Based on its legacy, the CBS show 60 Minutes is still sometimes thought of as the remaining place in TV news where tough investigative journalism has a home. But lately, they’ve been doing something else.
The most recent example came last night (10/5/14), when correspondent Scott Pelley sat down with FBI director James Comey–a powerful government official who, Pelley tells viewers right off the bat, they probably don’t know:
Do you know the name of the director of the FBI? Probably not. James Comey has been America’s top cop for just one year, and he hasn’t done a major television interview until tonight.
What follows was essentially an ad for the FBI, absent any critical scrutiny or questioning. Pelley and Comey talk about the threat of cybercrime (“Sounds like cybercrime is a long way from Bonnie and Clyde for the FBI,” as Pelley puts it) and the various threats posed by the ISIS group in Syria and Iraq. We learn that Comey doesn’t like the term “lone wolf” to refer to potential homegrown terrorist threats–“I’d prefer lone rat.”
In return for this kid-glove approach, CBS got access to places TV cameras don’t often get to go, like the training center for the agency’s Hostage Rescue Team, which, Pelley explains, “has joined US Special Operations Forces for hundreds of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
This is part of a shift at the FBI, Pelley tells viewers: “The new emphasis, these days, is to bring terrorists to court.”
If the point was for the FBI to appear in command and on top of the threats to Americans, then CBS did what it set out to do. And the report looked very similar to a 2013 profile of an outgoing CIA official: “Mike Morell was deputy director of the CIA and gave us the only television interview he’s ever done,” said CBS correspondent John Miller (10/27/13)–who was, by the way, previously the assistant public affairs director at the FBI (FAIR Blog, 10/29/13).
Miller was also the 60 Minutes correspondent who brought us a fawning tribute to the NSA, heavy on the this-has-never-been-seen-on-TV-before details and light on critical questioning of a highly controversial government agency (FAIR Action Alert, 12/16/13).
As with the NSA, there are plenty of tough questions to ask the FBI, on topics ranging from Patriot Act abuses to attacks on whistleblowers and journalists. See the ACLU’s “The Ten Most Disturbing Things You Should Know About the FBI Since 9/11” for a helpful list of subjects CBS could have asked about.
Former CBS correspondent John Miller has returned to government; he’s currently heading the New York Police Department’s intelligence division. But maybe 60 Minutes is trying to show viewers–and, more importantly, massive government agencies–that it can still produce softball profiles of powerful government figures without him.
At the close of the segment, Scott Pelley tells viewers:
Our conversation with FBI Director James Comey continues here next week, when we ask whether the FBI is snooping on average Americans.
I think we already know the answer to that one.
Laying down for the law
The Corporate Lords and Masters wish to thank their Lapdogs, the Lame Stream Media for their fawning obsequiousness and general boot licking. Without which the people would really understand what is going on, and then turn on the ‘Satan’s Child’ known as Capitalist Cronyism, aka the American Corporations.
The powder keg is ready, all it needs is a good spark.
I walked away from 60 Minutes when they fired Dan Rather for doing his job. That said, loud and clear, that some people and some subjects are off limits. They lost all credibility, and they’ve been in a death spiral ever since.
FAIR’s piece on John Miller a year ago really never revealed the extent of his enmeshment with corporate business, government law enforcement, and organized crime. For further reading, see my post:
https://www.quora.com/What-if-there-were-a-revolving-door-between-politics-and-journalism/answer/Ray-Newman
Thank you, Ray Newman, for this link. I think Mrs Costello being Miller’s godmother is quite important, though I am sure there are those who would disagree with me. When you grow up in a family this cozy with criminals, you are raised with certain values and ideas. Considering the FBI’s history with organized crime, one would think they wouldn’t want to touch Miller with a ten-foot pole. But he’s so stupid he must be their kinda guy.
And the George Goebbels, Georges to his friends, doppelganger, Bob Schieffer? Where’s he?
Intelligence, as used in official parlance, is always (sic).
And stay tuned for this week’s, as opposed to community informers such as Jeanne Sparrow and Melissa Forman’s, court stenography, edition of This Week’s All the True True Disinformation.
What PadreMellryn said.
Yeah. And as long as we’re lauding Dan Rather for his half-measures, let’s remember his dreadful performance, the operative word being performance on Sir David Letterman’s show, September 12, 2001, and I quote.
Dave: Dan, I just can’t figure it out. Why would anyone want to do something like this to the divine city of New York.
Dan: Dave, I’m not quite sure, but I’m waiting for the Pentagon to give me my marching orders, for I know not what else to do.
Dave: Dan, duh.
Speaking of September 11, let’s revisit 1973, shall we? Oh and for the record, why exactly was it at the moment that Dave quit making light of his divine city?
And if all that weren’t funny enough, enuf as we write in the ghetto where all the time it’s getting worser and worser, we interrupt our regularly scheduled programming, and bring you this message tacit of the wisdom of Michelle Alexander: I see them now. And I’ve been waiting for ever so long. The colors and the rainbows of the Ubermensch. The Henry Miller Ubermensch I tell you. Ya to those who count themselves privileged to belong to the clan of the aforementioned real author.