"One has drawn outsized attention: We love America. And we make no apologies for saying so. That reaction is the story, not the value itself. For most of broadcast history, such a declaration would have been unnecessary. Patriotism was implied. It lived in the authority of the anchor chair, the cadence of the broadcast, and the institutional confidence of the networks. Love of country was not a value statement. It was the background condition."
"Weiss's diagnosis has been consistent for years: institutional arrogance, ideological homogeneity, and a tone that often reads as condescension. Whether one agrees with her prescriptions or not, that critique maps directly onto the trust problem broadcast news is facing. In that context, this unusually explicit pledge of patriotism reads as a legitimacy play: an attempt to substitute affective alignment for inherited authority."
CBS Evening News relaunched with five stated values promoted on social media, and one — 'We love America. And we make no apologies for saying so.' — drew outsized attention. Historically, patriotism was implicit in nightly broadcasts, embodied by anchor authority, cadence, and institutional confidence. The values rollout followed Paramount's sale to the Ellison family and the involvement of Bari Weiss, whose critique of institutional arrogance, ideological homogeneity, and condescending tone targets the trust deficit facing broadcast news. The explicit patriotism functions as a legitimacy play, attempting to secure affective alignment with audiences as positional authority and structural trust have collapsed.
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