DL Open Thread: Monday, April 28, 2025
In an extraordinary on-air rebuke, one of the top journalists at “60 Minutes” directly criticized the program’s parent company in the final moments of its Sunday night CBS telecast, its first episode since the program’s executive producer, Bill Owens, announced his intention to resign.
“Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” the correspondent, Scott Pelley, told viewers. “None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”
In his remarks on Sunday night’s telecast, Mr. Pelley presented Mr. Owens’s decision to resign as an effort to protect “60 Minutes” from further interference.
“He did it for us and you,” Mr. Pelley told viewers of the show, which began airing in 1968. “Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial — lately, the Israel-Gaza War and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way. But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it.”
More Of This, Please–‘Sic Simper Timiditus’:
Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois strode into a ballroom filled with top New Hampshire Democrats on Sunday and by the end of his nearly 30-minute speech had them ready to storm the political barricades against President Trump.
“It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once,” he told the group of Democratic activists, officials and donors, who jumped to their feet with hoots and applause. “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.”
“The reckoning is finally here,” he declared.
For the Trump administration, of course, but also for his own party.
In the fight over the future of the Democratic Party, Mr. Pritzker has emerged as a leader of an insurgent faction calling for a full-throated, unflinching barrage of attacks on Mr. Trump, his Republican allies and their right-wing agenda.
“Fellow Democrats, for far too long we’ve been guilty of listening to a bunch of do-nothing political types who would tell us that America’s house is not on fire, even as the flames are licking their faces,” he said. “Today, as the blaze reaches the rafters, the pundits and politicians — whose simpering timidity served as kindle for the arsonists — urge us now not to reach for a hose.”
‘Simpering Timidity’. Sounds like the Delaware Democratic Party electeds, at least, based on what I heard about that ‘Town Hall’. A minimum of questions, a lot of self-congratulatory ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ remarks. Did you attend? Is that an accurate reading of the event? BTW, how fucking lame is Chris Coons?:
Coons told those who shouted questions from the audience (re Gaza and Israel) that their behavior “wouldn’t move him in a positive way” toward their position.
Uh, Chris? That’s because nothing will with you when it comes to enabling genocide against Gazans. There. Fixed it. Simpering timidity all around–the entire Delaware congressional delegation.
The Most Illuminating, If Not Alarming, Interview With Trump You’ll Ever Read:
We asked Trump why he thought the billionaire class was prostrating itself before him.
“It’s just a higher level of respect. I don’t know,” Trump said. “Maybe they didn’t know me at the beginning, and they know me now.”
“I mean, you saw yesterday with the law firm,” he said. He was referring to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, one of the nation’s most prestigious firms, whose leader had come to the Oval Office days earlier to beg for relief from an executive order that could have crippled its business. Trump had issued the order at least partially because a former partner at the firm had in 2021 gone to work for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where he was part of an investigation of the Trump Organization’s business practices. Also that week, an Ivy League institution, threatened with the cancellation of $400 million in federal funding, had agreed to overhaul its Middle Eastern–studies programs at the Trump administration’s request, while also acceding to other significant demands. “You saw yesterday with Columbia University. What do you think of the law firm? Were you shocked at that?” Trump asked us.
“Tell the people at The Atlantic, if they’d write good stories and truthful stories, the magazine would be hot,” he said. Perhaps the magazine can risk forgoing hotness, he suggested, because it is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, which buffers it, he implied, from commercial imperatives. But that doesn’t guarantee anything, he warned. “You know at some point, they give up,” he said, referring to media owners generally and—we suspected—Bezos specifically. “At some point they say, No más, no más.” He laughed quietly.
Lengthy, but revealing. He does have a brain. Lizard-like, but a brain nonetheless.
What do you want to talk about?
For anyone who wants to put a boot in the ass of the DE congressional delegation, there is this:
May Day/National Day of Protest in Wilmington
Rally / Thursday, May 1 / 5:30 – 6:30pm EDT
Rockford Park
Lookout Dr (Rockford Tower)
Wilmington, DE 19806
I think Coons lives right around the corner.
The News Journal has a more complete quote from Coons:
“…’frankly, screaming at me doesn’t move me in a positive way,’ Coons said.”
I’d love to see a transcript of those “questions.” I’m sure someone has video.
The revealing part of that Town Hall was Coons whining about the “hydrogen hub” announced under Biden – the one that Collin O’Mara has a big job with, which I suspected was his reason for trying to sabotage Matt Meyer’s gubernatorial candidacy.
Coons’ quote:
First off, and most important, there is no “hydrogen economy,” nor will there be one in the future. Like most programs that claim to ameliorate climate change, it’s a fantasy designed to cover for something incredibly costly that isn’t actually a solution, but will enrich a lot of the players who get their mitts on the money.
You want lower carbon emissions starting tomorrow? Tax gasoline, you dumb assholes.
Nothing lowers carbon emissions like a worldwide recession.
Saquon hanging out with Trump is the most depressing thing I’ll hear about all day. I hope other Eagles will reject the White House invitation — maybe Hurts, it sounds like. Besides, these guys can afford their own cheeseburgers.
“the most depressing thing I’ll hear about all day”
That’s an optimistic take.
It was so depressing, I decided not to link to it.
Now you’ve made ME depressed…
If you read his quote he also played golf with Obama last week. I think he likes to be around power
Or people in power want to be around him. I’m guessing Saquon has a higher approval rating than either of them.
True, but it lowers my approval rating of him. I’m afraid it’s going to be in the back of my mind the next time he jumps backwards over a tackler, though I hope that feeling goes away. Not saying he or any player should actively oppose Trump, just wishing he wouldn’t let Trump use him as a prop.