Former Fox News host, Chris Wallace, now at CNN+, joined The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Monday, where he blamed his legendary father, Mike Wallace and 60 Minutes, where he worked for 40 years, for the current state of, and distrust in, the news media.
“There has been a lot of talk about loss of trust by the American public in the media,” Colbert said. “If you had a magic wand, you could waive it, what would you change, either presently or historically, about the media to try to restore that trust?”
“In a funny way,” Wallace responded, “I blame my father for this, Mike Wallace and 60 Minutes.”
A shocked Colbert jokingly accused Wallace of throwing his father under the bus, but Wallace explained the negative effect that 60 Minutes had on the news industry.
“It used to be in the old days, and I can remember growing up with my father in the ’70s, that news didn’t make money. It was a public service, and the networks viewed it as a public service,” Wallace said. “And then 60 Minutes came along and showed you could make phenomenal amounts of money with the news business.”
Wallace believes that the desire to chase ratings and make money is what needs to change if the news and the public’s faith in it are to be restored.
“I think when you look at what goes on everywhere, probably particularly cable, and on the left as well as the right, people are chasing audiences,” Wallace said. “So I think that if there was not — if people just accepted, we’re not trying to make money off this, we’re just trying to perform a public service, I think we’d have better news.”
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on CBS.
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