Greed Has Taken Over the News Business: Connie Chung

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00:00It's criminal what has happened to the news business, and greed has been driving it.

00:07When I worked for CBS News back in 1971, William Bailey still owned CBS,

00:16and he made it clear that the news division was autonomous,

00:21that he could make all the money he wanted with Jack Benny,

00:26and all of the entertainment programs were successful.

00:31And we had a public obligation to find the truth and tell the truth.

00:39Today, greed has taken over.

00:41Sherry Redstone settled the 60 Minutes interview lawsuit,

00:50and Larry Ellison and his son David Ellison bought CBS,

00:55and now it won't look or behave anything like the way it used to be.

01:03But it's happened with each of the networks.

01:05I witnessed it at NBC.

01:08At NBC, we have Disney and we have General Electric that bought NBC.

01:13It's, I'm horrified.

01:16I suppose in the company's defense, people's viewing habits have changed.

01:19Technology has changed the game entirely.

01:21Apple, Amazon, Netflix are said to be among the potential bidders for Warner Brothers Discovery,

01:27or at least parts of it.

01:28And with big tech comes AI.

01:31Is there things that AI would make better in the news gathering process that make things more efficient?

01:37I actually don't know enough about AI to be able to declare, yes, it'd be fine.

01:44But all I want are facts on the news.

01:47And I don't think we're getting that anymore, because truth is not valued.

01:55All I want are facts.

01:57And I see too much bias.

02:00I think, you know, our freedom of the press is under attack.

02:03Well, speaking of which, the Pentagon put new media restrictions in place.

02:08And almost every news organization refused to sign the policy, including some conservative outlets.

02:14We're talking about Newsmax, Washington Times, Fox.

02:17They did not sign on to this, and they opted to give up their credentials instead.

02:21Connie, what does the public lose when there's no longer reporting from the DoD?

02:26Bravo to all of those reporters who walked out en masse.

02:34We are the watchdogs.

02:36Our job is to be the watchdogs of government.

02:42The Pentagon and the talk show host who heads the Pentagon and the president are muzzling,

02:51muzzling freedom of the press.

02:54And I'm truly horrified at what it bodes for the press and for the public.

03:04Most importantly, the public needs to know what is behind the scenes.

03:11And that's what we do.

03:12We investigate.

03:14As the watchdog, that's our job.

03:17So these new regulations at the Pentagon are ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous.