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The CBS scandal you may have missed because of the 60 Minutes hit job on Ron DeSantis

The news network has published an article advising major companies on ways to "fight" Republican-backed voting laws. The report’s original headline read, “3 ways companies can help fight Georgia's restrictive new voting law.” Naturally, the story itself contains several tips on how businesses can protest Georgia-style legislation.

This is not journalism. This is political advocacy, and it’s all done in service of a traditional beneficiary of the press’s ethical lapses.

Imagine, for a moment, if one of the three major networks published a story advising businesses on how to “fight” ultra-permissive abortion laws. It’d be unthinkable. Yet, here, is CBS doing exactly that sort of politicking, but for bills such as the one passed recently in Georgia.

Perhaps realizing it had strayed headfirst into political advocacy, CBS amended the report’s headline eventually, softening its tone into something decidedly less partisan.

The headline as it appears online now reads, “Activists are calling on big companies to challenge new voting laws. Here's what they're asking for.”

In a way, this is actually worse than the original. At least in the original, CBS had the guts to declare its allegiance outright. The amended version chooses instead to hide behind “activists” to push an obvious political position.

As for the report itself, it remains unchanged. It still outlines various ways in which businesses can “fight” voting laws championed by Republican legislatures. It is still just as partisan as the day it first published.

“Do not donate," the report recommends. "Activists said companies should immediately stop making donations to Barry Fleming and Michael Dugan, the Georgia Republicans who co-sponsored the voting changes."

It continues, naming and shaming major businesses such as Delta and Home Depot for donating to Fleming and Dugan.

"Ending political donations is one of the most immediately impactful steps a company can take to sway lawmakers," the article reads.

The article also says companies can help fight Georgia-style voting laws by producing ads that "help stamp out efforts nationwide to pass voting laws similar to Georgia's," including in Arizona and Texas.

"Activists say it isn't enough for companies to issue tepid public statements in defense of voting rights," the CBS report reads. "Instead, companies should launch television and social media ads that oppose efforts in Georgia, Arizona, Texas and other states considering voter restrictions."

Companies, the story continues, can also support the coercive monstrosity known as the “For the People Act."

"If passed,” the CBS report reads, “the act would create same-day and online voter registration nationwide. It would also require states to overhaul their registration systems. The act seeks to expand absentee voting, limit the states' ability to remove people from voter rolls, increase federal funds for election security and reform the redistricting process.”

Though the CBS article is several days old, you likely missed it amid the network’s other major ethical lapse, when it promoted the lie that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rewarded a grocery chain with an “exclusive” deal to distribute coronavirus vaccines as part of a “pay for play” scheme involving political contributions.

If you missed all of this voting law boycott business when it happened, you can be forgiven. After all, CBS’s “report” on DeSantis is possibly the worst political hit job since Dan Rather went on-air with forgeries of former President George W. Bush's National Guard service record.

It’s obviously not a great situation when one media scandal is obscured by a concurrent scandal and all by the same newsroom. If there are adults still left at CBS, now would be a good time to take back control.