Name: "Servicing one guy at the expense of the entire country": CBS is Destroying Its Reputation
Uploaded: 2026-02-20T21:34:07.000Z
Duration: 7 min 45 s
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And the mess going on at CBS where Colbert is leaving in May and something that he just did here recently against the advice of his lawyers is, you know, basically telling cbs, what are you gonna do, fire me?

As he's doing whatever it is that he wants and as Anderson Cooper leaves 60 Minutes.

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And it is clear that the mainstream media is so replete with conflicts of interest that.

That you have one of the great empires in network news right now falling apart in front of our eyes with an assortment of corporate conflicts.

Because it's painful to watch what's happening around 60 minutes at what used to be a mainstream institution that you could count on for at least attempting objectivity and fairness.

Yeah, it's left a real wide open lane for independent journalism to come in and actually try to hold powerful people, very wealthy people to account.

I was just doing the morning show here, Morning Joe, and

we had James Talarico, the Texas state representative, who Colbert interviewed and was not allowed to air the broadcast of a network television on the show.

And we were talking to him about this, and

one of the things that immediately became obvious was this was such an enormous win for him.

Millions more people ended up seeing the video that they had to post on the Internet because he became this target of the fcc, which Donald Trump has used, as he does every branch of government, every regulatory would be regulatory agency to just serve his own particular purposes.

And so the through line here, we're at this moment, and

this is beyond just, like, liberal stuff, right?

We're at this moment where there is such clarity around corruption, around billionaires, around Silicon Valley, around people at the very top.

And if you choose to service the President of the United States, he may give you, in these quid pro quo arrangements, these transactional arrangements, benefits and pardons and favors.

Why are millions of people watching these clips?

Why, when it comes to the Epstein files, are millions of Americans sort of waking up to realize, oh, my God, when Pam Bondi is being questioned in Congress about all of this stuff and she can't even get the words out about the Dow, how we should focus on the Dow instead of these victims, these female victims who are right behind her in that room, people realize it's because she is servicing one person at the expense of an entire population of people, an entire audience of Americans from both sides of the aisle.

And so CBS is caught in this very awkward position of needing the protections of the president via the quid pro quo system, the transactionality of him granting favors via the fcc, via the ability to merge with other companies, Paramount, Warner Brothers, et cetera.

But in the meantime, they are losing audience, and

they're losing, more important than that, even the confidence of a public that frankly, says, you guys are lying to us because we're not so stupid anymore.

And that's the part where there's a real opportunity, and

that's what CBS is opening the door for, is for people to call them out on it and call the administration out on servicing one guy at the expense of an entire country.

The folks who listen to this show have heard me lament the idea that I don't really believe that a whole lot of people understand what it is that Meadowlark Media is aspiring to be amid this climate.

I do believe that this audience and its allegiances are, at least in part because they do appreciate what it is that Pablo and we are trying to do at a time where a whole lot of people are compromised and conflicted.

You talked with David Remnick of the New Yorker and Ezra Edelman, who did the O.J.

simpson documentary about what specifically is happening right now at the Washington Post.

Can you take us through what you thought were the most interesting parts of that conversation as you watch these entities like CBS and Washington Post not have the wherewithal for what the present moment demands?

So what we're doing at Meadowlark, right, is saying, what if we use this money to create a, frankly, a coalition of people who will use journalism to hold the most wealthy and therefore dangerous people in this country to account?

And so it is incredibly gratifying to have David Rabnick, the editor of the New Yorker, and

our grumpy friend Ezra Edelman, who's the greatest documentarian of our time, basically come into your studio, Dan, in New York and have this conversation.

I mean, Remnick, who studies not just Russia, but

also the Washington Post, as a former employee, he funny enough was like, you know, a branch on the Tony Kornheiser coaching tree, that dead sports section.

What he points out is that you don't need to be some incredible media incisive analyst to point out that this is Jeff Bezos, like the Melania documentary, which Remnick watched, which is hilarious.

They sold novelty buckets like it's Dune.

You know, they sell novelty popcorn buckets for the Melania movie.

The Melania movie is basically like crypto.

Is it is a way to transact and to funnel money from one private enterprise to our government.

And the reason that's meaningful and why Ezra was also in the room is because, of course, that is corruption wearing the disguise of media.

That is corruption wearing the disguise of a documentary.

Corruption wearing the costume of a newspaper.

I don't think people can tell the difference.

I don't think enough people can tell the difference.

I think that's what's happening with the ability to take a hatchet to all of it with just the two words, fake news.

that's why you need people who will say it explicitly without also hopefully forgetting that this needs to be also entertaining and fun.

Like, that's why, you know, everything I do with this and that you have funded is the premise of this is important, but

And what's more fun to me, at least as a journalist, than like exposing, as if you are a detective in a movie, perhaps, about the Washington Post, all the President's Men in which you are aiming up, you're not aiming left or right, you're aiming up.

And the detective dynamics of journalism and the willingness to say, this is what we found.

And hoping, maybe it's the last hope we have, that this will hold something to account.

And if you don't say it, if you don't defend the terms, right.

It means you're independent from the subject.

You're using journalistic depictions to tell a story.

Because that thing OJ Made in America is a North Star for everything.

It's incredibly dense and historical and serious.

And so with this, how can you define the terms of what journalism is so it can't be worn as a costume?

It may be insufferable to non journalists, but

I promise you, it's really important because otherwise you're just going to be at a costume party full of people who are trying to rob you.

And that's otherwise what's happening in America right now.