Don't Worry, John Dickerson: CBS News Lost The Public's Trust Long Before Settlement With Trump

On Wednesday night, "CBS Evening News" anchor John Dickerson addressed the fact that parent company Paramount Global reached a $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over the network's deceptive editing during an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election.

"Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News, settled a suit with President Trump today. Journalists don’t like to report on themselves. Sometimes that’s false humility. Mostly, it’s a practical limitation. Reporters try to find order in chaos. We prefer to explain the cause of a bombing, the intent of a bill, the marvel of a new discovery. Putting chaos in preliminary order helps viewers make sense of their world. They tell us this at airports, restaurants, and at church. The audience brings us their fears, their questions, their good faith view of things. It reminds us that we are stewards of that concern. It’s a grace to receive another’s trust, but also to have a mission that shapes your work," Dickerson began.

"Can you hold power to account after paying it millions? Can an audience trust you when it thinks you've traded away that trust?" he asked. "The audience will decide."

The audience will decide. In terms of CBS News, the audience has already decided.

"CBS Evening News" has been a distant third in the evening news wars for over a decade. But the show has never been less competitive with its ABC and NBC counterparts than it is today. Last week, CBS drew just 3.8 million viewers during the 6:30 pm news hour, compared to 7.3 million for ABC and 5.7 million for NBC.

However, we don't put the onus entirely on John Dickerson or his co-host, some guy named Maurice DuBois. See, CBS News butchered its trust with the audience long before settling with Donald Trump.

CBS News is as guilty as any news outlet in America of feeding its audiences politically-motivated lies to either cost Trump the election or damage his reputation publicly. The news operation was complicit in the Russia Hoax, the Biden cover-up, the "bloodbath" hoax, the "very fine people" hoax, and the Hunter Biden laptop was part of a Russian disinformation operation hoax, etc., etc., etc.

NEW YORK - President Donald Trump during his interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl on Oct. 25, 2020. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)

Moreover, "60 Minutes" is a shell of itself. In addition to editing its interview with Kamala Harris, CBS's flagship news program recently fawned over censorship laws in Germany, downplayed how Hamas treated hostages, and broke format to editorialize about Trump's then-Cabinet nominations. Spoiler: CBS disapproved of his picks.

Just last month, CBS News cited a misleading study that claimed "one out of every 15 American adults has been at a mass shooting." In actuality, the referenced study simply found that one in 15 of the 10,000 respondents asked said they had "heard" gunshots from an incident they think involved more than four people. Nonetheless, CBS cited the study as evidence that the country ought to implement stricter gun laws.

There was also the CBS News-led vice presidential debate last October, during which moderators Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan repeatedly interrupted J.D. Vance with misleading fact checks while letting Tampon Tim spread lies about the Trump administration's first term.

But, yeah, settling with Trump is what will cause Americans to lose trust in CBS News.