Three stories I’ve seen on CBS in the last 48 hours have left me very disappointed. They all come down to the same thing: truth vs. lies.
First was a story by Chris Livesay on “Sunday Morning” about schools in Finland teaching students how to separate truth from lies. From kindergarten (!) through high school, kids are given lessons in media literacy and how to identify phony news stories, propaganda, and hoaxes. What a concept: critical thinking as part of the curriculum!
Why did this disappoint me? Because I know such lessons could never be taught in American schools. Any attempt would be blocked by the lie-loving right-wing extremists, Christian nationalists, MAGA Morons, and small-minded book-banners. Is it any wonder the US isn’t even in the top ten list of the best educational systems in the world, while Finland is consistently ranked near the top?
The second story was a David Pogue interview with Malcolm Gladwell, who was promoting his new book, in which he revisits some stories from “The Tipping Point,” the 24-year-old bestseller that made him a star.
To Pogue’s credit, he pointed out that over the intervening two dozen years, critics of Gladwell have frequently called out Gladwell for things he got wrong. In some cases, very wrong. But Gladwell — who insists he does his own research and reporting — didn’t seem truly remorseful about his errors.
From CBS’ transcript of the story:
In a 2021 “Sunday Morning” interview, Gladwell said, “I would rather be interesting than correct.” He called that “an overly provocative way of saying things! No, I think what I meant was, if I turn out not to be right, I’m not devastated. I accept that as the price of doing business.”
Gladwell often turns his mistakes into new chapters or podcast episodes. In “The Tipping Point,” he explained that New York’s crime drop was the result of “broken windows policing.” As he described it, “Little crimes were tipping points for big crimes.” But that philosophy led to New York’s policy of “stop and frisk.”
“Doing 700,000 police stops a year of young Black and Hispanic men is deeply problematic,” Gladwell said. “We were wrong. I was part of that. I’m sorry.”
Wait a minute, Malcolm. The theory you completely fabricated devastated the lives of all those men, many of whom were abused by police and dragged into the penal system for doing little if anything wrong. And all you can offer is a half-hearted apology? Did you think to do new reporting by going back to find some of them and see what impact the racist policies adopted across the US based on your words had on their victims?
Nope. Instead, you’re offering the equivalent of “Oops!” and calling it “the price of doing business.”
Shame on you. I’d like to sic a classroom full of Finnish students on you to explain what the truth is.
Which brings me to the final disappointment. Tonight, CBS will host the debate between Vice Presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz, with Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan as moderators. But the network’s news division has announced that — unlike the way ABC’s Linsey Davis and David Muir handled the Trump-Harris debate three weeks ago — its anchors will not do any live fact-checking. CBS News feels that’s a job for the candidates, not the professional news people on the stage.
Then why even assign journalists to host this get-together? I’m sure Ryan Seacrest or Steve Harvey was available to throw out some questions and then let the falsehoods fly. And by falsehoods, I mean pretty much everything that will come out of Vance’s mouth this evening.
Why would CBS News ignore its journalistic responsibility? Simple. It’s scared it would come in for criticism from Trump and his fellow fascists when the moderators caught Vance lying. Oh, no, you can’t have any backlash for helping viewers discern truth from nonsense!
This is an acknowledgment by CBS that it is not the home of a real news organization.
Ironically, the network announced yesterday that, during the debate, it will put a QR code on the screen which will take listeners to a website where CBS News personnel will be fact-checking the candidates’ statements in real time. But not on the air! They want you to take your eyes off the TV screen to go read something on another screen.
I wonder how the late Mike Wallace would have reacted if someone in management had told him he couldn’t fact-check the subject of a story on “60 Minutes.”