Archer's Line Podcast

What Happened to CBS News Is About to Happen at CNN Is CNN about to follow the same path as CBS News? In this episode of Archer's Line, Rob Archer examines the latest reporting that suggests the executives who transformed CBS News could soon be leading CNN if the Warner Bros. Discovery merger moves forward. Drawing on the dramatic changes inside CBS News over the past year, Rob explores why newsro...

In this episode of Archer's Line , Rob Archer looks at new reporting suggesting that The View has quietly changed its political booking strategy while under investigation by the FCC. The commission hasn't ruled that the show violated the equal-time rule. In fact, it hasn't ruled at all. But according to Semafor , the investigation itself appears to have altered who gets invited onto one of televis...

How do you accidentally spend 46 years in radio? In this personal episode of Archer's Line , Rob Archer looks back at the summer of 1980, when a reluctant high school senior filled out a job application at a local radio station because it sounded better than stocking shelves at a drug store. That one decision led to overnight shifts, spinning country records, warming up transmitters before dawn, l...

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a ruling that could send even more political advertising dollars to broadcast radio and television. For broadcasters, that could mean a welcome boost in revenue during election years. For listeners, it likely means more campaign commercials, longer political ad seasons, and even more attack ads filling commercial breaks. In this episode, Rob Archer examines what t...

Is iHeartMedia carrying out the biggest layoff in radio history? The latest round of cuts has eliminated local personalities and programmers across dozens of markets, with the list of affected employees still growing. But how does it compare with the massive Clear Channel layoffs of 2009 and iHeart's cuts in 2020? In this episode of Archer's Line, Rob Archer looks at the numbers, explains why this...

Experience Is Becoming a Liability Experience used to be something employers sought out. Increasingly, it seems to be treated as something to eliminate. In this episode of Archer's Line , Rob Archer looks at a growing trend that reaches far beyond broadcasting. Layoffs across radio, television, newspapers, and other industries are removing not just employees, but decades of institutional knowledge...

iHeartMedia has begun another round of layoffs, and for many broadcasters, it feels painfully familiar. In this edition of Archer's Line, Rob Archer reflects on his own layoff from KNX a year ago and the unsettling conversation he's heard repeatedly from former colleagues ever since: "Maybe we got out just in time." As radio, television, and digital media companies continue cutting staff, consolid...

For months, major media companies have seemed determined to avoid conflict with President Trump and his allies. Lawsuits were settled. Executives made visits to Mar-a-Lago. Media companies appeared eager to stay out of the political crossfire. Now ABC is doing something different. In this episode of Archer's Line, Rob Archer looks at ABC's new public campaign against the FCC, including ads running...

There’s a bill moving through Congress that could determine whether AM radio survives the next decade. And there’s a station in Los Angeles whose numbers may be telling us whether that even matters anymore. The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act has been kicking around Capitol Hill for three years — introduced, stalled, reintroduced, stalled again. Last month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee f...

People say they want impartial news. They say they value facts, accuracy, and reporting that isn't driven by ideology. Then they get their news from social media, influencers, partisan outlets, podcasts, and increasingly, AI. The latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report reveals a growing contradiction: audiences continue to trust traditional journalism more than online creators, yet they're co...

ABC’s legal battle with the FCC may become one of the most important press freedom cases in decades. Because the outcome could determine whether government agencies can use regulatory power to pressure news organizations over speech they don’t like. For years, press freedom battles in America have usually involved direct government action: attempts to block publication, force disclosure of sources...

Sens. Ted Cruz and Ron Wyden don’t agree on much. But they do agree that government officials shouldn’t be able to pressure private companies into suppressing speech. The two senators have introduced the Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression Act — better known as the JAWBONE Act. The bill would create new legal remedies for people who believe government agencies...

President Trump says the Los Angeles and California elections were rigged. Spencer Pratt lost. Therefore, according to Trump and many of his supporters, something must have gone wrong. There is just one problem. Nobody has produced any evidence. Journalists are often accused of bias when they point out that a claim is unsupported. But saying there is no evidence for a claim isn’t bias. It’s report...

Institutions die long before they collapse. This may be happening to journalism right now. The first symptom is the departure of the people who know things. The veteran reporter who can spot a fabricated source in five minutes. The military officer who understands logistics because he’s spent twenty years moving troops and supplies. The career civil servant who remembers why a rule exists because...

The audience remembers. That’s the problem facing CBS News, Paramount, and a growing list of media companies, universities, law firms, and corporations that spent the Trump years discovering new ways to surrender. One day, Donald Trump will leave the stage. I do not think MAGA survives it, given how strongly it revolves around a single personality. Sooner or later, every political movement dies. H...

The rebellion inside 60 Minutes isn’t over. Three of the program’s remaining correspondents — Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim — have announced they’re staying. But before anyone at CBS News mistakes that for a vote of confidence, they should keep reading. The trio issued a statement Friday explaining their decision. They described themselves as grieving. They said the program has bee...

UPDATE: Scott Pelley responded to his firing. His statement to the staff at 60 Minutes is below. New statement sent to CBS News staff from Scott Pelley: There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes. The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every major online platform has extended its reach to countless...

If you thought FCC Chairman Brendan Carr was only putting pressure on television networks, think again. The same FCC that’s been investigating network news divisions, questioning editorial decisions, and publicly sparring with major TV broadcasters is sending a message to radio as well: we’re watching you. And the most important question raised by that message isn’t whether broadcasters serve the...

I’ve sat through more “meet the new boss” meetings than I can count. The script is almost always the same. The new boss introduces themselves. Employees ask a few careful questions. Everyone remains professional. Sometimes there’s tension and a little pushback. Any real criticism waits until afterward, in hallways, parking lots, text messages, or bars. But I’ve never seen anything remotely like wh...

The shutting down of CBS News Radio was big news. But there is a bigger story here, and it’s about jobs and the people who are disappearing behind the scenes: The reporters no longer covering beats. The editors no longer catching mistakes. The producers no longer making one more phone call before air. The copy editors no longer asking, “Are we sure about this?” According to Challenger, Gray & Chri...

The most successful news program in television just got handed to someone who has never run a television news program. Again. First, David Ellison installed Bari Weiss to run CBS News. Now Weiss has installed Nick Bilton to run 60 Minutes . Neither came up through broadcast news. Neither spent years managing network newsrooms. Neither climbed the ladder that generations of CBS journalists spent de...

There’s a growing rebellion inside journalism over the proposed merger between Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery . Nearly 200 reporters, former anchors, documentary filmmakers, academics, and press freedom groups have signed an open letter warning that the deal could hand enormous political influence over two of America’s biggest news organizations — CNN and CBS News — to David Ellison ,...

Ten years ago this month, I walked into the studios of KNX on Wilshire Boulevard for the first time as an employee. I passed by the CBS Radio logo, got my badge with the CBS eye on it, and felt a surge of pride. The logo meant something. It had history. Edward R. Murrow’s ghost was in it — and I was a member of the Church of Edward R. CBS Radio had been a thing since 1927, formally established in...

There’s a phrase quietly spreading through the media business right now that would have sounded insane just a few years ago: “Google Zero.” As in: prepare for a future where Google sends you no traffic at all. At Google I/O this week, Google made it clear where search is headed. And if you publish online for a living — whether you’re The New York Times , a local newspaper, a Substack writer like m...

There’s an old rule in television news that eventually overrides everything else: ratings. You can survive criticism for a while. You can survive bad headlines. You can survive angry staff meetings, leaked memos, and media reporters circling like vultures. But if the audience disappears? That’s when the knives come out. And right now, the audience is disappearing at CBS News. The ratings for the C...