When it comes to heavyweights in Big Media, one would be hard-pressed to find a person heavier than CBS News anchor Scott Pelley. When Scott trashes the journalism profession, people should take notice.
Speaking at the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award dinner in New York, an event sponsored by Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University, Pelley told the assembled crowd of media luminaires that they are blowing it, big time.
"Never before in history has more information been available to more people, but at the same time, never before has more bad information available to more people," he said.
Pelley gave his own mea culpa for botching the Newton massacre story when he reported that the son of a teacher at the school was the shooter responsible for the slaughter. "It was a hell of a story, but it was dead wrong," he said.
The newsman went on to trash the media’s reliance on Twitter and Facebook as sources. He dismissed those sites as purveyors of gossip, which journalism is supposed to serve as an antidote to.
To Pelley, the social media's 24/7 world creates pressure on journalist to put speed above accuracy, which leads to inaccuracies.
He concluded his talk by warning that journalism’s “house is on fire,” begging the question: Who is going to put out the flames and work to restore trust in media.
(Photo: Quinnipiac)
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.