Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First

Chief Investigator @ATLNewsfirst. National Investigator @InvestigateTV. Peabody, duPont Awards. 155 Emmys, 9 National Murrows. Kenyon alum [email protected]

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

My personal brand is truth. As an investigative journalist, I hunt the truth with the goal of promoting clarity, understanding, and positive change. Uncovering systemic and institutional failures is the first step to fixing them.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This is so insanely corrupt, I can’t even believe it.

More than half the donors to Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom just won over $50 billion in new federal contracts in six months.

And here’s the part that should make your blood boil.

Sixteen of these 27 donors were facing federal enforcement actions, antitrust reviews, labor cases, securities charges. Many of those cases have been quietly dropped or scaled back since Trump took office. You write a check, your legal problems disappear. That’s not a coincidence.

The White House won’t even release the full donor list. They’re hiding it on purpose, because daylight is the one thing pay-to-play can’t survive. A federal judge already ruled ballroom construction has to stop until Congress authorizes it.

Government is supposed to serve the people, not auction itself off to the highest bidder. When access goes to whoever pays the most, working families always end up paying the price.

We either end the corruption, or the corruption will end us.

https://t.co/4MGFzSseFl

[David Boardman @dlboardman]

What's most evident in the @BariWeiss era at @CBSNews is not so much journalistic malpractice-at least not yet-but managerial malpractice. The clumsy incompetence of Weiss and her lieutenants reveals more about their inexperience as leaders than it does their inexperience in TV.

[Ben Mullin @BenMullin]

Also of note: Maria Gavrilovic (a former producer for Scott Pelley) was just promoted to senior producer. To me, this seems like an olive branch to the "60 Minutes" stalwarts.

[Meghan McCain @MeghanMcCain]

I want to say something about @60Minutes since so many conservatives are trashing it.

When my Dad was first diagnosed with Glioblastoma and we were trying to decide who he and my mother should sit down with and talk about the end days of his life - we ultimately landed on Leslie Stahl and @60Minutes. Leslie came to our ranch in Sedona and sat down and profiled both my parents together for an exclusive sit down. We ultimately chose Leslie because of her prestige as a journalist and respected history of the show.

Leslie and her crew were simultaneously professional and respectful of the delicate emotional state my entire family was in. She was in our secluded home as we all grappled with the concept that my dad was dying and fast from a rare cancer in front of the entire world. She and her producers did a wonderful job. Feel free to watch it, it’s beautifully done. This is not a situation just any person without experience can airdrop and handle the dynamics of. This is not something a rookie commentator or podcaster could have maneuvered with the respect needed. Experience does matter.

Not all legacy media is garbage nor are all reporters. This “throw all the bastards out” mentality is obnoxious and just going to breed more insanity and distrust on both sides.

I don’t want woke journalism. I don’t want anitwoke journalism. I just want great journalism.

Be careful what you wish for conservatives, - there could come a day when Rachel Maddow is put in charge instead of Bari Weiss and then tell me how you feel. The pendulum swings both ways.

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

Bilton's termination letter says Pelley chose "ambush" over "civil, private conversation" and showed "remarkable incivility."

Pelley said true things in a staff meeting. The staff applauded. Bilton left the room. Then fired him for cause.

The most decorated correspondent in 60 Minutes history, 37 years at CBS, terminated because he wouldn't take his objections to dinner privately and pretend in public that everything was fine.

That's the letter. That's what it says. Read it again.

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

@MarkDavis I am deleting my original reply to avoid spreading unconfirmed speculation.

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

@MarkDavis CBS is now denying this. Facts matter.

[Brian Stelter @brianstelter]

A CBS News spokesperson says this is false.

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

@clairlemon Partisan. You forgot partisan.

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

Watch out for those scammers in Italy. It’s the old shell game scam I used to see in NYC on 5th Ave. in the 1980s. They do not like when you record them. We were lucky all they did was spit on us. (The ‘winners’ are all in on it, including the guy who tried to grab my camera).

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

The fact that reaction to Scott’s firing falls neatly along party lines is prima facie evidence that the new leadership at CBS is on one side of that spectrum. Otherwise, why would people of that political persuasion be so suddenly unified in their defense of CBS?

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

Clearly, the Scott Pelley situation is a litmus test. Whether or not you agree with him, Scott stood up for principles at great personal peril in a time when self-preservation & self-dealing are en vogue.

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

@nataliemj10 It’s not a job. It’s a craft. Standing up for principles, knowing you can lose your position, is principle over paycheck.

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

@MichaelLaRosaDC @CBSNews @CBSNewsPress @60Minutes @bariweiss Because. It’s. Not. A. Job.
It’s a calling & a craft. People with principles are willing to sacrifice their paycheck to stand up for something.

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

@ChrisCillizza Scott knew it could (and likely should) result in firing. Pelley, a journalists with decades of broadcast journalism experience, stood up for principles to people who had zero broadcast experience before assuming their jobs as his superiors. He was the only one who could.

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

@ITGuy1959 Cowards shut up & take the paycheck. Heroes stand for what’s right at risk of their decades-long careers. He knew he could get (and probably should) be fired for what he did. That’s what makes his actions courageous.

[Jim LaPorta @JimLaPorta]

Factual thoughts….@ScottPelley and @mhenryschuster were embedded with my Marine infantry unit in 2009—it was incredibly violent in Helmand. They told our story well. Years later, my unit suffered multiple suicides, they came back to cover that too. I wrote him when I was hired.

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

The remedy for claims of covert political bias is not the implementation of overt political bias. Journalists hold power to account — all those in power. I can’t believe I witnessed Scott Pelley accept his last Emmy for 60 Minutes just last week. Darkest day. Finest hour.

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

@sherman4949 If the owner didn’t have a major deal pending approval with the current administration, you’d have a point. The previous owner already paid millions to the president personally to help get the sale to the current owner approved. 60 Minutes should investigate a quid pro quo.

[Brendan Keefe - Atlanta News First @BrendanKeefe]

@TinyDancer1477 @kyledcheney You said he won the case. He did not. His DOJ settled with him. The polarization of the nation is heartbreaking. For someone’s side to win, the other side has to lose. Zero sum politics will destroy this country if we let it.