Scott Pelley: CBS Evening News 'An Island of Calm in a Sea of Absurdity'

April 10th, 2013 3:59 PM

CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley comes across as a very serious, stoic person.

This seemed hardly the case in his Wednesday interview with the Hollywood Reporter when he uttered this howler concerning his program's coverage of last year's presidential campaign: "I think the viewer saw us as an island of calm in a sea of absurdity."

THR asked Pelley to "rate CBS's election coverage, and the coverage by the media in general."

He replied apparently with seriousness:

We were really the only evening news broadcast that went to all of the major events. We went to every presidential debate, we did the broadcast from those locations, we went to every primary and did the broadcast from those locations, we did multiple interviews with the president and Mitt Romney. I think the viewer saw us as an island of calm in a sea of absurdity in the political campaign. So much shouting from various shows that are tilted one political direction or the other, so much confusion about small issues and large issues, and we just tried to be that island of solid, down-the-middle information, and we let the candidates talk. We didn’t talk over them, we let the candidates talk and let the folks at home decide.

I of course agree that the mainstream television news outlets are a sea of absurdity.

But is the CBS Evening News the island of calm?

Hardly: 

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