The death knell sounded for American journalism this week. CBS, in a desperate act of self-flagellation, dismissed Scott Pelley from 60 Minutes. The ratings, they claim, were the culprit.
But let us not be fooled by corporate doublespeak. This is the end of an era: the moment when even the last bastion of US broadcast news admitted it has nothing left to offer a discerning audience. I, for one, applaud the inevitable.
For decades, 60 Minutes traded on a reputation built in the 1970s, when the likes of Mike Wallace and Morley Safer actually uncovered scandals. Now? We get fluff pieces on celebrity chefs and milquetoast interviews with politicians who lie through their teeth.
The British, meanwhile, have long since abandoned such pretence. Our BBC, for all its faults, at least maintains a standard of rigour that makes CBS look like a tabloid rag. The irony is delicious: the nation that birthed the modern news cycle now watches its flagship news programme fall to pieces, while we across the pond sip our tea and nod sagely.
Pelley's dismissal is not a tragedy; it is a necessary purge. Perhaps now CBS will learn that audiences crave substance, not the insipid pablum they have been serving. Or perhaps they will double down on mediocrity.
Either way, the decline of American journalism is a spectacle I relish. It is, after all, the perfect allegory for the fall of empires: first the economy crumbles, then the culture, and finally, the news anchors stop pretending they know what they are doing. Good riddance, Mr Pelley.
Your departure is a step, however small, toward a future where the truth might once again matter.
