CBS’ Corporate Backlash against Michael Moore

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:07 pm

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Michael Moore has been making the TV rounds promoting his new film Capitalism: A Love Story, but he claims that CBS canceled an appearance on The Early Show today after he went on ABC’s Good Morning America last week and blasted Disney which owns ABC. Moore thinks CBS was worried that he would do the same to them. CBS said he was never booked for the show.

On Saturday night, Moore tweeted, “Backlash Begins: CBS has cancelled me on its Mon. morning show. After I criticized ABC/Disney on GMA, they didn’t want me to do same to CBS.” Moore went on GMA last week and criticized Disney for hiring permanent freelancers instead of full time employees.

Moore said, “People backstage here — they don’t get to be real employees here because they don’t get the benefits, so they’re freelancers…and I said ‘Guy, I was here two years ago, you were a freelancer, what are you doing here?’ — right backstage here at ABC — he said, ‘We call ourselves permalancers now.’ They don’t get to share in just the basic benefits that an employee used to have who worked here. What’s wrong with that? What is wrong with just giving people basic things for their hard work?”

For their part, CBS said that they never booked Moore, “Michael Moore was never booked on The Early Show.” So, who is telling the truth here? It could be that both of them are. Moore’s people say that they were confirming is booking when The Early Show backed out. CBS is technically right when they say that Moore was never booked for the show, but I find their excuse more than a little flimsy as the morning shows share high profile guests all of the time.

It is not a stretch to think that if Moore would not have went after the corporate ownership of ABC, CBS would not have bailed. It certainly looks like the network bailed out on Michael Moore, and we will have to see if this becomes a trend. Most Americans don’t understand how deeply under corporate control their media is, and the ownership of most media would probably like to keep it that way.

H/T: Mediaite

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association