Inside the vicious CBS News 'bloodbath' where staff are fighting, crying and 'resent' Gayle King
By STEVE HELLING FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
CBS is [in] crisis - with staffers crying in the hallways, fighting over story coverage and seating, and scrambling to update their resumes amid fears of mass layoffs.
Insiders have told the Daily Mail that morale has plummeted across the network, from the flagship Sunday news show 60 Minutes to CBS Mornings, sparked by a looming $8.4 billion merger and a $20 billion lawsuit.
The tumult is turning into a 'bloodbath', one employee said, with feverish speculation rife among colleagues as to who will get the axe next.
Tensions are running particularly high about reports that CBS's parent company, Paramount Global, is preparing to slash $500 million in costs in preparation for the lucrative merger with Skydance Media against the backdrop of a ratings freefall.
One assumes SkyDance is demanding that CBS slash this half-billion in costs before the merger because CBS is dying and doesn't bring in much money.
So just to survive as a corporate entity, they have to fire a half-billion dollars' worth of incompetence.
The propagandists at 60 Minutes are aghast that CBS might agree to pay Trump $50 million to settle his "election interference" lawsuit.
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There have been suggestions recently that bosses at Paramount are entertaining a $50 million payout as the Trump administration considers whether to renew CBS's broadcast license.
As you know, CBS "News" CEO Wendy McMahon resigned rather than agree that her fake news unit engaged in deceptive propaganda on behalf of her beloved communist Democrat Party.
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'[Wendy leaving] really hurt us a lot,' said one CBS employee. 'I've seen people crying in the halls. Everyone is going into offices and conference rooms to whisper and strategize.'
This is a bonus:
Fed-up sources observed that there was growing resentment towards legendary CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King, who is reportedly facing a fight to have her $10million contract renewed when it ends in September.
Gayle King may be riding high on the idea of being an "astronaut" in the wake of her 11-minute space tourism trip with Blue Origin last week, but her popularity appears to be at a low.
In the wake of her highly scrutinized zero-gravity adventure, ratings for her already struggling CBS News morning show have plummeted. And King is apparently not the only one experiencing the backlash.
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King co-hosts CBS Morning alongside Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson weekday mornings, as the Tiffany Network's competitor to ABC News' Good Morning America and NBC News' Today. It perennially finds itself in third place in the ratings and the highly coveted 25- to 54-year-old demo, though that briefly changed last week.
The Monday before the Blue Origin flight, NewsNation found that CBS Morning had an impressive 3.9 million viewers with 593,000 in the demo. Much like King, however, the numbers quickly came back down to earth.
In the three days following the trip, NewsNation reported the ratings dropped to an average of 1.9 million people (a 51 percent loss) and the demo fell to 339,000 (a 43 percent loss). A week later, viewers in the demo fell even further to 311,000 for a third-place finish.
It may have been hard to foresee just how much blowback this excursion would get from celebrities, late night hosts, and social media users alike, but an industry source told NewsNation it is hard to understand why King was allowed to participate to begin with.
"This stunt should have never been greenlit by CBS News to begin with," the source said. "Gayle tries to be this relatable morning show anchor who claims she's down to earth and then not only takes this gazillion-dollar flight but then attacks people for getting mad at her? It's a complete crock."
King has turned out to be one of the most outspoken members of the six-woman crew, claiming she is now "an astronaut" who followed in the footsteps of Alan Shepard (a.k.a. the first American in space) and accusing critics of sexism.
Back to the Daily Mail:
And there might be more exits to come. Multiple sources told the Daily Mail that 60 Minutes host Scott Pelley could also be on the way out.
'It's marquee name after marquee name.'
As Megyn Kelly noted, CBS doesn't have any "marquee" names.
'People don't want to say it out loud in the office but the entire space debacle really hurt us,' a 60 Minutes staffer said of King's participation in Blue Origin's all-female spaceflight on April 2. 'Gayle being part of that is not a good look for our brand.'
'I think a lot of people resent Gayle for that,' continued the insider. 'I know I do.'
There was a general sense of embarrassment, said one Early Show producer. 'I almost feel like apologizing when I tell people where I work. I hate it here.'
LOL. Cry more.
Coding you must learn.
But the most palpable impact appears to have been felt at 60 Minutes, where staff have compared the atmosphere to a 'sinking ship'.
'We're in the middle of a bloodbath,' a staffer said. 'The axe is falling, people are leaving, no one knows what to do next. We're all updating our resumes because it really feels like this is a sinking ship.'
The tension has spilled out into the open, with blazing rows in the office over story coverage and petty squabbles concerning seating plans, sources told the Daily Mail.
'Fights, and loud ones,' the insider continued. 'You can hear them in the halls. People are arguing over everything and anything. From big things, like how to report stories, to small things, like who is sitting where in the conference room.'
Scott Pelley supported the Regime's banning of rightist speech but now tells Wake Forest graduates they are soldiers in the war against Trump's crackdown on free speech.
Via Megyn Kelly. They cattily talk about these losers and then attack ABC's propagandist and narcissist David Muir. That part starts at 5:20.