Former CNN host-turned-independent journalist and podcaster Jim Acosta tore into CBS News’s rightward shift and its newest MAGA-friendly anchor Tony Dokoupil Thursday, warning of “state-compromised media” in the U.S.
“I’ve been describing it this way, I think we have a system of state-compromised media in this country. We do not have a free press the way that we did a couple of years ago,” Acosta said on Jennifer Welch’s “I’ve Had It” podcast. “If we have major corporations that are in charge of our media outlets, that are under the thumb of the current administration, then you really don’t have freedom of the press.”
CBS News has faced scrutiny amid its rightward shift under parent company Paramount. While under the leadership of Paramount CEO and Trump ally David Ellison, CBS News has undergone major staffing changes, with conservative journalist Bari Weiss becoming the network’s editor-in-chief and hiring Dokoupil as anchor.
The network has come under fire after Weiss pulled a “60 Minutes” episode about the notorious El Salvadoran prison where Trump sent more than 200 of Venezuelan migrants last year, and after Dokoupil fawned over Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“I mean, not only was Walter Cronkite spinning in his grave, I was hoping he would come back from the great beyond to choke the living shit out of him, and say, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’” Acosta said of Dokoupil’s admiration over Rubio.
