Dan Dubno (a/k/a Digital Dan) is a good buddy and one of the smartest people I know. He is a pioneer in the use of powerful tools for news coverage. Until recently he was producer and technologist for CBS News in New York, where he coordinated Special Events Unit coverage.

He forwarded this sad, but fascinating story to me yesterday.

Several years ago, Les Moonves, President of CBS, publically suggested he wanted to “blow up” CBS News. What a sad departure from our golden days. CBS News had emerged over the decades as the most glistening jewel of the Tiffany network. This reputation for excellence flourished under William Paley’s generous hand… and under the watchful editorial eye of heroic journalists like Edward R. Murrow, Mike Wallace, Fred Friendly, Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, Charles Kuralt, Don Hewitt, Lane Venardos, Sir Howard Stringer, and a cast of about a thousand other legendary journalists and producers. Their extraordinary skill and integrity were revealed each night in the CBS Evening News and on 60 Minutes (which largely retains its autonomy and still-luminous reputation for integrity.)

Along the way, CBS News was victim of a thousand little cuts… the most egregious under Larry Tisch (who made a great deal of money while killing lot of people as owner of the Lorillard Tobacco Company). This was followed by the insipid regime of the Westinghouse Corporation which briefly aquired the once glittering network in an effort to save itself from bankruptcy. The CBS Corporation was then reorganized and largely plundered by Mel Karmazin, who walked away with a vast payout after significantly gutting the employee pension plan… leaving the reeling company further enfeebled in the shaky hands of Sumner Redstone.

FOR THE COMPLETE STORY FROM HUFFINGTON POST CLICK HERE