Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)
CBS Broadcasting, Inc. (CBS) is a media conglomerate that owns and operates large radio and television networks along with a number of other businesses including billboards and outdoor advertising, an internet presence, and book publishing (Simon and Schuster). The initials stand for "Columbia Broadcasting System" (taken from an early owner of the network, the Columbia Phonograph Company), although that name is no longer used. It is a division of media giant Paramount Global (which also owns Paramount Pictures and other media properties).
CBS's decades-old good reputation and ratings have dwindled since its once powerful and respected CBS News organization aired the CBS Evening News with respected anchor Walter Cronkite. The network's notorious fiasco concerning its news employees' forging of George W. Bush's National Guard service records during the 2004 presidential election campaign, which led to the retirement of Cronkite's replacement as anchor Dan Rather, tarnished CBS's image. In politics, CBS's liberal tendencies are evidenced by its news reporters' and show hosts' barely concealed biases in favor of Barack Obama and his policies and against conservatives and Republicans. CBS continued to air the highly offensive Late Show with David Letterman, even after Letterman contrived a joke that made fun of the fictional statutory rape of 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's 14-year-old daughter, up until Letterman announced his retirement and stepped down from The Late Show in May 2015, after which former Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert took over as host that September and has proven to be every bit as controversial and unfunny as his predecessor.
CBS's former billboard company, CBS Outdoor (spun off in 2014 as Outfront Media), is the largest in the USA, with $1.5 billion in annual revenues as of 2018, and it exercised censorship of messages that contradict its political bias while under CBS ownership. In 2009, WorldNetDaily founder Joseph Farah was not allowed to place the message "Where's The Birth Certificate?" on CBS-owned signage.[1] In response, Farah said CBS is undeserving of First Amendment protections.
See also
References
- ↑ Cover-up: CBS bans eligibility billboards WND.com, June 03, 2009
