Former CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane announced on Monday that he is joining the far-left media company MeidasTouch.
MeidasTouch, which was initially formed as a political action committee designed to attack President Donald Trump in 2020, has since piled up over 6 million subscribers on YouTube. Earlier this month, MacFarlane bolted CBS News amid editor-in-chief Bari Weiss’ reshaping of the organization.
“I have a new platform for my independent, unfiltered reporting. Effective immediately, I am chief Washington correspondent for the MeidasTouch network,” MacFarlane said when announcing the move on social media.
CBS NEWS IN TRANSITION: WHO’S IN AND WHO’S OUT AFTER A TUMULTUOUS YEAR AT THE NETWORK
MacFarlane said he would anchor a daily program starting in the coming weeks.
“MeidasTouch and I share the same north star of communicating. When you have news to break, or something important to explain, just get to it,” MacFarlane said as he snapped his fingers at viewers.
“Straight to the point, as soon as you open the camera and open the microphone, simply, declaratively, conversationally, explain what’s happening. Explain what it means,” he added. “Put aside the production theater, and the useless bells and whistles. Just get to it.”
NPR referred to MeidasTouch as “unapologetically partisan” and an “amped-up MSNBC” in a report last year. MSNBC, the progressive cable news network, changed its name to MS NOW late last year.
CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT ANNOUNCES SUDDEN EXIT FROM NETWORK, SAYS HE’S SEEKING ‘SOME INDEPENDENCE’
MacFarlane then said he’s not an editorialist or a politician, but rather an “enterprise reporter.”
MacFarlane, who provided extensive Jan. 6 reporting for the network in recent years, said we’re living in a moment of “unique political toxicity and unique political danger.”
“The MeidasTouch and I have long shared this same philosophy; you don’t platform lies. You don’t platform conspiracy theories, and you don’t allow for the whitewashing of history,” MacFarlane said.
Many have speculated that MacFarlane simply wasn’t a good fit at CBS under Weiss, who is seeking to tone down the partisan coverage at the network. His move conjures up memories of former CBS News reporter Kate Smith, who left the network to take a news director position at Planned Parenthood in 2022.
Many conservatives took to social media to offer thoughts on MacFarlane’s move.
Journalist Mike Cote wrote, “This is why nobody on the political right buys the ‘legacy media is unbiased’ claptrap. When a longtime CBS reporter gets a new job with a Resistance slop clickbait farm in less than 2 weeks, the truth is pretty damn obvious.”
EX-CBS REPORTER WHO JOINED PLANNED PARENTHOOD DENIES PRIOR BIASED REPORTING
White House director of communications Steven Chueng said the move shows how “biased news media has become.”
“Every reporter who ‘leaves’ (more like fired from) their outlet always comes out as a deranged liberal. Every. Single. Damn. Time,” Chueng wrote.
Titles of recent videos posted to the MeidasTouch YouTube page include “Trump PANICS and LIES He MADE DEAL TO END WAR,” “Trump HIT BY KARMA in WAR as TABLES ARE TURNED,” “Trump’s HEALTH CRASHES in WAR as 25th AMENDMENT DEMANDED” and “Trump PANICS as Troops TURN AGAINST HIM in WAR.”
