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CBS Undermines Its Own Report on Trump’s Executive Order on Logging
For its longform Eye on America segment, the CBS Evening News delivered a visually beautiful report on President Trump’s executive order on logging- backdropped by lush Oregon forests. The report featured a heavy dose of advocacy against logging in national forests. But the report was undercut by an earlier item that underscores why such forest clearing is needed in the first place.
Watch the report close out with a heavy tilt towards the anti-logging position (click “expand” to view transcript):
DAVID SCHECTER: Quinn Reed is the executive director of the nonprofit Oregon Wild.
QUINN REED: These trees have seen a lot.
SCHECTER: She doesn't dispute the importance of careful thinning, but says the size and speed of Trump's plan will destroy the forest.
REED: I think the justifications, if they were true, are certainly worthy, but if you look at what’s actually called for, it doesn't meet any of those goals. This is the kind of logging that’s simply for profit.
SCHECTER: And now that the Trump administration has fired 10% of the U.S. Forest Service workforce, Reed says there are not enough people to enforce careful cutting.
REED: This used to be a forest much like we just saw just a few moments ago.
SCHECTER: So some of this is acceptable, or none of this is acceptable?
REED: You know, none of this is acceptable. They had a quota to meet, and so they came and they clear-cut it. This isn't what I want to see on the landscape. This isn't what I want to see on lands that we all collectively as Americans own.
SCHECTER: Do you see a possible risk that those clearcuts- what happened in the forests? With fewer staffers and fewer regulations?
JEFF BRINK: I certainly don't want to see it, and every stakeholder here that I've talked to doesn't want it, either.
SCHECTER: For some, the president's order is a long-overdue push toward responsible logging and fire reduction. Others would argue you can't save the forest by cutting it down.
The “both sides” presented in this item were “a little clearing” and “no clearing”, with lip service paid to the pro-logging position. And just for flair, you get a little of DOGE- the mention of the firing of Forest Service employees. Hardly a model for balance.
But the weather report that aired a few minutes prior was framed with the following:
MAURICE DuBOIS: Firefighters are battling dozens of wildfires in Oregon. They were started by lightning strikes.
Wildfires in Oregon, you say? Destroying potential American timber, you say? If only there were some way to manage the forest so that it is saved from devastation by wildfires AND wean us off of having to import timber from Canada.
These reports aired minutes apart, proving It’s almost as if the left hand doesn’t know what the far left hand is doing over at CBS.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on the CBS Evening News on Thursday, July 10th, 2025:
MAURICE DuBOIS: Firefighters in Southern California are making progress against the largest wildfire the state has seen this year. The Madre, in San Luis Obispo, has burned more than 80,000 acres. It is now about two-thirds contained. Very large fires are happening more often in the West. The Trump administration believes more logging is the answer, but not everyone agrees. David Schechter has tonight's Eye on America.
DAVID SCHECTER: We are in the emerald mountains of Oregon's Willamette National Forest.
JEFF BRINK: This is my backyard and my home, and I don't want to see it burn.
SCHECTER: It’s where Jeff Brink, on the left, works the same land his father used to. Brink's job is to reopen roads by removing trees burned in mega forest fires.
BRINK: Those are hazards to the public.
SCHECTER: The larger hazard he'd like the country to address is not just the roads, but the fires themselves. Doing that, he says, requires the regular thinning out of green healthy trees so there's less fuel to burn.
BRINK: We're not talking about “yeah, logging, let's get some wood moving.” We’re talking about proactive fuels management, and that can be done in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.
SCHECTER: Tree thinning, though, rarely happens here- in part, because of legal protections for endangered species and habitats. That was swept away in March by the Trump administration. It ordered an immediate expansion of American timber production, instructing federal agencies to disregard regulations where possible. The goal is to increase logging by 25% on federal lands.
LOGGER: So we've got somewhere around 40 loads out today.
SCHECTER: The policy would cut America's reliance on imported timber, generating new work and higher profits for people such as Brink and the rest of the struggling timber industry. It would also reduce fire risk by removing more trees.
Incredible. Enormous trees.
QUINN REED: The scale is remarkable.
SCHECTER: Quinn Reed is the executive director of the nonprofit Oregon Wild.
REED: These trees have seen a lot.
SCHECTER: She doesn't dispute the importance of careful thinning, but says the size and speed of Trump's plan will destroy the forest.
REED: I think the justifications, if they were true, are certainly worthy, but if you look at what’s actually called for, it doesn't meet any of those goals. This is the kind of logging that’s simply for profit.
SCHECTER: And now that the Trump administration has fired 10% of the U.S. Forest Service workforce, Reed says there are not enough people to enforce careful cutting.
REED: This used to be a forest much like we just saw just a few moments ago.
SCHECTER: So some of this is acceptable, or none of this is acceptable?
REED: You know, none of this is acceptable. They had a quota to meet, and so they came and they clear-cut it. This isn't what I want to see on the landscape. This isn't what I want to see on lands that we all collectively as Americans own.
SCHECTER: Do you see a possible risk that those clearcuts- what happened in the forests? With fewer staffers and fewer regulations?
BRINK: I certainly don't want to see it, and every stakeholder here that I've talked to doesn't want it, either.
SCHECTER: For some, the president's order is a long-overdue push toward responsible logging and fire reduction. Others would argue you can't save the forest by cutting it down. For Eye on America, I’m David Schecter in Oakridge, Oregon.