CBS invites Trump STOOGES Stephen Miller and Hegseth to WHCD despite OUTRAGEOUS free speech attacks

[0:01] This weekend, when journalists gather for the annual White House Correspondents Dinner [0:05] to ostensibly celebrate the First Amendment, this year will be different. They will be [0:11] sitting side by side with members of the Trump administration and the architects of efforts to [0:17] erode the First Amendment and First Amendment freedoms. And it's not just Donald Trump who's [0:21] doing it. Donald Trump, by the way, is attending this dinner for the first time ever, breaking with [0:26] his own norm-busting behavior. Every president since Calvin Coolidge has attended at least one [0:32] of the dinners. In his first term, Trump did not. But we've also seen perplexing decisions from some [0:37] news organizations to invite the very same people who have lodged lawsuits against them, [0:43] who threaten them, who attack them in ways that lead to threats of violence, who threaten to strip [0:48] their broadcast licenses, including CBS News, which our friend Oliver Darcy reports in status, [0:53] has invited Stephen Miller as a guest at its table, and Pete Hegseth, who is literally at war [0:59] with the Pentagon Press Corps. Donald Trump's secretary of defense evicted reporters from [1:04] their workspaces at the Pentagon for not agreeing to his demands, which a federal judge ruled as [1:10] unconstitutional and the mark of autocracy. Oliver Darcy reports that Donald Trump's Federal [1:16] Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr, is also set to attend the dinner. Oliver reports that Carr [1:22] is, quote, not with CBS, but according to Darcy's reporting, an invitation has been extended to him [1:29] from CBS News' parent company, Paramount, which will have its own table at this dinner. [1:35] Carr has weaponized his position against media companies, threatened to revoke licenses over [1:41] coverage critical of Donald Trump, most recently the war with Iran. He publicly attacked Jimmy Kimmel [1:46] just before Kimmel's suspension, and his role in Paramount's merger with Skydance Media has raised [1:52] ethics concerns. I want to bring in the executive editor of Deadline.com, Dominic Patton. Alex is [1:58] still here. I want to do just a moment of personal disclosures before I cover this story. I'm not going, [2:05] and I count myself fortunate to work at a news organization that faces all of the same pressures, [2:09] and in some ways more than all the others, and respects that choice. Your thought, though, Dominic, [2:16] this does feel different. Donald Trump isn't a normal president that is on the receiving end of [2:22] tough coverage. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the FBI started investigating a [2:27] journalist who's reporting they didn't like about the FBI director's girlfriend. The government has [2:34] raided the homes of journalists. They are constantly, Donald Trump views the settlements from ABC [2:40] and CBS basically as payouts to him. He posts on his social media about them, and the attacks on [2:48] journalists and journalism since the war began are historic in nature in terms of their viciousness [2:53] and brutality. Well, Alex, I will say, too, I am not attending this year's White House Correspondents [3:00] Dinner, though I have gone in previous years. I think that one of the things we're looking at here is [3:04] you have to ask people, what is this year's White House Correspondents Dinner? It's clear that Donald [3:10] Trump has decided to attend for the first time as president. Remember, he did go in 2011 when then [3:15] President Barack Obama basically roasted him as he was also managing at the same time the attack on [3:21] Osama bin Laden. So a president who actually was doing his job. Donald Trump, from what we understand, [3:26] is going to do a quick in and out. He's going to basically try to make fun of everyone, make them feel [3:30] terrible, and then leave. And when you're seeing at the same time is what's happening tonight, which I [3:35] think is actually almost as important. Tonight, David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount, which today [3:40] saw the shareholders of Warner Brothers Discovery overwhelmingly agree to the merger between the two [3:46] companies. Now, this is one stage of many, but it's certainly a big one. David Ellison will be holding [3:51] a dinner at the Trump Institute of Peace in honor of the Trump White House and CBS News White House [3:58] Correspondents, though there won't be that many CBS News White House Correspondents there. And in fact, [4:03] the president of the White House Correspondent Association is a CBS News Correspondent right [4:08] now. But that's going to be a behind-closed-door private dinner. That is already, I think, [4:14] telling you everything you need to know about what has become very much state media. I mean, [4:18] let's just say it for what it is. We would never, at this point, mock Fox for the people they're [4:24] going to invite. And they're going to invite a ton of people from the administration. That's their [4:27] brand. But when you look at something like a public broadcaster, like the home of Walter Cronkite [4:32] and what have you, you can tap into that legacy in a great way, or you can tap into that legacy in a [4:38] help us get this deal through. And that's what this is. This is business. This is just like the [4:43] discussion you had before the break, which is, this is people lining their pockets on all ends, [4:50] utilizing the vast powers of the federal government, in this case, to greenlight a mega-merger [4:55] that almost no one in Hollywood wants, by the way. Yeah. I mean, Alex, there's some really dumb [5:01] spin out there that I'm sad to say some media writers seem to be buying, that they love, that [5:06] Barry Weiss and Ellison love, all the outrage. I mean, there's still a business. And as a business [5:14] undertaking, the, I'll stick with dog food, the dogs do not like the dog food they're serving in the [5:21] morning and the evening. And so as business people, regardless of how they feel like they've got [5:27] some of the media writers bamboozled, their businesses are failing. Totally. I'm in D.C. I'm not [5:35] going to the correspondence dinner. The food is terrible. The, uh, the company apparently even [5:39] worse. I used to work at CBS. I'm not having dinner there either. Um, here's what I'll say, [5:44] Nicole. If it's a business decision, usually the owners of multi-billion dollar businesses [5:49] aren't this stupid, because the reality is that we are barreling towards a midterm elections where [5:54] Democrats are almost certainly going to take over the house and have subpoena power as they head up, [6:00] for example, the oversight committee. And David Ellison can be throwing as many cocktail parties as he [6:04] wants and passing around as many pigs in a blanket as he wants for the next several months. But he has [6:09] made an enemy out of every single Democrat on the Hill through his behavior and his relentless [6:13] currying of favor, favor with the Trump administration. And you can bet that come no, [6:19] come January of next year, he will be asked to report to the Hill and explain his preferential [6:24] treatment of the administration, the way in which the unsavory backroom negotiations that have [6:30] potentially happened between Paramount and Warner Brothers and the administration. And there are [6:34] going to be a lot of questions asked. Furthermore, if we look at, you know, what happened in Hungary, where [6:39] they took over institutional media and made it state propaganda. Once there's a new sheriff in town, as there [6:45] is in Hungary, you can revoke licenses, you can shut down the state propaganda machine and say, you're not doing [6:53] business until you restore your public service charter. And I could imagine Democrats on the Hill, [6:58] especially if they take back the Senate saying, we need to look at this merger again, and maybe we need [7:03] to break it up. The story is not over once Donald Trump has given his imprimatur to all of this, [7:09] whatever David Ellison thinks. The reality is Washington is a place where the guard changes a lot, [7:15] which is why most owners of billion dollar corporations do not reveal themselves to be such partisan [7:20] stooges so often, so often and so obviously. Yeah. And just to stick to like the part of the [7:27] garden, you know, we have any influence over, they're not planting things that people want to [7:32] pick and put in their homes. I mean, the whole Hungary example is so perfect because at the end of [7:38] the day, the 71% of people that turned out to vote either were impervious to the propaganda or weren't [7:44] consuming it. They went, I mean, the whole sort of miscalculation is that what is an attractive [7:50] brand is that which is subversive. There is nothing more opposite than attractive and subversive [7:55] than state-run media. And that for some reason is what Ellison is happy to hitch his giant and [8:00] expensive wagon to.