05 21 25 CSU Nick Marx Media Studies Prof discusses the head of CBS news resignation

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The president and CEO of CBS News is stepping down.
Waddy McMahon says, it's become clear the company and I
do not agree on a path forward and a mid
legal standoff with the Trump administration. CSU Professor of Media
Studies Nick Mark specialized at a journalom in American politics
and culture, and he joins us now in the KWA
Common Spirit Health Hotline to discuss Professor glad to have
you on with us this morning. Your first reaction about

(00:22):
what seems like a lot of tumult between the Trump
administration and journalism in the media that covers him.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, this is part of the Trump administration's broader efforts
to go after its or what it views as its
political enemies. A while back, the Trump administration sued sixty
Minutes in CBS News for what it said was a
deceptively edited interview with then presidential candidate Vice Kamala Harris.

(00:49):
That sort of tension has continued behind the scenes as
CBS's Paramount parent company, Paramount has tried to complete a
merger with another media company, sky Dance, and so the
thought is that Trump is trying to hold up that
merger until it settles this lawsuit and gets a big
payment based on this lawsuit against sixty minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
So, Professor Marks, when we look at this from a
journalistic perspective, when we talk about what you claim or
what President Trump claimed was a deceptively edited video, do
you think CBS should consider settling the lawsuit with President
Trump or does he have any legal standing when it
comes to this.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
My own sort of ethical perspective says to continue backing
the journalists and the defenders of free speech and those
who shine a light on things like corruption. So I
hope that the folks at sixty minutes and CBS continue
to sort of hold the line. But the bigger sort
of financial pressures bearing down on television, broadcast news, on

(01:54):
the media business in general might make them have to
make a really tough decision sometime this summer. There it
just might be too much pressure bearing down on them
to you know, pay the relatively smaller fee to settle
this lawsuit so that the bigger sort of transaction of
this media merger can go through. And a lot of times,

(02:15):
you know, the smaller fish of journalists and people who
work in broadcast television and in advertising are the ones
who are going to be the victims of it.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
What are your thoughts on what seems to be it
appears to be the real interjection of FCC chair Brendan
Karan to some of these proceedings. He's investigating a lot
of these news outlets. The irony is one of them
is not Fox, which one's actually sued for lying and
had to settle. But what do you make of make
of that of the FCC what appears to be less
independent more about supporting the Trump administration.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, that's absolutely right. But Trump is clearly using the
political levers available to him. So his control over the
FCC comes from the fact that those commissioners are appointed
by him, they are not elected officials, and the way
that our congressional representatives are, so he's got a much
easier path to go to them directly and say do this.

(03:10):
You know, look at DEI policies across the media business,
go after my political enemies. He's got a history of
trying to get SEC pressure put on CNN, right, He's
long had a battle with them, But they're a cable networks,
so their ability to regulate that body is a little

(03:30):
less clear. But with the case of CBS, it's a
broadcast network. They like radio use public airways, and so
the SEC has oversights on their licensing. So Trump is
clearly wanting to use his ability to revoke that license
to put direct political pressure on news organizations he does

(03:51):
not like. It's the same story we've been hearing about
him going back to his first term. He's just going
after his enemies and being vindictive.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
So, Professor Mars, ultimately, if CBS does settle, do you
think it will be because they actually admit they did
something wrong or do you think it's going to be
like they don't feel like dealing with the consequences. So
this is the easy route out, expensive route, but easy route.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, it's a great question, a little bit of both.
I suspect that if there is a settlement announcement forthcoming,
it'll be kind of buried in murky lawyer language, you know,
the very fact that the companies could settle would be
some kind of admission of wrongdoing, or certainly that's how
the Trump administration would frame it.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Right, we won.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
They admitted that they deceptively edited that Harris interview. But
like I said, I think the financial pressures are the
things that are going to win out in some way,
shape or form eventually, but it does not give me
much hope for the future of journalism under this second
Trump administration.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
It needs to be shared though, too, that the video
did and errant total, but what they did CBS part
of it aired on the CBS Evening News when they
had it for a segment. In other words, the rest
of it aired. I believe it was on sixty minutes,
but it did, but they took different segments of it.
But setting that aside, whether or not they settle, it
doesn't seem like that would prevent the president and his
administration from continuing it to attack. So we get into

(05:18):
this whole thing about obeying and complying in advance. It
doesn't change what the modus operandi seems to be with
the president when it comes to media.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
That's a great point, and I think you hear that
around the television news community and journalists generally right now.
That's the prospect of such a heavy hitter like sixty
minutes in CBS pre complying sets a horrible precedent for
what the Trump administration could continue to try and get

(05:48):
away with for the next four years. So I think
there's a tremendous amount of kind of unspoken and behind
the scenes solidarity that the general public probably doesn't see
right now, but I'm I'm really hopeful that continues to
hold over the summer here.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Colorado State Professor of Colorado State University, Professor of Media
Studies and specializing in journalim. It's Nick Marks. Thank you.