Going overboard with "60 Minutes"

[misanthrope]

I don't like what has happened with "60 Minutes" of late and am grateful Scott Pelley's firing has brought so much of it into the light. That said, some of the talk about the news show as a nearly unimpeachable paragon of American journalism is a little much. We've all had our issues with it over the years.

For starters, it was "60 Minutes" unanticipated ratings success right out of the box that helped usher in networks' shift from viewing news as a loss leader. Through the 1970s and '80s, other networks clamored to have thei own version of the CBS franchise, although most met with marginal success. Some of the later versions, like "Dateline" and "20/20" basically devolved into true crime shows, however that profit-minded perspective leaked into management of nightly news as well.

Also, I've personally seen instances of slipshod journalism on "60 Minutes." I can immediately recall an Anderson Cooper piece from the last few years that helped whitewash nakedly self-serving actions by a wealthy family who built an empire on illegal human trafficking and environmental terrorism.

I also recall "60 Minutes" botching an edit of a Ron DeSantis statement in a way that seemed disingenuous. It was so egregious that the Society of Professional Journalists called them to task for it.

https://www.spj.org/spj-statement-on-60-minutes-video-of-florida-gov-ron-desantis/

What I remember most is how it irritated me because it gave fuel to the right-wing critics whose overboard attacks on the Fourth Estate have endangered our system of self-governance.

What's happened at CBS and "60 Minutes" is a travesty. But I had already developed a slightly jaundiced eye toward their work in recent years anyway.