Archer's Line Podcast

This is Stephen Colbert’s final week on CBS. The last show is Thursday. And for people who grew up loving television — especially smart television — it feels strange. I’ve been a fan of Colbert since his days on The Daily Show , back when he and Steve Carell would do those hilariously overcommitted correspondent bits together. There was always something different about him. He was building a chara...

Once again, the President of the United States is accusing journalists of “treason.” This time it happened aboard Air Force One, where Trump lashed out at New York Times reporter David Sanger over reporting on the war in Iran. “I actually think it’s kind of treasonous what you write,” Trump said. Then, moments later, he doubled down. “I actually think it’s treason.” Here’s the whole exchange. I wo...

CBS Evening News had a rough night in Taiwan. The network sent anchor Tony Dokoupil to Taipei for special coverage tied to President Trump’s trip to China, which is awkward enough on its own, considering NBC and ABC reportedly managed to get their anchors into mainland China while CBS apparently couldn’t secure Dokoupil a visa in time. Then the broadcast really went sideways. During the final segm...

The FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner just did something almost unheard of. Anna Gomez publicly warned The Walt Disney Company that her own agency appears to be targeting the company for political reasons. In a letter sent to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro , Gomez accused FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and the Republican-led commission of using investigations as a weapon — not necessarily to win cases, but t...

CBS Radio News is dying in less than two weeks. For most people, that won’t mean much. Another media brand disappears. Another corporate restructuring. Another quiet ending in an industry that has spent the past 20 years dismantling itself piece by piece, pushing experienced professionals out along the way. But for me, and for a lot of radio journalists, this one feels different. It feels more lik...

The use of AI chatbots can be dangerous for people vulnerable to magical thinking — especially when they don’t understand what their own brains are doing. Pareidolia — the brain’s tendency to find patterns, faces, and meaning in noise — is a feature, not a bug. It helped our ancestors survive. The rustle in the grass might be a predator, so the brain that assumes it is lives longer than the one th...

For months, America’s major television networks have mostly responded to political pressure from the Trump administration the same way: compliance, caution, retreat. Now, one of them is pushing back. ABC has accused the Federal Communications Commission of violating the network’s free speech rights — calling the agency’s actions a “chilling effect” on speech and warning that the government is tryi...

Most of the time, law enforcement and local reporters can work hand in hand. After all, a lot of reporting comes from information given to them by the police. But when the big crowds gather, in the heat of protests, where tempers flare between demonstrators and cops, something shifts. Like it did in Los Angeles on April 11. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscri...

There’s a phrase in broadcasting for when you’re between gigs: on the beach. It sounds almost pleasant. It isn’t. It’s more like a kind of gallows humor. Like admiring the view when they’re putting a noose around your neck. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therobarcher.com/subscribe

The following is a fictional “what if” scenario. Day One — 9:00 a.m. | The House Floor The vote to impeach Donald Trump has been building for six weeks — slowly at first, then all at once, the way these things always go. What breaks the dam is not a single scandal or a single crime but something more corrosive: exhaustion. Senior Republicans, men and women who have spent years bending their spines...

Global press freedom has hit its lowest point in the 25 years that Reporters Without Borders has tracked it. Far from being a dip, it’s a trend. And there are no signs of it bouncing back. In its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, the group says more than half of all countries now fall into what it calls “difficult” or “very serious” conditions for journalists . And it’s not just the old threats — ar...

Things aren’t looking good for radio. The audience is shrinking. Listening is at the lowest levels we’ve seen. But I still believe radio has a future, even taking that into account. More on that in a moment. First, the bad news. Jacobs Media released its Techsurvey 2026 last week, and if you work in broadcast, you’ll want to sit down. For the first time in the survey’s history, traditional AM/FM l...

The federal government is preparing to do something it hasn’t done in decades. The FCC is moving to call in all eight Disney-owned ABC station licenses for early renewal — stations in major markets like New York and Chicago, licenses that aren’t due for renewal for years . The orders could come as early as today. On paper, the FCC will claim the review stems from an ongoing probe into Disney’s DEI...

It’s time for a wellness check on CBS News. What’s happening at CBS Evening News right now looks like a slow-motion car wreck. And a Vanity Fair deep-dive published this week confirms what a lot of us in the industry have been watching with our hands over our eyes. The short version: Bari Weiss took over CBS News, installed Tony Dokoupil as the evening anchor, and in the first week alone, the whee...

Arguments were heard last Tuesday before the Supreme Court in a little-noticed but very important case that cuts right into how federal power actually works. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therobarcher.com/subscribe

iHeartMedia and SiriusXM may be talking merger. That’s according to Reuters and Bloomberg, which report early, exploratory discussions about combining iHeart’s nearly 900 radio stations and podcast network with SiriusXM’s satellite programming, along with its own podcast and media businesses. The Wrap adds that music industry mogul Irving Azoff is involved in talks to acquire both and bring them t...

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is this Saturday. The annual ritual — black tie, awards, scholarships, self-congratulation, a little gallows humor about the state of the business. And this year, sitting in the room, soaking up every second of it, will be Donald Trump . A man who has called those same reporters “the enemy of the people.” Who has suggested they should be jailed. Who has mocke...

Something is shifting at CBS News. And not everyone inside the building likes where the wind is blowing. David Ellison — the Paramount boss trying to pull off a major merger with Warner Bros. Discovery — is heading to Washington next week. For a party. An “intimate gathering,” as the invitation puts it. It’s set for Thursday at the United States Institute of Peace, recently renamed by the State De...

If you spend enough time with national news, it’s easy to come away thinking the country is completely split in two — two sides, two realities, two versions of what’s true. That divide is real, but it’s also reinforced by how people consume media. Cable audiences tend to sort themselves into ideological camps. Viewers choose the version of the world that fits what they already believe. Some media...

We’re in a period in the radio business where stations that can’t make enough money for their owners aren’t being sold — they’re just being… turned off. Signals are being “paused.” The music, the news, the personalities, the commercials, the public service — all of it falls silent. This month, Townsquare Media shut down 103.9 in Lubbock, Texas, pointing to “economic conditions.” That phrase shows...

Everything Donald Trump is saying and doing in his second term makes sense — if you understand the one basic thing that motivates him. His need for revenge. Not just on the people and institutions that went after him, but on the country itself. More on that in a moment. This exclusive post is available first to paid subscribers . The news coming out of this administration since January 2025 feels...

For years, Viktor Orbán showed how to take control of a country’s media without shutting it down. You don’t ban journalism. You buy it. Allies acquire major outlets. Friendly voices get amplified. Critical ones get squeezed — through regulation, pressure, access, or money. And over time, most of it falls in line. That was the model. And it worked — up to a point. Because not all of it fell in line...

In 1926, RCA helped launch NBC — not to inform the public, but to sell radios. More stations meant more content, more content meant more listeners, and more listeners meant more radios in American homes. It worked. It didn’t just move product — it helped build modern broadcasting, expanded reach, and created something close to a shared national conversation. We might not have modern broadcasting a...

There’s a growing sense right now that the free press in America is under siege. Journalists, media critics, and even casual observers are talking about it. The idea that something fundamental is breaking. That the system is being bent, maybe beyond repair. Yes, I’m one of those talking about it. I’ve spent half my broadcasting career in news, and I care about it because it was more than a job. It...

On May 17th, the 58th season of 60 Minutes ends. And it may be the end of 60 Minutes — at least as we know it. Inside CBS News, the expectation — based on multiple reports — is that once the season is over, the guardrails come off. The changes that were held back can finally begin. And those changes may hit the most successful, most durable, most trusted brand in television news. This is a public...