CBS News set off a firestorm of criticism over its announcement on social media that disgraced former House speaker Dennis Hastert has died at 84.
The longest-serving Republican House speaker was sentenced to 15 months in prison, making him the highest-ranking elected U.S. official to serve a prison sentence, after pleading guilty to illegally structuring bank withdrawals to conceal hush-money payments to a former student he had sexually abused as a high school wrestling coach.
But the network's post on X, along with the lead sentence of its online report, left out the abuse entirely, and critics blamed CBS News editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss.
"Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who represented Illinois for two decades in Congress and was later jailed for violating banking laws, has died," CBS News reported.
The report's next sentence does address the abuse, explaining that the hush-money payments were meant to cover up his sexual abuse of teenage boys. The post on X, however, stopped at the banking violations.
It drew a community note pointing out that the "banking violations revealed accusations he had sexually abused teenagers while coaching wrestling at a suburban Chicago high school," and other social media users shamed the network's coverage.
"This is what is known as burying the lede," observed The Nation's Jeet Heer.
"Did he violate anything else," wondered writer Brandy Jensen.
"That's what Dennis Hastert went to jail for! Banking laws!" shouted writer and comedian John Fugelsang. "This is what they've done to CBS, folks."
"You mean pedophilia, right, @bariweiss?" prompted The Lincoln Project's Reed Galen.
"@bariweiss - you left something out," added popular X user Rita Powell.
"Why was he violating banking laws, I wonder," pondered pundit Matthew Yglesias.
"Former Chicago businessman Alphonse Capone, who rose to the top of the beverage distribution industry and was later jailed for violating tax laws, has died," joked newsman Jacob Rubashkin.
"So the guy who spent 20 years in Congress including 8 years as Speaker, meaning he was 2d in line for the Oval Office after VPOTUS, was also a prolific boy-diddler," pointed out writer John Schindler. "Maybe worth mentioning in his obit? Seems kinda important."
"'Violating banking laws' is one way of putting it," sighed author Mike Rothschild.
