The Quicksand Pits That Await Zohran Mamdani—and How He Can Avoid Them
This is definitely an “only in America” story, but I don’t mean that in the normal, heroic sense. I mean this in the scary, corporate sense, it’s all about profit. CBS began life in 1927 as a radio network, expanding into television as that medium grew. There were entertainment and news divisions, and later sports; its news division was considered the best in the United States and, along with the British Broadcasting Corporation, a model for mainstream media standards in democracies. It wasn’t being “liberal” when Edward R. Murrow helped unseat Joe McCarthy. He was acting in defense of democracy against a sinister and dishonest demagogue.
Over the decades – and it was a pretty natural progression – CBS became a huge company, expanding into movies, entertainment and even musical instruments (it was said to ruin Fender guitars for about 20 years, although today those guitars – I own one – are considered vintage, go figure). But even that wasn’t so horrible, until the era of megamergers brought about by what was essentially the end of antitrust enforcement in the United States. Appearing, disappearing: CBS formed Viacom, then they broke up, then they reappeared. Paramount, which owned part of CBS in the 1930s, has returned to the forefront. In 2009, Paramount announced a partnership with this new product called Skydance, created in 2006 by David Ellison.
In July 2024, Skydance and Paramount, now the parent company of CBS, announced plans to merge. You will remember what happened next. That fall, while the merger was under government review and during the presidential campaign, 60 minutes broadcast an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. Without any evidence, Donald Trump claimed the text was edited to make Harris look good.
