CBS announced a new spate of 60 Minutes correspondents – including Sebastian Junger, Gianna Toboni and Trevor Phillips – but the left-wingers obsessed over New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. The Daily Beast screeched: “Right-Wing Religious Zealot Unveiled as New Star of ‘60 Minutes’.”Poynter.com media reporter Tom Jones was a little milder under the headline deck: ‘60 Minutes’ makes big hires, including one that will raise eyebrowsThe hiring of conservative columnist Ross Douthat is likely to fuel concerns that CBS News is steering the storied newsmagazine to the rightJones began: Some are calling it a coup — an inspired, out-of-the-box great hire meant to shake life into a long-running news show.Others are saying it’s a bizarre, risky hire — of someone with no real TV experience — and just further proof of a network desperately pushing to the right, even if it means remodeling a show that was already perfectly built.That phrasing is comical -- any tilt to the right is "desperate," and the relentless leftist bias is "perfectly built." Just like Bari Weiss, the liberals throw "no real TV experience" -- as if the newbie won't be surrounded by veteran TV producers. Let's guess if CBS recruited Trump-loathing columnist David French instead, they wouldn't sweat the experience thing.In the announcement, new executive producer Nick Bilton played up Douthat's podcast at the Times: “A Ross interview—and he’s interviewed on camera Vice President Vance, Dario Amodei, Amy Coney Barrett, Hasan Piker and Ben Sasse among others—is a special conversation, expansive and probing and news-making.“ Then there's the biggest Bari Weiss-haters on the internet, the team at Status.com. They turned to anonymous sources to trash the Douthat pick: “The idea that Ross can be a ‘60’ correspondent is a joke,” one longtime television executive texted me shortly after learning the news. Another anonymous source (or is it the same source? After all, they're still anonymous) slammed the whole slate of new correspondent: “Mike Wallace, Diane Sawyer, Ed Bradley, and Scott Pelley—and now these people? They never would have been considered for the actual ‘60 Minutes,’” one industry veteran candidly told Status. Another longtime television news veteran added: “These are the most coveted on-air jobs in TV news. These people do not have the track records on the air or the public profiles or followings to move the needle. Nor do they have the relevant experience doing this particular thing—a 10-12 minute segment—which is a particular craft that has always represented the pinnacle of TV news.” Here again, the relentless leftist bias -- both blistering profiles of Republicans and prostrate tongue baths of Democrats -- is the "pinnacle of TV news." But these same sourpusses could have mocked Jon Wertheim when he came aboard: "They picked a tennis commentator? He's no Scott Pelley!"Team Status concluded with another anonymous genius: That track record does not inspire much confidence for 60 Minutes. As one television executive commented to me, “Her overhaul of CBS Mornings and Evening News have done nothing but drive the ratings down to historic lows, so there is little hope these 60 Minutes changes will do anything but the same.” It should be pointed out that the CBS morning and evening news shows were both in third place before Weiss. By contrast, the last season of 60 Minutes -- and Weiss joined the network last October -- had an average weekly audience of 9.1 million viewers last season, a nine percent increase year-over-year. But in the eyes of the Left, the show is for lefties, so if ratings dip, it's because it's because CBS "desperately" went right.We just keep pointing out: anyone watching CBS News programs can not see any significant, systemic lurch to the right -- despite a few exceptions to the norm.

CNN Erin Burnett OutFront on Snapstream Last week, New Jersey Democrat Governor Mikie Sherill announced that her administration had found 6,600 non-citizens registered to vote due to a “software error,” with 400 casting illegal ballots. The bombshell revelation should have increased support for the SAVE Act, but the liberal media instead downplayed its significance. On Tuesday, Sherrill refused to give the names of the illegally registered voters to the DOJ, and CNN’s Erin Burnett on OutFront rushed to her defense.The real problem with the illegally registered voters in New Jersey, Burnett argued, was that people noticed it was happening. It was “one of the worst headlines,” she said, but “maybe the headline should be ‘Hey, they caught it. They fixed it,” instead of “Oh wow, that’s bad.”  Burnett also implied praise for Sherrill “refusing to hand over those 6,600 names to the Department of Justice. She's saying, 'no, that's a violation of privacy laws and state laws.'” “The president will try to be punitive about it,” Jamal Simmons, Kamala Harris’s former communications director, said to Burnett. “He will look for ways to apply pressure to the governor of New Jersey to get her to hand it over.”And then, as they always do, he spun the story into an argument against passing the SAVE Act:One thing that's very nerve-wracking about the SAVE Act, about all of this is as if the president is trying to create a national voter registration list, a national list of Americans.  But Simmons also tried to appeal to conservative Americans, the vast majority of whom support requiring I.D. to vote:I think Americans, conservative Americans in particular, have really pushed back on anything like this for generations. . . states’ rights, and the idea of a national ID, a national registry that all of us will be on, and the President of the United States can choose to allow people to vote or not allow people to vote.Federal auditing of the voter rolls will not give the president the power to decide who votes and who doesn’t. It is still up to the states to run and declare elections. The Democrats and the liberal media can’t have it both ways. If you want to talk about how great it is that a Democratic governor cracked down on fraud, first you have to acknowledge that the fraud took place. And the Republicans have been blowing the whistle on this type of fraud for a long time, but the Democrats still don’t want to admit it's happening.The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront7/28/267:15:24 p.m. EasternERIN BURNETT: Jamal, one of the worst headlines on all of this has been what came out of New Jersey a few days ago that there were - against people [who] went to get their driver's license. They said they weren't citizens. And so, they checked that box and then they got added to the voter rolls anyway. JAMAL SIMMONS: Yeah.BURNETT: That's the kind of headline where, maybe the headline should be, 'hey, they caught it. They fixed it. They're taking care of it and should be.' SIMMONS: True.BURNETT: But there's also the headline of 'oh wow, that's bad. And is there more of that?' Right, in the context that we're in now, that those seeds can fall on fertile ground? So now the New Jersey governor, Governor Mikie Sherrill, she's refusing to hand over those 6,600 names to the Department of Justice. She's saying, 'no, that's a violation of privacy laws and state laws.' Do you think she will prevail? And what do you think's going on here as to why the Trump administration wants those names when New Jersey is saying 'we went through and are taking them off the rolls, we are taking care of the problem.'SIMMONS: Yeah. There will be a fight about it, and we know the president will try to be punitive about it. He will look for ways to apply pressure to the governor of New Jersey to get her to hand it over. One thing that's very nerve-wracking about the SAVE Act, about all of this is as if the president is trying to create a national voter registration list, a national list of Americans. And I think Americans, conservative Americans in particular, have really pushed back on anything like this for generations. BURNETT: Right. States' rights, right--SIMMONS: And now they've got a Republican president who's trying to--BURNETT: I mean, states rights, states run elections--SIMMONS: --states rights, and the idea of a national ID, a national registry--BURNETT: Yeah.SIMMONS: --that all of us will be on, and the President of the United States can choose to allow people to vote or not allow people to vote, to get mail-in ballots or not get mail-in ballots, because that's part of the deal that the postal service will only deliver to people who are on the national registry. This is really concerning for everyone who worries about having a functioning democracy.BURNETT: Well, as you point out, it's not a Democrat thing. It's actually a conservative thing, right? I mean, it's states' rights at its core, federalism.

NewsNation via SnapStream When Chris Cuomo was still with CNN and purportedly had COVID, he would call Dr. Anthony Fauci nightly and they’re still buds to this day. So, it was no surprise that Cuomo would take up a ridiculous position to defend his friend from accountability for his harmful lies and deceit of the American people. According to the NewsNation host on his eponymous Wednesday night show, Republicans who were trying to hold Fauci to account were actually trying to shift blame from China to America for creating COVID-19.After tacitly admitting that Fauci likely was in contempt of Congress for inappropriately pleading the Fifth Amendment to literally every question including the innocuous ones, Cuomo suggested that if Republicans were serious about getting answers to their questions, they should offer his good friend “immunity” instead:Is finding him in contempt of Congress. Is that going to make Fauci speak? I doubt it. And we all know was answers anyway. If they really think Tony Fauci can answer some of the vexing real questions about the pandemic, why don't they give him immunity? My suggestion is they're not even talking about that because this is about finding a fall guy as much as anything else. Cuomo used to be one the loudest voices on CNN at the time denouncing the Wuhan lab leak theory and even scoffed at the idea that it came from China at all, arguing, “it could have come from anywhere.” Chris Cuomo suggests that Republican animus toward Fauci and focus on his NIH funding gain-of-function research is about saying "America cause the [COVID] pandemic" and not China.He says Republicans should be giving Fauci immunity and not holding him in contempt:"Is finding… pic.twitter.com/QC6Zh4JA5v— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 30, 2026 Since his buddy was on the line, Cuomo was now for the lab leak theory and insisted that Fauci was being made the “fall guy” by Republicans, who he suggested were trying to blame America for the COVID since his National Institute of Health was funneling money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.“Otherwise, why insist that America funded the virus?” he declared. “This is not about the definition of gain of function. That's about whether or not America caused the pandemic. Have you ever seen proof that what America funded could have even possibly lead to COVID-19. They certainly didn't point to any today.” The NewsNation host then tried to pivot to suggesting Republicans were using Fauci to deflect and distract from more important and substantive finger pointing:Seems to me there is as much or more cause to point to China. Why didn't they cooperate? I won't they cooperate now. Why did they shut things down? Why did they remove things? Why don't any lawmakers target them if this is about truth and whether it came from the lab, which, of course, seems likely now?Fredo, it’s probably because the American Senate had no authority to demand anything from a foreign government. Cuomo suggests to Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) that anyone trying to hold Fauci accountable for his NIH funding China's gain-of-function research with coronaviruses is actually claiming "America created COVID-19" and not China:CUOMO: Here's what I don't get Senator. It didn't… pic.twitter.com/oI09rnofmi— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 30, 2026 Following the opening monologue, Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) joined Cuomo, who then questioned what evidence existed to show the funding Fauci was funneling to WIV went to anything to do with research into COVID (Click “expand”):Here's what I don't get Senator. It didn't discourage the President from calling it the China virus, right? And he made plenty of suggestions. And the right was fine with that. What I don't get is why have regret about whether or not it came from the lab when you don't know what that even means. Who made it in the lab? Do you have any reason to believe that anything that America funded on Fauci's watch or otherwise couldn't even possibly lead to it? Have you ever heard anybody ask any questions in any of these hearings about what China was doing?Seemly thinking he found a good gothcha line of attack, Cuomo questioned why Trump was calling it the “China Virus” and not the “‘America virus' or the 'Fauci virus.’”“So obviously, their curiosity was, are we shielding China? But now it's apparently to me unless I missed it today, they seem to think that America created COVID-19,” he said, twisting the premise of the theory and the hearing. Cuomo proclaims "it makes no sense to me" to hold Fauci accountable for anything dealing with COVID. He even argues that Fauci's is "guilty of hubris" but it's no big deal because he was in a room full of senators where were guilty of the same:"If you're about accountability, I… pic.twitter.com/ljrGStPyA5— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) July 30, 2026 An absolutely ridiculous premise by Fredo.The hearing with Fauci was about getting him on the record about how he was making certain harmful recommendations and claims publicly while holding contradictory positions in private, as shown in his diary. Additionally, it was about how he was lying about his NIH funneling money to the WIV where they were known to be working with COVID.Holding Fauci to account for his parts doesn’t wash China’s hands of being the origin point of the pandemic. And since there likely wouldn’t be any accountability from or against China, there needed to accountability somewhere along the chain.But what else did we expect from Cuomo, the man to faked leaving his basement quarantine when he was already caught running around long island.The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:NewsNation’s CUOMOJuly 29, 20258:04:45 p.m. Eastern(…)CHRIS CUOMO: Is finding him in contempt of Congress. Is that going to make Fauci speak? I doubt it. And we all know was answers anyway. If they really think Tony Fauci can answer some of the vexing real questions about the pandemic, why don't they give him immunity?My suggestion is they're not even talking about that because this is about finding a fall guy as much as anything else. And I ask 'no' for forgiveness for being suspicious of the idea that only Tony Fauci has something to answer for. Otherwise, why insist that America funded the virus?This is not about the definition of gain of function. That's about whether or not America caused the pandemic. Have you ever seen proof that what America funded could have even possibly lead to COVID-19. They certainly didn't point to any today. Seems to me there is as much or more cause to point to China. Why didn't they cooperate? I won't they cooperate now. Why did they shut things down? Why did they remove things? Why don't any lawmakers target them if this is about truth and whether it came from the lab, which, of course, seems likely now. Why isn't the President, who elevated Fauci answering questions? Why did he substitute Fauci for himself and keep him there as the main communicator with the country long after people started to complain. Why give Tony Fauci, one of the highest civilian accommodations that our government has to offer for his vaccine work, if you think it's poison? If they believe messaging about the virus was intentionally misleading. Why is it only on Fauci when so many were giving Fau-  were giving the messenger? Wasn't what Fauci said coordinated by the White House is that in the diary?(…)8:10:58 p.m. EasternCUOMO: Here's what I don't get Senator. It didn't discourage the President from calling it the China virus, right? And he made plenty of suggestions. And the right was fine with that. What I don't get is why have regret about whether or not it came from the lab when you don't know what that even means. WHO made it in the lab? Do you have any reason to believe that anything that America funded on Fauci's watch or otherwise couldn't even possibly lead to it? Have you ever heard anybody ask any questions in any of these hearings about what China was doing?SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): What I'm saying that it's like where could have came from for the first year throughout 2020 in into 2021.CUOMO: RightFETTERMAN: That was a full, you know, far-right kinds of conspiracy thing. And that was roundly denounced or described as -CUOMO: Right. But their point was, John, it was China because he was calling it the 'China virus.' He wasn't calling it the 'America virus' or the 'Fauci virus.' So obviously, their curiosity was, are we shielding China? But now it's apparently to me unless I missed it today, they seem to think that America created COVID-19. Do you not get that suggestion?FETTERMAN: What I'm saying to you is is that that people's squared up and it became partisan. And now it that really stopped us from finding the truth in all of it. Now how it came from. You know, we were just trying to blame the other side or whatever.(…)8:14:59 p.m. EasternCUOMO: If you're about accountability, I don't know how it begins and ends with Tony Fauci. It makes no sense to me. And look, is he guilty of hubris? Who isn't especially in that room. Senator, you know, the idea that Tony Fauci is distinctive in a room full of senators about people who are, you know, smelling their own scent a little too much.(…)

Screenshot via ABC/Snapstream On Thursday, the major broadcast networks used their flagship morning news shows to throw a pity party for one of the dearly beloved overlords, former public health official Dr. Tony Fauci, bemoaning the “deep, partisan divisions” illustrated in the behavior of Republicans in discussing the COVID-19 pandemic and “a sign of the times” someone like Fauci could be ridiculed.ABC’s Good Morning America featured co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos, who decried what took place Wednesday morning in a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing as “a sign of the times” that a hearing starring Fauci could turn out “as partisan as it gets.” WATCH: ABC’s George Stephanopoulos complained on Thursday’s ‘Good Morning America’ that the Senate hearing with Fauci was “a sign of the times” that something starring a person like Fauci could turn out to be “as partisan as it gets.”Obviously, correspondent Jay O’Brien agreed… pic.twitter.com/U1nWRdWRmo— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 30, 2026 Obviously, correspondent Jay O’Brien agreed: “It was. And now, after that hearing, the chair of that committee, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, says he wants to move to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress after Fauci pled the Fifth more than 100 times in that fiery hearing yesterday.”O’Brien also made sure to parrot Fauci’s framing of Paul while putting no weight on what Paul and the other Republican senators alleged:Fauci said he did so as a way of protecting himself because he accused Paul of having, in his words, a — a “unhinged obsession” with putting him in prison. Paul has said that because Fauci has this preemptive pardon from President Biden that covers Fauci’s time in government, he may not be allowed to exercise his constitutional right to plead the Fifth. But Paul acknowledged to me that’s an untested legal theory that the courts are going to have to settle.Over on NBC, Today kept the emotions on the front burner.“Senate showdown. Republicans threatening to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt after his heated appearance on Capitol Hill...Fauci invoking the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times and refusing to answer any questions...Now, what’s next for the nation’s former top health official? We’ll have the very latest,” said co-host Craig Melvin in a tease.Fill-in co-host Hallie Jackson categorized what took place as a “heated hearing” that resulted in “Republicans...threatening to hold him in contempt of Congress.” Thurday's 'Today' featured NBC arguing the Fauci hearing "was supposed to be part of an investigation into the origins of COVID-19, and the government’s response, but instead," the GOP's behavior "highlighted the deep, partisan divisions that still exist over the pandemic" pic.twitter.com/EfWxI67ppL— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 30, 2026 White House correspondent Monica Alba blamed the GOP for her framing of the hearing: This hearing was supposed to be part of an investigation into the origins of COVID-19, and the government’s response, but instead, it highlighted the deep, partisan divisions that still exist over the pandemic years later. This morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci facing a new threat: a potential contempt of Congress vote after refusing more than 100 times to answer questions Wednesday during a contentious Senate hearing.Alba repeatedly harped on the personal animus between Fauci and Paul as opposed to, say, the focus on the funding of Chinese labs, schools being closed for as long as they were, or Fauci and his staff soliciting awards for him while on the clock (click “expand”):ALBA: The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, calling the Republican chairman Senator Rand Paul “unhinged.”FAUCI: The sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something, anything that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up in his words “behind bars.”ALBA: Senator Paul, who’s accused Fauci of what he calls a COVID cover-up, saying his committee will vote next week on whether Fauci violated the law.PAUL [on FNC’s The Will Cain Show, 07/29/26]: If that resolution passes our committee, which it will, that it could simply be referred directly to the Department of Justice.ALBA: During the nearly three-hour hearing, Republicans repeatedly slamming Fauci, who was a key member of the White House COVID Task Force for both the Trump and Biden administrations.MORENO: It is a total disgrace what you did to this country.HAWLEY [TO FAUCI]: What color’s the carpet in front of you?FAUCI: On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer.HAWLEY: You could sit for In Style magazine, but you can’t answer questions for the American people. Alba also Trumpwashed the segment by scoffing that Trump has dismissed those who plead the Fifth even though he “later invoked the Fifth Amendment himself more than 400 times in a civil case in New York.”In addition to touting the belief from Fauci’s lawyers he’s in the clear, she passed along the left’s conclusion as fact: “Committee Democrats, suggesting Fauci, who by his own count has testified before Congress more than 200 times during his decades in public health, made the right call.”Over on CBS Mornings, co-host Nate Burleson followed suit in the framing as Fauci defending himself against a GOP that had come off the proverbial chain: “Republican senators say Dr. Anthony Fauci could be held in contempt after a fiery hearing on Capitol Hill. The leader of the government response to the COVID pandemic refused to answer questions from senators yesterday.”Congressional correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns didn’t lead with the accusations from Republicans about Fauci’s power-tripping or unrepentance but rather the Fifth Amendment count and boasting that “when his attorney tried to speak, the chairman of the committee had him kicked out of the room.”As was the case with NBC, Huey-Burns chose not to explain the why as Paul removed Fauci’s attorney because he sat at the witness table despite explicit instructions not to. Thursday's 'CBS Mornings' didn’t lead with the accusations from Senate Republicans about Fauci’s power-tripping or unrepentance, but rather the Fifth Amendment count, that it was a "fiery hearing," and that Paul had Fauci's attorney booted pic.twitter.com/af9W3zySGw— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 30, 2026 Huey-Burns vaguely asserted, “Republican after Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee unleashed on Dr. Anthony Fauci Tuesday as he declined to answer any of their questions” under threat of prosecution (but despite a pardon from now-former President Biden).“Senator Paul has long accused Fauci of lying to suppress the theory the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, a lab Paul says received U.S. government funding for research to make viruses more transmissible,” she added before conceding a Justice Department referral for wrongdoing by Fauci “would have to overcome a lot of hurdles.”To see the relevant transcripts from July 30, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).

Former COVID czar Dr. Anthony Fauci pleaded The Fifth 111 times at Wednesday’s Congressional hearing – but, that’s not what promised to do when the prospect of oversight of his handling of the epidemic first surfaced.At Wednesday’s Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs hearing, the former face and head of the federal government’s response to the deadly COVID-19 epidemic refused to answer even a single question about his past actions, claims and health-safety recommendations.But, as he was leaving office in late 2022, Fauci repeatedly and unequivocally proclaimed that he would welcome any congressional inquiry because he had nothing to hide.“If there are oversight hearings, I absolutely will cooperate fully and testify before the Congress, if asked,” Fauci promised in a White House press conference:“We can defend and explain and stand by everything that we say. So, I have nothing to hide.” “I absolutely will cooperate fully and testify before the Congress… I have nothing to hide.”What changed? pic.twitter.com/bs7HcYcH6Y— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) July 29, 2026 Fauci made a similar claim in an interview with CNN, adding that he would testify even if the proceedings were hostile:“I am very happy to testify before any congressional oversight committee. I have nothing to hide. I can explain and validate everything that I’ve done.”….“So, you know, it’s going to be inconvenient if they actually are out there, essentially threatening to make my life miserable, but I’m going to do what I need to do, and that is cooperate fully, because we have nothing to hide at all.” Fauci in 2022: “I am very happy to testify before any congressional oversight committee. I have nothing to hide. I can explain and validate everything that I’ve done. I’m going to do what I need to do, and that is cooperate fully, because we have nothing to hide at all.” pic.twitter.com/vRYKHnLkPr— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) July 29, 2026 “I believe oversight is a very important part of government structure and I welcome it and it can be productive,” Fauci declared in another interview:“So, sure, I would be happy to cooperate, so long as we make it something that is a dignified oversight, which it should be, and not just bringing up ridiculous things and attacking my character.” THEN: “I welcome oversight… I would be happy to cooperate.”NOW: Fauci pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times under congressional questioning. pic.twitter.com/9zYGJIgWfQ— Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) July 29, 2026Ironically, while Fauci refused to answer any and all questions at Wednesday’s hearing, he previously touted the importance of providing “correct information” in order to dispel false claims. “The way you counter misinformation and disinformation is to do whatever you can as often as you can to provide correct information,” Fauci said in his last White House press briefing.