Don't Kid Yourselves

In the midst of the mayhem in the Middle East, this may seem like a small point to be making, but it says a lot about the way we are being told to see the US war against Iran, who is telling us, and whether the information is biased.

I refer to the CBS Evening News, now a vehicle overtaken entirely by right-leaning propagandists posing as “moderates.

This is not your old CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite or Bob Schieffer or John Dickerson. No, this is the news now anchored by Tony Dokoupil, who appears willing to do the bidding of his corporate masters at Paramount Skydance, and specifically his new boss, Bari Weiss, the so-called editor-in-chief of the news division and a self-proclaimed Zionist.

After a summary of the US-Iran conflict over the last five decades, the terrorism, the militias encircling Israel, the failed attempts to curb Iranian nuclear ambitions, Dokoupil offered a closing note to his viewers on Monday night:

“That history is why the president’s allies in Congress said he hasn’t started a war with Iran, he is finishing one.”

I have some thoughts.

First, “the president’s allies in Congress” support him? What a shock! These are the same Republicans — and they are all Republicans — who say Donald Trump is a great president in public, while insulting him as an immoral dunce in private. How is the fact that they genuflect to him on this war actually newsworthy? Their supplication to him is a feature of their time in Congress, not a bug, and it will be so recorded by historians when this era of embarrassment eventually passes.

Secondly, “he is finishing” this war? Is he really? Three days in, he’s finishing it? When an anchor quotes somebody at the end of a newscast, you can bet that anchor agrees with the quote that lingers in the minds of the viewers or at least has been instructed to look and sound like he agrees with it.

And this is wholly apart from the fact that “the president’s allies” have no idea what they’re talking about. Trust me, I lived and worked in the Middle East for about nine years: nothing ever ends there. It may pause for a while. There may even be a “deal on the table.” But the hostility never ends. Muslims and Jews will hate each other for the next 400 years — at least. Get used to it.

The idea that Trump, this degenerate, is the one who is “ending” the conflict is laughable. That goes for Hegseth and Rubio, too. Note how they are twisting themselves linguistically in a belated attempt to explain why the hell the US had to attack Iran at precisely this moment. In politics, when you’re explaining, you’re losing. And the Trump administration is losing in the battle for public opinion.

Was it that Iran was on the brink of a nuclear weapon that could be carried on an intercontinental ballistic missile all the way to Pittsburgh? No. Was this a preemptive strike to catch the Iranians with their pants down? Maybe. Well, it can’t be both. And are we saying that because Israel was threatened, we were threatened too?

Back to Dokoupil. He leaves his viewers with the impression that Trump is “ending” a very long war. Would that he could. Believe me. To give people who are not exactly Middle Eastern scholars this idea is tantamount to an argument about why Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

He doesn’t.

And consider this: Warner-Discovery, which owns CNN, is about to be purchased by Paramount Skydance, the same company that is now forcing CBS News to bend in the direction they prefer (rightward) without regard to time-honored journalistic standards. (See Dokoupil above). That means Paramount Skydance, it’s chief, David Ellison, and his multi-billionaire daddy and Trump pal, Larry, are about to assume control of both CNN and CBS News. Now that Anderson Cooper has left 60 Minutes because of the ham-handed influence of Bari Weiss, where will he go once Weiss is ensconced atop CNN?

This is serious, folks. Weiss has told her CBS colleagues that nobody trusts them anymore. That they must change. That’s total bullshit.

What she means is that the stupid people can’t take the truth and the network should bend over backwards to accommodate them. We’ll see how well that works out. A losing NFL coach once said that if he were to start listening to the fans it wouldn’t be long before he’d be up there in the stands sitting with them.

But this is really happening, folks.

Good night and good luck.