CBS Dumpster Fire
Some talented storytellers have left CBS News. Lots of talent who could start podcasts, launch shows on Netflix, or make a splash on YouTube
CBS has a long history of broadcasting soap operas over the years.
As the World Turns
Guiding Light
The Young & The Restless
Now, under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, CBS News has its own drama unfolding.
Let’s call it Dumpster Fire.
Weiss has fired some talented journalists and shaken up the Tiffany Network. The fabled show 60 Minutes has now lost correspondents Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, not to mention executive producer Tanya Simon. If you listened to the podcast version of 60 Minutes, you will no longer hear those voices come this fall.
At least not at CBS.
If Netflix, NBC, PBS or ABC were smart, they would hire all that talent tomorrow and start a new show that airs Sunday night at 7 p.m. Of course, they should also create a companion podcast, establish a channel on YouTube, make TikTok videos, launch a newsletter, and publish video episodes on Apple Podcasts.
I look forward to seeing where all that talent lands, and who scoops them up.
Recommendation
I highly recommend listening to Pelley’s interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro from the New York Times. You don’t have to be a 60 Minutes fan like me to appreciate the drama happening now at CBS News under Weiss. And the interview takes you behind the scenes. It’s fast-moving and the interview ranks as the top episode on Apple Podcasts as I write this column.
Finally…
Thanks to Chris Hill from the Money Unplugged podcast. He had me on his show recently to talk about my earliest memories of money, growing up in Maine with my hard-working blue collar parents, and how I got into the spoken word industry and business journalism. We cover a lot of ground - from beef stew to graveyards to Mike Bloomberg. They all influenced my early days. You can grab the episode on Podlink right here.
In podcasting since 2006, John Wordock served as Executive Editor & SVP for Podcasting at Westwood One from 2019 to 2024. He also worked as Executive Producer for Podcasts at The Wall Street Journal until 2019. He now works at WTOP in Washington, D.C. as a business reporter and multimedia journalist, and he runs a podcast consulting firm. You can contact him here.