitism on campus.The renewed criticism from the White House is raising questions about Mr. Ellison — the son of the world’s second richest man and a Trump supporter, Larry Ellison — and his bid to acquire CNN’s corporate parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. Mr. Ellison’s Paramount (the parent company of CBS) has submitted a bid to acquire WBD, but it is facing competition from Netflix and NBC Universal’s parent company, Comcast. Paramount is the only suitor that wants to buy WBD’s cable networks, including CNN. Comcast and Netflix only want to buy WBD’s studio and streaming services. If Paramount doesn’t succeed in its bid, CNN will likely be spun off into a separate company with WBD’s other cable networks.Media insiders have suggested that Comcast faces an uphill battle to win approval for an acquisition of WBD. A veteran media reporter, Matthew Belloni, said on an episode of his podcast “The Town” that Mr. Trump “hates” Comcast due to its former association with left-wing MSNBC. “He blames them for MSNBC, even though that’s being spun off. He’s investigating their DEI policies,” Mr. Belloni said. Meanwhile, a columnist for the New York Post, Charles Gasparino, wrote that Netflix may encounter trouble with its bid due to anti-trust concerns in the Trump Administration.Paramount has also warned that an acquisition by Netflix would never be approved due to regulatory concerns worldwide, according to a report Thursday in the Wall Street Journal.Media observers have said they think Paramount has the best chance of approval since the Ellisons are in good standing with Mr. Trump. Yet, if the Ellisons expected that a deal to acquire WBD would sail through, the decision to name CBS as a “media offender” might signal that the White House has noticed that there has been little change in CBS News’ reliably liberal news coverage.During the Skydance-Paramount approval process, the deal was delayed for months. Left-wing commentators alleged it was held up until Paramount paid $16 million to settle Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against CBS. Skydance executives also issued written commitments to fair journalism and ending diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at Paramount.If WBD accepts a Paramount acquisition deal, the FCC may seek to use the approval process to win promises to clean up CNN. There have already been some indications that the Ellisons are interested in purging CNN of its longstanding liberal bias. The Guardian reported last month that Larry Ellison and Mr. Trump had discussed firing CNN hosts the president does not like, such as Erin Burnett and Brianna Keilar.A far-left media reporter, Oliver Darcy, wrote in his Status newsletter that the report “ricocheted throughout the halls of Hudson Yards, raising the prospect that an Ellison takeover of CNN’s parent would include editorial concessions to please the Trump administration.”CBS News did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

CBS News Prominently Featured on White House’s ‘Media Offenders’ List Despite New Owner’s Pledge To Rid Network of Liberal Bias

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