It was a bombshell news story that spread on the internet like wildfire: Popular comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan was replacing longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Anderson Cooper, who parted ways with CBS News last month.
If only it were true.
Network executives “may have their sights” on the Austin-based podcaster, the Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday, citing a months-old story from a “celebrity and entertainment” website based on “an unnamed media executive.”
The claim fits into broader discourse about the direction of CBS News under Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, who has been accused of forcing a rightward turn at the network to appease President Donald Trump and the network’s new owner, media mogul David Ellison. The original American-Statesman article, which the outlet edited after publication, noted that CBS had “not confirmed” the report.
The episode brings into focus the reliability of news aggregation, a practice by which reporters reproduce existing reports without conducting original research, and how misinformation can spread quickly online even after the record has been corrected.
In fact, CBS says the story is flat “false” and, in a statement to Straight Arrow, questioned the paper’s reporting process. The story was based on a single source — an article posted in gossip site RadarOnline nearly three months ago.
“You’d have to ask them,” the CBS spokesperson said, “why they published this without seeking comment from us.”
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