CBS

No insight, no talent in the writing dept, imagineless sets. Stale news, with bland reporters whose only assets are their youthful looks. Present only 1 side in most issues, sound bites, politically correct and so boooring with chit chat. I would compare the NY times with their broadcasts as NYT: !0, PBS:9. CBS: 0. Sorry, but wearing of red dresses will not save them.

The Days of Walter Cronkite Have Long Gone
SITREP
I remember growing up on watching the news with my parents on CBS. But boy have those days, now long gone, now transformed into a giant void of what was once «news supremacy» back in the day for CBS.
EVENTS THAT SHOOK OUR COUNTRY
My parents told me about TV suddenly keeping people informed about the War in Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, Political Unrest in the Country in General. I will always remember one of my father’s most irritating catch-​phrases he repeated angrily almost every night when watching the news was, «Dam Hippies.» [Which when you flash forward 3 decades to Comedy Central’s SOUTH PARK always ALWAYS made me laugh when I saw CARTMAN repeat the same thing.] ;^D
RFK
Once searing image I will NEVER forget was watching the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy unfold. First, TV brought the unfettered violence of those images right into our homes. This was before more organized program-​censorship had been developed and so what happened before the cameras IS what you saw in your home.
Second, my mammasita was part of RFK’s campaign for President, so this an extremely distraughtful moment for her which scared me to death to see her in such emotional pain and mental-​grief.
TV in general, and CBS specifically, transformed our lives in the 60s.
CURRENT LEGACY
The dramas, the comedies, the sporting events, etc., have come and gone. And I’ve never been a big fan of the morning news shows to begin with. So if there is anything that network TV retains some drawing power is providing the CORE of news. Sure, Cable has taken off and taken over much what the networks once fostered, but I think CBS still has some leadership to provide with news.
60 MINUTES
What still seems to be done right is the regular weekly news magazine 60 minutes. This is still one of the preeminent news expose shows. Gripping stories about the deaths of civilians in places like Sarajevo and Africa still haunt me. The anger I have felt watching the stories of Dictators who take advantage of their populations.
THE LOWDOWN
So all the stars I rate CBS with in large part belong to the news legacy of CBS and what continues to this day with 60 Minutes.
THE LOWDOWN
When focused on news, I feel CBS shines.

The life of all persons, no matter what color their skin or how inflamed the political rhetoric of members of their racial, ethnic, or religious group, is equally important.
I wonder why, then, of two recent murders, one has passed virtually unnoticed, while the other has provoked a national media feeding frenzy and mass protests.
At least CBS picked up the following story (3÷29÷12), even if other media passed on it (two Brits shot to death in cold blood in Sarastoga, FL by a black man who referred to them as «crackers»):
It’s unlikely that Vice-​President Joe Biden will speak out and say that «the two young men look like my own son. It could have been him,» which was close to what President Obama said regarding the death of Travyon Martin a few days ago.
That was obviously a hate crime but since it was black-​on-​white, no one is decrying the racist nature of these terrible murders.
«The fact is, events like the Martin killing are exceedingly rare; most African Americans who are the victims of gun violence are shot by other African Americans [93%].» –Joe Klein, Time
* * * * *
(1) «…dozens to hundreds of black youths attacked white people as they left the fair, punching and kicking people and shaking and pounding on their vehicles.»
(2) «Son describes Oakland assault that left father near death»
This would provoke race riots if it were Asian-​on-​black. No major media reported this murder or the many others which were black-​on-​white.
(3) Man bludgeoned to death by three teens on his porch in Tacoma, WA:
The last incident was reported by the AP and picked up by only ONE newspaper in the entire U.S.
No rage, no protests, no investigation by national media.
You would do us a favor, CBS, by covering these crimes, unprovoked and under-​reported, if reported at all.
But that’s America… and increasingly the rest of the world, folks.
* * * * *
Fear.
Fear of being yelled at, beaten, and/​or robbed.
Fear of naming those directly and indirectly responsible for the trauma of being sucker-​punched, knocked to the ground, beaten, stomped upon, and shot.
Rational fear is not racist; it is instinctual, it is survival.
Strangers who use threatening, profane language («Sh – , I’m gonna smash that mother-​fuc — ‘s face in»), are hostile, aggressive, and in a rage, whatever the color of their skin, ARE dangerous.
I wish CBS News would examine cultures and sub-​cultures, as well as social institutions that tacitly accept, encourage, or even glorify the use of violence using the pretext of «oppression,» poverty, or freedom of expression as a way of rationalizing their actions and/​or non-​action.
I’m not just thinking here of Hollywood…
Is it possible CBS News forgotten the infamous allegations of rape by members of the Duke lacrosse team (which Sixty Minutes covered in depth)?
And why did only the local Baltimore affiliate broadcast the following story, which never made national headlines?
* * * * *
«Sixty Minutes» is still by far and away the best weekly news magazine around, and when it presents a program like the one on the toxicology of sugar, it is doing a very important public service, one that the government under the present conditions is incapable of doing, thanks to the alliance of conservatives and corporate interests in Washington.
The news of the passing of Mike Wallace is sad. Sixty Minutes has been so long a part of the landscape of American television journalism for decades, and he helped put it on that map.