You're Fired
“Sixty Minutes” host Scott Pelley either wanted to be fired or he badly miscalculated how valuable he is to CBS.
Today’s morning newsletter has a reading time of 8 minutes.
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
For I the Lord they God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not; I will help thee. Isaiah 41:13
YOUR NEWS SUMMARY
“Sixty Minutes” host Scott Pelley either wanted to be fired or he badly miscalculated how valuable he is to CBS.
“Sixty Minutes,” once considered the cream of the crop when it comes to investigative journalism, has for years now been bleeding viewers and embarrassing itself by promoting biased fake news stories like Russiagate or denying that Hunter Biden’s laptop was real. CBS’ new owners brought in overseer Bari Weiss and new producer Nick Bilton, who called a meeting to discuss how to get the show back on the right track.
Pelley, who apparently believes he is beyond improvement, reportedly used the meeting to attack his new bosses and accuse Weiss of trying to “murder” “Sixty Minutes.” According to Bilton, he had previously been rude to him and refused an invitation to dinner to discuss the show. He was so nasty and disrespectful in front of the staff at the meeting that he was probably expecting to win a journalism prize. Instead, he got something that he deserved far more: a termination letter from Bilton.
Instapundit has some excellent commentary plus the full text of Pelley’s termination letter, which makes for some of the most satisfying reading we’ve seen in a long time.
Just as with the furor over CBS canceling Stephen Colbert just because he drew a small audience and lost them $40 million a year, Pelley seems to think he has a Constitutional right to do whatever he wants on Sunday nights on CBS, and CBS has no say in it. The cold fact is that real investigative journalism is being done by indie reporters like Nick Shirley these days, while the legacy media peddle Democrat propaganda, drive away viewers and fulminate about how people no longer respect them enough.
Welcome to the real world, Scott, where people who insult their bosses in front of the entire staff get their arrogant rear ends fired. And good luck with your new podcast or whatever. Personally, we’d rather watch reruns of Andy Rooney.
Mark Steyn was right years ago: This is a chilling analysis of Europe’s demographic implosion, showing how reduced native birth rates and leftist politicians importing millions of Third World migrants are combining to erase and replace centuries-old pillars of Western civilization. Their only hope of survival: Strict immigration enforcement and having more babies. In other words, there’s no hope.
This is an interesting article about President Trump’s stunning clean-up of Columbus Circle in Washington, DC. You wouldn’t think that just scrubbing off grime and graffiti and getting fountains working again would be seen as a politically dangerous act. But it startled many DC residents and visitors who had become so accustomed to the once-beautiful city looking like a dump that they couldn’t imagine it being any other way. It’s a living A-B comparison of what life is like under leftist government and under conservative government, and that’s what makes it so scary and dangerous for the left.
Check out some of the comments: “Embarrassed to say I never knew it was a fountain” (that’s because there’d been no water in it for years.)…“All we needed was a new President”...And possibly the most frightening of all to the Democrats, “This was what ‘Make America Great Again’ was all about from the beginning. Makes you wonder why Democrats worked so hard to turn it into something dark and controversial.”
Because if people knew it meant cleaning up the streets and ending crime – and that was actually possible if you’d just elect people willing to do it – then the Democrats would never win another election. So they had to convince people that MAGA stood for racism and fascism instead of what it really stands for: cleaning up after the left’s mess and making things clean, safe and functional again.
Stephen Green at PJ Media has an important business lesson on how Victoria’s Secret went from a disastrous plunge in sales to a historic rebound simply by remembering that their primary client base is straight women who want to look and feel sexy and not angry, obese communist lesbians.
This is just the latest of many signs that the great DEI/woke hysteria of the early 2020s is long past its sell-by date. Others include the recent story about a company firing its entire HR department, purges of DEI enforcers, the embarrassing flop of woke Disney’s latest ”Star Wars” movie, and a spate of stories about companies reeling back their virtue-signaling but customer-alienating “Gay Pride Month” promotions. The Governor of Tennessee also signed a resolution declaring May as Nuclear Family Month, making it the latest state to try to “reclaim” June from LGBTQ activists.
Of course, every month includes any number of celebrations, so why are Pride Month advocates so furious that they have to share their month with nuclear families? Then again, if you really want to see a meltdown, tell a leftist that Gay Pride Month is also Jewish Heritage Month.
Iran denied attacking the Kuwait International Airport, killing one person and injuring 60 others. They claim that US interceptor missiles must have missed their target and hit the airport. Kuwait released surveillance video showing an Iranian drone and struck their airport. We would ask, if Iran wasn’t attacking the airport, then what were those US interceptor missiles intercepting?
Four House Republicans (including – surprise! – the now-outgoing Thomas Massie) joined Democrats to pass a war powers resolution demanding that Trump withdraw troops and not use military force against Iran without Congressional approval. Speaker Johnson warned that it would weaken Trump’s position when he’s negotiating to force Iran to give up its nuclear program. It passed partly because 18 Republicans weren’t present.
This makes for lovely political theater for MS NOW, but it’s hardly worth the attention it’s getting. Democrats (and some Republicans) claim that under the 1973 War Powers Act, if both Houses pass it, it’s binding on Trump without his signature. Trump disagrees and would veto it, or take it to court and likely seek to have the entire 1973 law struck down as an unconstitutional infringement by Congress on the powers of the Commander-in-Chief, on the premise that the Founders didn’t want American war decisions to require consensus by 545 squabbling Congress members.
Anyway, by the time that makes it to the Supreme Court, Trump will be long out of office. So a better question for Congress now than “What do you think about Iran?” would be “Why aren’t you doing something with your time that could actually make a difference, like passing the SAVE Act?”
This week, several top Trump officials testified to Congress, and we don’t know what the point is, since these hearings are less about learning anything and more about putting on a “Punch and Judy” show for Democrat media outlets. Instead of asking intelligent questions and waiting for answers, preening Democrats rant and rave and call people names in front of the cameras, then angrily object if the person they’re supposed to be questioning interrupts them to try to answer. To quote an old Bob & Ray line, it should be “brought to you by the editors of ‘Wasting Time’ magazine.”
But at least we do occasionally get a few cheap laughs at politicians’ expense. Like the moment when the questioning of Secretary of State Marco Rubio devolved into talking about his shoes, prompting him to say, “We’re talking about shoes. Are you guys kidding me? I mean, is this the Foreign Affairs Committee or is this, like, a circus?” To that point, we can verify that he wasn’t wearing clown shoes, although we can’t speak for the Congress members.
Stephen Kruiser at PJ Media has more clips from Rubio and hilarity at his interrogators’ expense.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent can also be counted on not to suffer fools gladly. In this case, he was subjected to mendacious personal attacks by Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden. In accusing the Trump Administration of corruption, Wyden had the bad judgment to bring up the Epstein files. Bessent reminded Wyden that his own son is in the Epstein files for trying to borrow money from Epstein to invest in the Rick’s Cabaret strip club chain. Finally tiring of Wyden’s insults, Bessent gave this immortal reply:
“So, did your son and Jeffrey Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money using your limited credibility?”
Hey, Ron, do you need a vat of Unguentine for that burn?
If you want to learn more about Wyden’s son’s interest in strippers (he sounds like Biden’s son), and his connections to Jeffrey Epstein, check out this from Instapundit.
Peabo Bryson RIP: By Huckabee Post pop culture guru Pat Reeder
I am sad to have to report that one of the smoothest vocalists in R&B, Peabo Bryson, died Tuesday at 75 after suffering a stroke on Sunday.
The two-time Grammy winner (out of seven nominations) was famous for his solo hits on both the R&B and adult contemporary charts, such as “If Ever You’re In My Arms Again,” as well as duets with female singers including Regina Belle (“A Whole New World”), Celine Dion (“Beauty and the Beast”), Roberta Flack (“Tonight, I Celebrate My Love”), Natalie Cole, Melissa Manchester and more.
During my days as a DJ on soft rock KMGC-FM (“Magic 102-point-9”) in Dallas, I played a LOT of Peabo Bryson. But it took me a while to track down how he got the name “Peabo.” Turns out his real name was Robert Peapo Bryson. Peapo was a French West Indian name that the first musician he worked for, Al Freeman of Al Freeman and the Upsetters, couldn’t pronounce. He called him “Peabo,” and it stuck. Apparently, it was also pretty lucky. RIP.
Thank you for reading the Huckabee Post.
I love Marco Rubio! He's intelligent, knowledgeable, and doesn't back down!
Thank you. Blessed by today's verse Isaiah 41:13
"For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee."