Starting a new job is never easy, but Nick Bilton, the new executive producer of 60 Minutes, has had an extra rough first two weeks after firing veteran correspondent Scott Pelley on Tuesday. Lesley Stahl, Jon Wertheim and Bill Whitaker released a joint memo today condemning the firings but declaring their intention to remain in post.
CBS’s management has been accused of ignoring the demands of the (dwindling) core viewership and making top-down political changes to drag the station’s coverage to the right. In that spirit, Cockburn is offering Bilton some suggestions of feet to fill Pelley’s shoes.
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Olivia Reingold
The obvious choice, given the CBS leadership’s penchant for raiding new Ellison acquisition the Free Press for talent. Few people would do a better job of toeing the party line. She was widely and unfairly mocked for filming herself and not the wider room during the WHCD gunman debacle, but that’s because she knows she belongs in front of the camera, not behind it.
Nick Shirley
If Bilton is dedicated to embracing a younger audience, (Pew Research Center reports most CBS viewers are almost 60), he should consider 23-year-old Nick Shirley, whose low-research, high-reward YouTube videos about fraud in Minnesota have already landed him in the White House and in the headlines. An intellectual titan.
Olivia Nuzzi
She lost her job at New York magazine after insinuating a “personal relationship” with RFK Jr., and was later accused by her ex of having an affair with former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford. Both older men were subjects of Nuzzi profiles. But those scandals could be assets on her résumé for 60 Minutes if, as one X commenter suggests, “at the end of each episode she marries the subject of the interview.”
Andy Ngo
The Post Millennial editor-at-large is a longstanding friend of CBS chief Bari Weiss and rose to prominence for his video reporting on antifa in his home city of Portland. Guaranteed virality. Basically the proto-Nick Shirley. Ngo further questions!
Spencer Pratt
60 Minutes would be a solid fallback if the LA mayor gig doesn’t work out; after all, he’s already demonstrated on a national scale that he can tell an engaging story onscreen – and throw a great block party.
On our radar
COURTSIDE President Trump will be the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game when he heads to Madison Square Garden on Monday for Game 3 – the New York Knicks’ first finals home game since 1999.
MALL WALKING Plans are under way for the construction of a walkway that would connect the Lincoln Memorial with the Potomac waterfront, taking pedestrians over two major roadways. Trump sees this project as fulfilling an original goal of the McMillan Plan for the National Mall.
TIME TO RALLY After major artists canceled appearances at the DC Freedom 250 Concert Series, President Trump has announced the concert will be replaced with a “Rally to end all Rallies” on June 24, opening with Lee Greenwood playing “God Bless the USA” (obviously) and featuring performances by several of the Armed Forces’ musical ensembles.
Looks like it might not be ‘Plat Summer’ after all
In Washington we were told to brace ourselves for the horrors of opposition research on millennial candidates for office: the “offense archaeology” of drudging up social-media posts, the “cancel culture” that would follow. Still, few anticipated that a potential congressman could draw as much fire as Graham Platner.
Platner, 41, became the favorite to win the Democratic primary for US Senate in Maine by posing as a ruddy-faced oysterman, Marine Corps veteran and anti-oligarchy hero of the working classes. Clips from his town halls went viral as he surged ahead of Chuck Schumer’s preferred candidate, 78-year-old Governor Janet Mills, in the polls.
Yet he has proved to be a scandal magnet. He has a skull-and-crossbones tattoo that’s widely interpreted to be a “Totenkopf,” the SS sigil. His Reddit account contains some rather ribald views about his fellow servicemen, sexual assault and people of other races. What’s more, he attended one of America’s most prestigious private schools and largely sold oysters to his mother’s bouji restaurant: he’s about as working-class as a regatta.
Then in the last two weeks, Platner’s, er, complicated relationships with women came to the fore. Stories emerged last week about how he’d sexted with other ladies over Kik while married. There were rumblings that more, worse accusations were incoming – before the New York Times yesterday published a piece detailing allegations from an ex-girlfriend that Platner had grabbed and restrained her, knew his tattoo was a Nazi tattoo – and said he’d “rape” anyone who broke into his house “to show I’m dominant… not in a gay way.” The story’s primary source, a Republican activist, is accusing the Times of a “catch-and-kill” operation, as “accusations of sexual assault” were omitted from the piece.
In an attempted clean-up last night, Platner went on Chris Hayes’s MS NOW show and wore the expression of a dog who’d soiled the carpet. Platner met with Democratic leadership before the latest Times story dropped and reportedly assured them that “the worst of the rumors we’ve all heard are not true.” He has sought to quell the furore by attributing his past poor behavior to excessive drinking, to PTSD, to poor mental health, to immaturity. And sure, perhaps being a veteran of the Iraq war might offer context to some of his misgivings. Cockburn can’t help but feel that being a veteran of the DC service industry explains some others. Platner worked as a bartender at Capitol Hill’s Tune Inn, which, given Cockburn’s detailed knowledge of the conduct of some of the city’s bar staff, sheds some light on the excessive drinking, womanizing and dating across the aisle.
This midterm season, voters are being faced by challenging questions about “morals” and “standards.” You might argue that with his suspicious tattoos, trouble with alcohol and fidelity and veteran status, Platner is basically a peacenik Pete Hegseth – and the War Secretary is supposed to be a long-shot future presidential candidate. The pearl-clutching over Platner’s cheating is difficult to swallow given the Republican choice to back Ken Paxton over John Cornyn in Texas. Still, how much drama is too much for the electorate? What conclusion will they draw from his defenses: is he a moron, a liar, a narcissist, a sociopath – or a changed man and a better bet than Susan Collins?
Hunter Biden: businessman, addict, poster… president?
Hunter Biden is striving to bring America together – through his new X/Twitter account.
“Someone called me the MAGA whisperer and I’ll gladly take the title,” he posted yesterday morning. “Left, right, D or R we all want the same things. We’re being divided on purpose by the Epstein Elite Oligarch class.”
The real magic is in the replies. When an account accused him of hypocrisy – “aren’t you decidedly part of the elite oligarch class?” – he replied with an unflattering selfie from his infamous laptop, shirtless in bed and smoking a cigarette. “Do I look like I’m a part of the elite oligarch class. This was taken at a super 8 motel off I95 by the way.”
Biden has worked tirelessly on the platform, often responding to over a dozen accounts. Take his Wednesday tweet, which suggested that “Trump hasn’t made a public appearance in 8 days.” He’s literally live in the Oval Office right now you moron,” one account commented. Biden wasn’t impressed. “That’s clearly a clone,” he joked. He made similar statements under several other comments.
Biden joined X on May 19, two days before his interview with Candace Owens, and the show hasn’t stopped since. The Biden scion’s rise to algorithmic stardom coincides with the release of his stepmother Jill’s memoir, View from the East Wing. Hunter has mentioned the book on his X account, but he also seems to be distancing himself from his family’s wider attempt at retribution against former Biden-Harris staffers – perhaps trying to position himself as a 2028 presidential candidate.
Commenters have been quick to pick up on that possibility, as well. “HUNTER BIDEN 2028,” read one comment. “A vote for Hunter is a crack to the system.”
“Now that’s a campaign slogan!” Biden responded.
President Trump was asked about Hunter’s presidential bona fides yesterday. “If the guy from Maine [Platner, see above] can do well… I guess Hunter can,” the President said.
For readers worried the rollercoaster won’t last long, fear not – Hunter Biden will do anything for the fans. “I think I’ll be on Substack soon too,” he promised. Come in, the water’s warm.
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