Jason Samuels

Professor @NYU_Journalism ◼︎ Sr. Consultant, EP Paramount/BET News ◼︎ Alum: ABC News, NBC News, CNN, HBO Real Sports, ESPN, WCVB-TV

[David Folkenflik @davidfolkenflik]

Full memo:

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

The insider’s scoop on ‘60 Minutes.’ https://t.co/TcrWtiMrIs via @cjr

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

Journalism is increasingly pushing reporters of color out of the industry https://t.co/FfcT6e1cd0

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

@alexgibneyfilm because there are no other long form journalism jobs with health insurance and a steady paycheck. anchors who make millions can walk away. producers cannot.

[Dylan Byers @DylanByers]

New statement 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 millions around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58thseason, 60 Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.

“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.

The waste is heartbreaking.

Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.

For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not getting on the air at all.

At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of the men and women of CBS News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.

I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.

Scott Pelley

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

Netflix launches quick-turnaround doc anthology “Instadocs”
https://t.co/zKxCjfhzLl

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

As mergers and media corporations squeeze doc divisions, veteran nonfiction producers seek partners and pivots
https://t.co/HCzuj1iRnr

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

‘60 Minutes’ Journalist Who Accused CBS of Political Meddling Loses Her Deal
https://t.co/EVeFiO2CxA

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

On May 4, The Washington Post won two Pulitzers. To stream the announcement live, the paper had to bring back two of the video operators it had laid off in February. Nobody left in the building could run the equipment. They walked past the new opinion studio on their way in.

The new opinion studio was built with $80,000 in video gear. Its flagship podcast has 515 YouTube subscribers after 186 videos and more than 20 episodes. Apple Podcasts users have given it 2.3 stars. The most positive review on record: "This is bad and the people making it should feel bad."

Dave Jorgenson, the journalist who built WaPo's TikTok presence, left last year. His personal YouTube channel now has 358,000 subscribers. The opinion podcast has 515. A former WaPo journalist working with a small team has built more than 600 times the audience of the flagship new show.

Bezos was warned by his own opinion editor that the rightward pivot would cost subscribers. His documented response, per the New York Times: "I don't care."

The piece's own summary is the only sentence needed: "Bezos laid off the people who win the Pulitzers. He's funding the people who lose the subscribers."

[John Harwood @JohnJHarwood]

the analysis and insights of @TerryMoran are a treasure. not just highly-skilled on TV; he also writes like a dream

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

You couldn't create a more anti-news internet if you tried https://t.co/EHfr8tRs8t

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

Michael Clemente, Former News Executive and Producer at ABC and Fox, Dies at 70 https://t.co/earKuFQtRM via @thr

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

Broadcasters must react to threat from ‘creator journalism’, says ex-head of BBC
https://t.co/7rTypr5Uwr

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

Journalism students know the industry is struggling. They’re choosing to enter it anyway https://t.co/Z01Bn0hbyy

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

Wall Street Journal Taps Bill Perkins’ Tortoises for Fast Boost to Video https://t.co/13lzeq1FUE via @variety

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

Why NYT Sees Video as Its Next Battleground
https://t.co/ErXMXXbDBk

[The Objective @ObjectiveJrn]

Freelance journalism is a white-dominated industry, and Black freelance journalists are potentially reaping fewer benefits from it. One report suggests they earn up to seven times less than their white counterparts. https://t.co/wuquq1rPHM

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

With TV News In Free Fall, Anchors Try Breaking Away https://t.co/G8kjK47Nqi via @thr

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

Disappearing before our eyes: One photographer's passion project of capturing local newsrooms https://t.co/qKa9tJ4bCU

[Jason Samuels @ProfSamuels_NYU]

Netflix Prevails in ‘Tiger King’ Copyright Case, a Win for ‘Fair Use’ in Documentaries https://t.co/PHMFhCWvg3 via @variety