Scott Pelley/60 Minutes

We've seen this movie before. Back in the nineties, with Bob Morgado and the Warner Music Group. A man with no expertise in music single-handedly destroyed the company. But it was even worse, he ultimately fired his co-conspirator Doug Morris, who went on with Edgar Bronfman, Jr.'s money to create Universal Music, which still dominates the marketplace today. As for Warner? It was sold for bupkes in the wake of the AOL merger and it has never regained its market power or share, never mind its gravitas. Mo Ostin was the most respected executive in the music business, the one acts wanted to work with. He spoke artist, CBS spoke money. CBS would squeeze every last dollar out of your album, sacrificing credibility and career longevity, whereas Mo would leave some money on the table, believing by not burning out your name, by not alienating core fans, you'd have a longer, and ultimately more lucrative, career. So once Mo and Lenny were gone, who wanted to sign with Warner? And why? The company's whole philosophy changed. From committing to artist development to throwing it against the wall for one album and seeing if it stuck, and if it did not, the act was dropped. The Warner label is a shadow of itself. As for Atlantic, it was always about hits, that was Doug's forte, checking retail action and capitalizing on it. But now... What, they went through Lyor, then his protégé Julie Greenwald and now another man who knows nothing about music, Robert Kyncl, brought Elliott Grainge on board to make the trains run on time, the SON of Lucian Grainge, who runs Universal, and someone with not much of a track record. Kind of like Nick Bilton, but that's even worse. At least Elliott's been working in music, whereas Bilton has absolutely no experience in television news. Then again, anybody can do it, right? All those dues paid by the "60 Minutes" staff, they're worthless. You can't plot experience on a spreadsheet, so it's superfluous. Let's start with Bari Weiss. No, let's start with the Ellison's Paramount Skydance/Warner Bros. Discovery merger. How do you get it approved? Well, it's a pay to play administration. And that's what everybody's been doing, from the lawyers to Tim Cook to... They say their hands are tied, if they don't cozy up to Trump their businesses will take a hit. And one thing is for sure, in America it's all about mazuma, i.e. the dollars. The stock market is king, isn't that what Trump keeps telling us? But the funny little thing is the law firms that didn't settle, that fought the extortion, won in court. As for those who paid up...many of their star attorneys bolted, and it's now much harder to recruit new associates. Who wants to work for an outfit with no backbone? It's bad enough you're doing drudge work, you need to believe in it. So Bari Weiss... Got to give her credit. She built an entire career on speaking truth to the "New York Times." To what degree she was right is ultimately irrelevant, the key here is the "Times" did not see it coming, the "Times" was so busy bending over backwards to appease the woke, abiding by left wing ideology, that the Grey Lady was ripe for attack. The right wing had been attacking the "Times" for years, but now that one of the "Times"'s own had revolted and bolted, that was red meat that could be grabbed on to. As for Weiss...as depicted so accurately in the "New York" magazine piece, she leveraged the blowback to get money from all those with a buck who were afraid of their own disruption, by either Trump or the left. Weiss was a networker. She climbed the ladder. And the Ellisons are neophytes and they gave her the news gig, believing it would appease Trump. But when you work in an organization... Weiss never played nice, doesn't seem to know how. There's a skill in managing people, especially when they're smart people with an audience. Morgado didn't know how to manage Mo, who moved on. And the end result was those searching for a deal were less inclined to sign with Warner. Despite the rise of the techies, most business is not comprised of zeros and ones, soft skills are very important, and Weiss does not possess them. And staying on the music tip...remember Andrew Lack and the rootkit crisis? I mean how hard could music be, someone in news could take over and triumph, right? No, Lack left with his tail between his legs, he couldn't read public sentiment. Nor can Weiss and Bilton. One thing is for sure, "60 Minutes" is toast. Done. Kaput. It takes decades to build a brand, but it can be eviscerated overnight. "60 Minutes" was built on trust, and now that's gone. As well as the talent. As for Scott Pelley...Weiss and Bilton are saying that Pelley doesn't know how to behave, that he didn't comport himself with dignity, they expected him to roll over just like Putin did with Ukraine. But Zelensky and the public proved Putin wrong. Do they really think viewers are so brain dead as to overlook this crisis? Warner and Atlantic have been permanently crippled, and Elektra is now an imprint at best. There's been no coming back, over DECADES! One more thing, Weiss has no public fans, and CBS is a public facing business. She can charm the fat cats, but not the hoi polloi. That's just how out of touch she is. As for Pelley... How far are you pushed before you revolt? That's not only the question at "60 Minutes," but in America at large. Are we ripe for an Arab Spring moment? But shy of that, even the Republicans revolted against Trump's slush fund. You can push the people only so far. As for the intermediaries, the fourth estate, the news industrial complex... I used to rely on the L.A. "Times" recommendations to help me decide how to vote. They no longer publish them, for fear of pissing off Trump and other Republicans, leaving me with less information to make my decisions. As for the "Washington Post," the Op-Ed page is now bizarroland. The exact opposite of the previous viewpoint. You had some guy railing that California should lower the new automobile purchase tax rate to compete with Montana's and...it was fascinating to read the comments. Almost no one agreed, they all said that the issue wasn't California's levy, but about closing the loophole. And I bet most of you don't even know what I'm talking about, but the bottom line is the wealthy don't want to pay taxes on their Ferraris, so they register them in Montana, even though they're driving in Beverly Hills. As for closing loopholes...isn't this what Trump said he was going to do? Yeah, right. So, Scott Pelley is standing up for all of us. And unlike Tim Apple and the rest of the weasels, he's calling it as he sees it: "For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all." As for today's firing, Pelley contradicted Weiss's version: "Bari Weiss knows what she said is not true. In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to 'find a way back,' as Weiss said in the editorial meeting." They call this speaking truth to power, something today's musical acts are afraid to do, even though music's explosion in the sixties was based on this. Pelley is willing to put it all on the line, i.e. HIS JOB! Are you willing to put your job on the line? Seemingly no one in America is willing to put their job on the line. If anything, their job can't be eliminated, things have to stay the same, technology schmechnology. As for Weiss... She's employing the Trump playbook, lie and stonewall. But he's a protected President and Weiss serves at the will of the Ellisons. Just like Trump is only loyal to himself, everybody else is expendable, Weiss is too stupid to realize the buck does not stop with her, that she's turning herself into a pariah, believing that the intelligentsia she has cottoned to has her back. Yeah, right, how unsophisticated can you be? As for you and me... We have power, it's just a matter of whether we exercise it. ABC took Kimmel off the air and people started canceling their Disney subscriptions and they brought him back. Now action is not as clear cut in this case, but people can definitely stop watching CBS, the only show that was necessary viewing was "60 Minutes." As for Pelley... He could be toxic. If this was a year ago, probably no one would hire him, for fear of Trump blowback. I think he'll wind up somewhere, but let's be clear... Pelley is Curt Flood. Who ruined his career to stand up for what was right. We've been living in the land of money and expedience for so long that doing what is right is almost never considered, especially if there is a potential cost. You've just go to look at the Republicans in Congress. Cross Trump and you lose your job. But why are you entitled to that job anyway? You don't serve at the will of Trump, but the PEOPLE! The tide has turned in the last week. The removal of Trump's name from the Kennedy Center, the quashing of the slush fund, and what is Trump doing? He's doubling down! He's refusing to abide by the court's decision and return tariff money, he's now cracking down on Brazil, levying taxes on the country... What will be the straw that breaks the camel's back? There may never be one. That's how somnambulant and afraid people are. Which is why we depend on people like Scott Pelley to show the way. How do you lose power? Very slowly and then overnight. Am I optimistic, no. But one thing is for sure, we need credible news outlets which operate at arm's length from institutions, who are willing to call balls and strikes as they see them. We just lost another one. And there are very few left. And it's all playing out right in front of us. Who thought it would come to this in America. -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25