Dear Gossips, 

The next major award show on the circuit is the Tony Awards – nominations will be announced May 1 and the show, hosted by Cynthia Erivo, is happening June 8. So Variety’s Actors on Actors series has become about Broadway with George Clooney and Patti LuPone as the first pairing. 

 

I read their interview this morning after reading about Bill Owens’, executive producer of 60 Minutes, decision to step down yesterday. Bill Owens has been with CBS for 37 years. Per NPR, during a staff meeting to announce his departure, Bill told his colleagues that he had "lost independence from corporate." 

 

In a note to staff, Bill elaborated: 

"Over the past months, it has also become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it. To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience. So, having defended this show- and what we stand for – from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward."

 

The NPR link I shared above has the full background on the situation at CBS and the events that preceded Bill’s exit. Basically journalists are being pressured by corporate leaders to deliver what they consider to be news that is compromised and motivated by financial and political interest. 

Which brings us back to George Clooney, who is currently playing Edward R Murrow on Broadway in Good Night, and Good Luck. Murrow was with CBS for decades – this is one of his most famous quotes:

“To be persuasive, we must be believable. To be believable, we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful.”

 

But he was also prescient because he also said this: 

“The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.”

I imagine he would be appalled at what’s going on at CBS. During his conversation with Patti, George told her that, “The fourth estate has to succeed because it’s the only thing that can hold truth to power.” 

Right now, the fourth estate is in jeopardy, and is under threat of being dismantled – and not just in America, there are other countries around the world who are experiencing the same. It’s just that America, for a long time, has been held up as the great democracy, with a robust fourth estate as one of its pillars. How long can it remain standing? 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey