Bozell & Graham Column: CBS, for Corrupt, Biased Sunday

September 12th, 2017 11:27 PM

For anyone who doubts the daily double standard of the news media, just look up CBS on Sunday, September 10. Up first, Sunday Morning host Jane Pauley softly and sweetly served one puffball after another to Hillary Clinton in her book-tour kickoff. That evening, CBS anchor Charlie Rose harshly lectured former Trump strategist Steve Bannon on 60 Minutes. 

Days in advance, CBS rushed out footage of Rose lecturing Bannon on dissenting from Catholic bishops on illegal aliens who entered the country as children. “Can I remind you, a good Catholic, that Cardinal Dolan is opposed to what's happened with DACA. Cardinal Dolan!”

If anyone can remember CBS shaming anyone on the Left with the pro-life worldviews of Cardinal Dolan – especially those “good Catholics” like Nancy Pelosi, or Joe Biden – then someone is delusional. It’s never happened. . 

Rose lectured Trump’s on his supposed failure to condemn white supremacists after Charlottesville. In fact, the president did condemn bigotry and hatred on that Saturday, but liberals mentally censored that when he added awkwardly the hatred “on all sides.”  

The anchorman introduced that phony “many people say” device: “I tell you where many people suggest it should have gone. It should have gone in terms of denouncing specifically, from the very beginning, Neo-Nazis and white supremacists and people of that political view,” Rose insisted. “And you didn't at first instinct. In fact, you seemed to be doubling down in terms of a moral equivalency.” 

If anyone can take tough questions, it’s a brawler like Steve Bannon. And if anyone can’t handle tough questions, it’s Hillary Safe-Space Clinton. For all her supposed brilliance and tough-as-nails mythology, Hillary detests being challenged. She wants every interview to feel like an awards ceremony. Three years ago, with her last book tour, this same Charlie Rose began his PBS “interview” by gushily quoting a pro-Hillary poem by Maya Angelou. 

Rose’s idea of a tough question was asking Hillary “Where did you find the strength at these difficult moments in your personal life? Whether it’s losing an election – or whatever it might be. Was it people? Was it an inspiration from religion? Was it something else that gave you the courage to keep moving ahead?” 

To sum it up, “Why are you so courageous and amazing and religious?” 

Jane Pauley picked up that baton on September 10. She announced her mind-meld with the losing candidate: “Hillary Clinton was supposed to make history as the first woman president of the United States.” That is precisely how a Clinton supporter would see it. A detractor would celebrate the nation dodging a bullet. 

Pauley tenderly asked questions like “How are you?” and “Can we talk about Election Day?” Hillary blamed her defeat on a heavy dose of “sexism and misogyny,” and blamed Trump for exploiting “a nostalgia that would give hope, comfort, settle grievances, for millions of people who were upset about gains that were made by others.”

Pauley facilitated: “What you’re saying is millions of white people.” Hillary agreed: “Yeah. Millions of white people.” Pauley moved on “And then the Russians...”

The “roughest” patch came when Pauley intoned: “But there were serious self-inflicted wounds, too.” She vaguely suggested it was time for Mrs. Clinton to talk about the emails. Then Pauley lamented Hillary's e-mail excuses "never satisfied critics or the press.”

The press won’t even challenge Hillary on the ludicrous idea that the press heavily favored Donald Trump in 2016. No one with eyes or ears should buy that nonsense.