Former CBS reporter Scott MacFarlane had an unintentionally funny defense of himself as he started his new job with the liberals at MeidasTouch. According to MacFarlane, joining the liberal outlet is actually a win for “independent journalism,” and that it is actually the people criticizing him who are the hypocrites because they are the ones with opinions.
MacFarlane read a post from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, “And there is a lot of chatter about the chatter here. People are giving their opinions of what they think of this new enterprise with MeidasTouch. The point of this is to be a reporter and not give opinions. So, it is noteworthy that there are people throwing opinions at us. It was the White House press secretary. It was the FCC chair. Let me read to you what they said. I do have it on my phone. The White House press secretary had an opinion, and the opinion starts with ‘Veteran CBS reporter joins far-left media company MeidasTouch as anchor, says they share the same ‘north star.’”
Former CBS reporter Scott MacFarlane tries to defend his decision to join the lefties at MeidasTouch by suggesting people who noticed are the problem “The FCC chair said “same job, new duty station.” I actually like that. It is the same job and it is a new duty station at the… pic.twitter.com/d73MNk260u
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) March 26, 2026
He then read a reply from FCC Chairman Brenden Carr, who said, “Same job, new duty station.”
Apparently, MacFarlane actually believes that people whose job it is to give opinions are being hypocritical in criticizing him for giving his opinions in a job that isn’t supposed to be about giving opinions. Nevertheless, he responded to Carr by claiming, “I actually like that. It is the same job, and it is a new duty station at the Capitol in both cases, but reporting for you from a different organization. As for the press secretary saying that I’m a veteran CBS reporter, not a veteran CBS reporter. I am a former CBS reporter, but I am a veteran reporter and here to make news and break news.”
Despite just saying he was not there to give opinions, MacFarlane cued up a clip of Kara Swisher at Syracuse University’s Toner Awards honoring “heroic” jouranlists, “This did come up though. This shift from CBS to MeidasTouch did come up at an event last night here in Washington. The Toner Journalism Awards are awards given to some very worthy journalists over the past year from The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and ProPublica for their heroic work covering the Trump administration’s first year of its second term. But there was some discussion about my shift. And it was a discussion led by Kara Swisher. Listen to what Kara said about the move to independent journalism. It’s worth your time.”
Swisher did her best ostrich impression during a discussion about problems facing the journalism industry. For her, it is not people’s lack of trust in them, but budget constraints brought on by modern technology and “by the purchasing of the media technology billionaires.”
He adds “This shift from CBS to MeidasTouch did come up at an event last night here in Washington. The Toner Journalism Awards are awards given to some very worthy journalists over the past year from The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and ProPublica for their heroic work… pic.twitter.com/T5cMMWhWBO
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) March 26, 2026
She then addressed MacFarlane, “Right, Scott. Good move. You’ll love it out here. It’s much better. You don’t wanna work for the Ellisons. I’ve spent a lot of time with Larry Ellison. He’s a terrible person.”
Swisher also claimed:
I don’t think they’ll be good owners. I don’t. I think they’ve already shown several times, including editorial choices, which Scott knows more about than I, though, I know a lot, Scott, that they have no interest in journalism, and I refuse to work for an organization that doesn’t respect journalists, and I don’t mean not cutting. Listen, I got out of journalism because I understood the costs were too high, and I could make a lot more money if I did it in a more efficient, more digital way… The costs are out of line with the audience, right? That’s just the way it is. That’s not how you do it. It’s a basic, like, disdain for it as anything useful, that there’s not a way to reform it, except for hiring someone who isn’t a journalist.”
The insinuation that CBS has turned into MAGA TV is absurd to anyone who has watched it. CBS has become slightly less liberal than it was, and that is unacceptable to MacFarlane and Swisher, who think “independent” means bashing Republicans all the time.
Here is a transcript for the March 25 show:
MeidasTouch Network Scott MacFarlane Reports
3/25/2026
SCOTT MACFARLANE: And there is a lot of chatter about the chatter here. People are giving their opinions of what they think of this new enterprise with MeidasTouch. The point of this is to be a reporter and not give opinions. So, it is noteworthy that there are people throwing opinions at us. It was the White House press secretary. It was the FCC chair. Let me read to you what they said. I do have it on my phone. The White House press secretary had an opinion, and the opinion starts with “Veteran CBS reporter joins far-left media company MeidasTouch as anchor, says they share the same ‘north star.’”
The FCC chair said “same job, new duty station.” I actually like that. It is the same job, and it is a new duty station at the Capitol in both cases, but reporting for you from a different organization. As for the press secretary saying that I’m a veteran CBS reporter, not a veteran CBS reporter. I am a former CBS reporter, but I am a veteran reporter and here to make news and break news. And I’ll say this about the White House.
I did send an inquiry to them about Iran last night, and they did respond with some background information. They are treating us as what we are: as reporters.
This did come up though. This shift from CBS to MeidasTouch did come up at an event last night here in Washington. The Toner Journalism Awards are awards given to some very worthy journalists over the past year from The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and ProPublica for their heroic work covering the Trump administration’s first year of its second term.
But there was some discussion about my shift. And it was a discussion led by Kara Swisher. Listen to what Kara said about the move to independent journalism. It’s worth your time.
MARGARET TALEV: So the business of journalism, which is quite impacted by technology, by AI, by the splintering because of social media, but also—
KARA SWISHER: —by the purchasing of the media technology billionaires.
TALEV: — the ownership structure.
SWISHER: Do you understand what they’re doing?
TALEV: I do.
SWISHER: Right, Scott. Good move. You’ll love it out here. It’s much better. You don’t wanna work for the Ellisons. I’ve spent a lot of time with Larry Ellison. He’s a terrible person. [jump cut] I don’t think they’ll be good owners. I don’t. I think they’ve already shown several times, including editorial choices, which Scott knows more about than I, though, I know a lot, Scott, that they have no interest in journalism, and I refuse to work for an organization that doesn’t respect journalists, and I don’t mean not cutting. Listen, I got out of journalism because I understood the costs were too high, and I could make a lot more money if I did it in a more efficient, more digital way.
And I, I think a lot of the legacy organizations have been really stubborn in terms of understanding what’s going on. That’s not my issue. There has to be cuts. The costs are out of line with the audience, right? That’s just the way it is. That’s not how you do it. It’s a basic, like, disdain for it as anything useful, that there’s not a way to reform it, except for hiring someone who isn’t a journalist.
