Former CBS’s 60 Minutes managing producer Guy Campanile took to Facebook Tuesday with what he probably thought was a 570-word tour de force denouncing what he views as lying, partisan, and unprincipled new management, led by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and new 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton.
In actuality, Campanile showed himself to be a petulant, tiresome theatre kid, banging his chest about the “tragic” “wreck” and “destruction of the most prestigious news program on American television” by “compromising...principles” with “unverifiable” filth that would make....Thomas Jefferson hang his head in shame?
Our own Nicholas Spinnato’s 60 Minutes study, which showed political stories tilted left by a five-to-one ratio, was further evidence of the absurdity that Campanile shoveled for decades.
Campanile began by saying he had “not publicly shared details of what I experienced” because “[i]t’s wise to remain quiet when emotions are raw,” but he’s “comfortable and prepared to sound off.”
Needless to say, he should have stayed silent.
Citing some of those fired in front of and behind the camera, he said they “refused to be accomplices in the destruction” of 60 Minutes and “would not compromise our principles or reputations by jamming unverifiable notions or White House talking points into our reporting.”
Being asked to speak to all sides? And let them have a say? On-camera? Campanile makes this seem like speaking to Team Trump is like spending time in a cell at Guantanamo Bay.
This went on before implying, without evidence, that supposedly MAGA stories have infiltrated 60 Minutes. He cartoonishly called “what has happened recently” with “editorial independence...becom[ing] a casualty of corporate priorities and ideological intrusion” a “tragic” development.
Campanile flashed some laughably tone-deaf traits when he said Weiss and Bilton’s leadership was the “inevitable progression in the cascade of afflictions” in which “information has become commoditized” with “facts...treated as items in a buffet...depending on...ideological tastes.”
Earth to Guy: What then was CBS News prior to Weiss? Pull yourself together!
Following a brief interlude of sanity when he lamented the dumbing-down of TV news (e.g. newscasts consistently leading with weather, hyping everything so nothing is significant), the fired liberal also took shots at colleagues inside CBS News. Try to guess which people he was referring to.
Maybe Gayle King and Nate Burleson? Probably not. They share his politics.
Perhaps the Free Press’s outstanding reporter Olivia Reingold? Judge for yourself:
Making matters worse is the cadre of self-described influencers and on-line opinionists who market themselves as “journalists”. Some have been given control of our most precious reporting institutions — including CBS News. Many of these newsroom managers have never been exposed to the depths of poverty, the ravages of war or the heartbreak of disaster. Yet these dilettantes and their enablers make critical programming decisions based on what might trend on-line over the next few hours.
He closed with smug, I-am-Spartacus-like huffing and puffing about how he “spent two-thirds of my life at CBS” that “was an amazing adventure,” being able to see “a good part of the country and much of the world,” meaning he left post-firing “with my head held high and integrity intact.”
Saying he couldn’t stand by while “trust built over decades” was “wrecked,” he quoted a Founding Father: “Thomas Jefferson wrote, ‘Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.’ It’s dangerous to ignore his warning.”
He even asked remaining colleagues to continue undermining Bilton and Weiss: “Hold the line. Don’t give an inch because they will keep scraping away until there’s nothing left worth a damn.”
