Lifestyle
Avoiding your problems with work? You might have “high-functioning” depression
Judith Joseph has spent most of her life building an impressive résumé. She is a board-certified psychiatrist, chair of the Women in Medicine Initiative for Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical Center, the principal investigator of her own research lab — and a mom.
But despite her accolades, once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Joseph couldn’t shake the sense that something was off. With the world on lockdown, Joseph began sharing skits related to her research on social media, many of which went viral. It was only then that she landed on a name to what she, and many others, had been experiencing: high-functioning depression.
Shelf Help is a wellness column where we interview researchers, thinkers and writers about their latest books — all with the aim of learning how to live a more complete life.
“I wanted to make sure that we weren’t just thinking about depression in the way that our grandmothers think of depression, not being able to get out of bed, crying,” Joseph said.
Instead, with high-functioning depression “you push through and you don’t deal with your pain because too many people depend on you,” she said. “You know something’s off, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. And you don’t slow down because you don’t know how to.”
To Joseph’s surprise, high-functioning depression was absent in medical literature. So she set out to design and execute the first research study on the topic, which published in February. Her first book, “High Functioning: Overcome Your Hidden Depression and Find Your Joy” (Little, Brown Spark), relies on findings from the study, anecdotes from patients from her private practice and lessons from her life to teach people how to understand the science of their sadness, so they can understand the science of their happiness.
The Times spoke with Joseph about her book’s findings and why it’s just as important to practice preventative care in mental health as it is in physical health.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Dr. Judith Joseph is the author of “High Functioning: Overcome Your Hidden Depression and Reclaim Your Joy.” (Little, Brown Spark) (Photo by Anthony Steverson)
How would you define high–functioning depression?
With clinical depression, you have five or more symptoms, like low appetite, change in appetite, poor sleep, low energy, feeling restless, guilt, hopelessness, suicidal ideation. But you also have to meet criteria for having a low mood, or anhedonia. And on top of all that, you have to have lower functioning or significant distress.
People with high-functioning depression will have the symptoms of depression, but they’re not low-functioning. In fact, they cope by over-functioning, and they don’t acknowledge having significant distress. In fact, they’re muted. They don’t feel anything.
One of the symptoms of trauma is avoidance. So people think, “OK, I don’t want to go to this place or see this person or be in this situation because it triggers me.” But with high-functioning depression, people are avoiding by busying themselves so they don’t have time to feel, and when they sit still, they feel restless and empty.
A big part of high–functioning depression is being defined by your achievements or what you do for others. Why is it so hard to build identity outside of our external achievements?
Many of us have this coping mechanism of forgetting, and that’s one of the 30-plus symptoms of the trauma inventory. We outrun because we don’t remember what it was like to derive a sense of pleasure from things that truly bring us joy, because our past hides them.
Children, if there’s a conflict, they internalize it and they’ll say, “Well, if I only got straight A’s, Daddy wouldn’t have left.” Or “If I only did my homework, the dog wouldn’t have died.” Children use that magical thinking, but adults use it too. They focus on things like work, a role, on what they can do. In the short run, that’s a positive coping skill, but in the long run, when you continue to intellectualize and you don’t feel, that can show in different ways like binge drinking, excessive shopping, excessive doomscrolling, physical breakdowns or even dipping into low-function depression.
The bottom line is that there is a real value in acknowledging and processing your trauma and healing, because then you can actually experience a change.
“People can search and try to be happy all their lives and never get it. And even if you get the thing you think will make you happy, you’re still not happy. If you shift it, and you’re like, ‘I can increase my points of joy every day,’ then it’s attainable.”
— Dr. Judith Joseph
In the first part of your book, you introduce two key terms: anhedonia and masochism. What is anhedonia and why is it important for people to know what it is?
There’s a real disconnect between the research and the real world, because in research, anhedonia is all over our rating scales. It’s a term that has been around in the medical literature for hundreds of years. “An” is a lack, “hed” is pleasure, and “onia” is a symptom. “Anhedonia” is a lack of pleasure and joy, and it’s a lack of pleasure and joy in things you were once interested in.
So imagine you’re eating your favorite meal and you’re not even tasting it, you’re not savoring it. Or if you are listening to your favorite song, and it doesn’t move your body the way it used to, it doesn’t light you up. Or if you’re looking at a beautiful part of nature, like the sun is setting and it’s exquisite, and you’re just checked out. Or if you’re with your partner, and you’re being intimate and you just want to rush through it; you’re not even in the moment. These are all the simple joys that make life worth living.
In research, you will rarely see the word “happy” on our rating scales, but what you do see are points of joy. Whereas in the real world, the patient will come in and say, “I just want to be happy.” But we’re like, “No, we’re just trying to eradicate your depression by increasing your points of joy.”
Happiness is an idea, whereas joy is an experience. If you can reframe that and think about it as: Anhedonia is robbing [me] of my joy; it’s not that I have to be depressed and weepy and sad, but if my points of joy are low, then that’s an indication that something is off.
It’s a really important shift because people can search and try to be happy all their lives and never get it. And even if you get the thing you think will make you happy, you’re still not happy. If you shift it, and you’re like, I can increase my points of joy every day, then it’s attainable. There’s hope. Today, you may get two points, but tomorrow maybe you get three.
How does masochism contribute to high–functioning depression?
When people think of masochism in the real world, they think of sex, which is not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about masochistic personality disorder. Masochistic traits are ones where people tend to bend over backward for others. They tend to sacrifice their joy for the sake of others. It’s almost like self-sabotaging. In today’s speak, it’s called people-pleasing.
What I found in my study was that a lot of people who are caregivers have high rates of anhedonia. Well, that makes sense. These are people who are not thinking about themselves. They’re putting others first, often at the expense of their own happiness. Because high-functioning depression is closely tied to trauma, and because a symptom of trauma is low self-worth and shame and self-blame, that may be a part of the reason why people with high-functioning depression can’t relax: They’re constantly doing for others.
If you’re someone who knows your self-worth and you know that your role doesn’t define you, you’re not going to bend over backward. You’re not going to keep going, even though you feel off and you feel burned out. You’re going to take care of yourself.
The second half of the book gives the reader concrete steps to reclaim their joy using what you call the Five V’s: validation, venting, values, vitals and vision. How did you develop these five Vs?
If you think about it, there’s been this renaissance in physical health, but there’s nothing for us in mental health. Why do we wait to check that box of low-functioning? We need to show people how to increase their points of joy and prevent these breakdowns on their own.
So, I came up with the five Vs based on what I learned about happiness and research, and derived them based off of things that I felt that people needed to do in order to overcome trauma and how to find sustainable joy.
Validation is the first step. Because many people, again, don’t acknowledge how they feel. They push through pain, they just get through life, and that’s how they cope. But if you can acknowledge how you feel, and accept how you feel, then you could actually do something about it.
Venting is expressing your emotions. Some of my clients are neurodivergent, so they’re not the most verbally expressive. But there are other ways you can vent. You can draw, you can write, you can pray, you can sing. You could talk about your feelings, if that’s how you want to express it. You can cry. Venting has different ways of getting that emotion out and decreasing your stress.
Values are things that, when you tap into them, you feel a sense of purpose and meaning. I would say that values are things that are priceless. Many of us with high-functioning depression, we’re chasing the accolades, and we’re chasing the things that look good on the outside but don’t really give us true meaning.
With Vitals, I wanted to put in the traditional things like sleep, movement and diet, which are all important. But I also wanted to add things like our relationship to technology, our relationships with other people and work-life balance, because the quality of our relationships with people in our lives is the No. 1 predictor of long-term happiness and health.
Vision is how do you plan joy so that you keep moving forward instead of getting stuck in the past? Celebrating your wins so you don’t have to live for tomorrow’s. Start planning joy today. That’s the whole point. Don’t hold your breath for happiness for the future.
(Maggie Chiang / For The Times)
For someone who’s avoidant, it can be really scary to slow down enough to really examine your interior life. What do you say to that person who doesn’t know how to broach the five Vs?
I always say don’t do the five Vs all at once, because people who are intense like myself will want to do everything at once. The goal is not to use all five at once; use one or two. I would say start with validation. It doesn’t have to be this big, grand thing. It could be as simple as looking in the mirror every day and just reflecting on how you feel. Or, if that’s too intense for you, there’s sensory tools like a 5-4-3-2-1 method that is a grounding tool that allows you to be present in your body. Just practice that every day for one to two minutes and, slowly, you should be able to start to self-reflect and acknowledge and accept what you’re feeling and move from there.
You directly tied the idea of “vision” to fostering joy and combating anhedonia. What’s the relationship between vision and anhedonia?
People with high-functioning depression want to keep doing what they’re good at. But it’s important to retrain your brain and slowly reintroduce yourself to the things that you once enjoyed.
For example, in the book I talk about a patient who forgot that they actually enjoyed nature. When they were a child, their parents used to take them camping and when the parents got divorced, they stopped going camping, and they forgot that that’s what they love doing. Now they live in a big city and what they usually do for fun is go see a show or something that is more accessible in a city. But when we identified that trauma, we started to challenge them to go back into nature again. By slowly introducing the person back to the things that they used to like, their anhedonia in relation to nature got better.
TAKEAWAYS
from “High Functioning”
At the end of the book you break down the various types of therapy and drug interventions for someone struggling with their mental health. For someone who has your book in hand and is looking for next steps, what would you recommend them?
I’d recommend for them to take the quizzes [throughout the book] and to see where they are in terms of the levels of anhedonia, depression and trauma and then move from there.
Let’s say, biologically, you’re healthy and psychologically you don’t have very many risk factors. Then you have to work on the social aspect. What is it about you that’s keeping you in that toxic environment? What’s hindering you from leaving there? Because that’s where you’re losing joy.
For another individual, it could be that the social bucket is fine. The psychological bucket is fine. But biologically, maybe there’s an untreated autoimmune issue, or maybe you’re going through perimenopause. Well, then that’s where you need to focus on the science of your happiness.
For others who have trauma that’s never been processed, and they’re constantly in fight or flight, but biologically and socially, things are not as draining for them, then that’s where we need to focus.
There is only ever going to be one you in the history of the universe and in the future of the universe. That, to me, is so powerful because then you know that you’re here for a reason.
So I want people who read this book to really try to understand the science of your happiness, because there’s only one you. And then when you fully understand what’s draining from your happiness, then you can work on those efforts to increase your joy, using the book as a guide.
Shelf Help is a wellness column where we interview researchers, thinkers and writers about their latest books — all with the aim of learning how to live a more complete life. Want to pitch us? Email alyssa.bereznak@latimes.com.
The scoreboard shows the results of the women’s singles final match between Iga Swiatek of Poland and Amanda Anisimova of the U.S. at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Saturday, July 12, 2025.
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Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
Fifteen points in tennis? Nice. Thirty, 40 — even better. Advantage — that sounds good. “Love” — that also must be great, right? Well, not quite.
As the French Open rolls on and Serena Williams has announced her return to the sport, maybe you’ve been paying a little more attention to tennis. The sport’s scoring system is notably distinct, and can sometimes be hard to grasp for newcomers. But even tennis aficionados might not know why, or how, “love” became the unmistakable callout for zero points. For this installment of NPR’s Word of the Week, we’re exploring how a word that signifies trailing behind got such a sweet name.
“Love” comes from the heart — or an egg?
It’s hard to pinpoint when the first tennis ball went over the net. Tennis is a derivative of lots of other sports, such as “jeu de paume,” a handball game played in France, said JT Buzanga, the collections manager at the International Tennis Hall of Fame museum.
But tennis became a patented, official sport in 1874, said Steve Flink, a journalist whose tennis coverage got him inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. It has retained its unique, mysterious scoring system ever since.
“By and large, the original system has held up almost entirely,” Flink said.
The use of “love” goes back to the late 18th century, said Jesse Sheidlower, a lexicographer. But it was used earlier than that in card games such as whist and bridge. Before the term made its way to tennis, the sport favored plain old “nothing,” or “nil,” he said.
Why love in the first place, though? Historians don’t really know for sure, but there are a few theories.
The French could have something to do with it. Some historians believe “love” derives from “l’oeuf,” which means “the egg” in French. Because eggs are shaped like zeros, terms such as “goose egg” and “duck’s egg” have been used in other contexts to mean zero, Sheidlower said.
It’s also possible English speakers mispronounced l’oeuf as “love.” But Sheidlower isn’t convinced that’s the answer.
“It’s the French equivalent of an English expression. But since that expression doesn’t appear in French, the French word wouldn’t have been used,” he said.
To be sure, France has had a lot of influence on tennis culture, Buzanga said. For example, “deuce” or a game tied at 40 points, comes from the French word for “two”: “deux.” But he prefers another prominent theory: that “love” comes from the idiom “for the love of the game.” Even if a player hasn’t scored, it doesn’t matter, because their heart is in it. It’s the theory Sheidlower said is the most plausible, because the idiom was used by the English before tennis was popularized.
Another variation of the “love of the game” theory is that the word could have come from the Dutch “lof,” or “honor” — or the Latin “amare,” meaning “to love,” Flink said.
But if tennis’ “love” doesn’t come from a French word, the theory at least has a French sensibility.
“I think the ‘for the love of the game’ is kind of romantic,” Buzanga said.
“Love” probably isn’t going anywhere
Tennis used to be a sport of leisure. The style of play has changed a lot over the years; players are more athletic and competitive, for instance, Flink said. But the rules of the sport are more steadfast, he said.
“There’s this incredible, enduring respect for tradition in tennis,” he said. “Changes are not made easily.”
There has been one major change in modern history: the tie-break. Matches can go on and on because players have to score two consecutive points to break a deuce, or by two games to break a tied set. But the onset of television meant matches would have to get shorter if the sport wanted to capture a larger audience, Flink said.
Change even came for “love.” An alternative sprouted up in the 1970s, and is still used today: “bagel,” named for its zero shape, Sheidlower said. Novices may say “zero,” and insiders will understand what they mean, but they “will needle them about it,” Flink said.
But “love” still prevails.
“People kind of like it,” Flink said. “It’s different. Why say zero when you can say love?”
On a 75-mile cliff-hugging stretch of highway in California, traffic is way up, despite soaring gas prices. And locals expect the busiest summer in years.
The road is Highway 1 in Big Sur, which reopened in January after three years of repair and reconstruction following a pair of landslides. Drivers can once again embark on the state’s most famous road trip, covering the 100 miles between Cambria to the south and Carmel to the north without leaving the two-lane coastal highway. And they’re heading out in big numbers.
Caltrans estimates that as of May, Big Sur restaurant and retailer guest counts are up 40% from last year, and that northbound traffic at Ragged Point, the southern gateway to Big Sur, has risen 900% year-over-year.
People pose for photos near Bixby Bridge. Monterey County’s Board of Supervisors voted to explore a 12-month ban on parking around the bridge.
Safety cones prevent parking along Coast Road near the Bixby Bridge.
“Take your time,” said Kirk Gafill, co-owner of the popular Nepenthe restaurant and president of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce, offering advice to travelers. “You’re going to be sharing the road with a number of people.”
As travelers rediscover the road, the cost of driving has been shooting skyward. California’s average gas price ($6.11 per gallon as of May 26) is up 26% from the year before. In early April, rates hit $9.99 at the isolated gas station in the Big Sur community of Gorda.
For spring and summer travelers, these numbers would seem to pose a stark question: Stay home and save money, or head for the coast because the road is finally open and it’s still cheaper than flying?
So far, the latter answer is winning big.
Fog lingers off the coast of Highway 1.
“We are definitely seeing a huge uptick in our reservations,” said Megan Handy, assistant general manager at the upscale Treebones resort. She estimated that bookings are 30% or more ahead of last year, and rates are unchanged since then. But “it’s still not feeling super crowded, which is nice. Everything still feels kind of calm.”
But added traffic has raised some anxiety. On May 19, Monterey County’s Board of Supervisors voted to explore a 12-month ban on parking at Bixby Bridge, one of the region’s top photo spots.
Over the years, the number of cars parking near the bridge — often illegally, sometimes impeding emergency vehicles — has risen. The proposed parking moratorium won’t take effect until the supervisors discuss it further.
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Busy as things are, several business owners pointed out that many international travelers have not yet returned — perhaps because most make their plans more than six months ahead, perhaps because of global politics, perhaps a little of each.
The biggest challenge for businesses during this resurgence? “Restaffing and retaining,” said Handy at Treetops.
At Nepenthe, Gafill said his business has seen a 45% boost in guest volume since the road’s reopening. Gafill said he would have expected a 35% pickup, “simply by virtue of reopening the highway.” The additional 10%, he said, might be “all that pent-up demand,” aided by “a very beautiful and very dry winter,” followed by a mild spring.
A lunch crowd dines at popular restaurant Nepenthe.
Another possible factor: Nobody can be sure how long the road will remain open.
To cope with the influx of people, Gafill said, “everybody is trying to recruit and retain their existing staff.”
At the Ragged Point Inn, where rates dropped as low as $149 nightly last fall, rates are back over $200 and staffers are suggesting that customers book at least six months ahead. The inn has reopened its snack bar for the first time since early 2023, and management is investing in capital upgrades and staging live music on weekends throughout the summer.
Business “is up over 100%,” said Diane Ramey, whose family owns the inn. “I know not all of our neighbors are having the same lift, but everybody is doing better.”
Traffic approaching Bixby Bridge.
A visitor poses in an oversized chair at Big Sur River Inn.
Even at the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a Benedictine monastery above Lucia, the road’s reopening and coming summer season have made a difference. Bookings are up an estimated 30% at the hermitage, which rent rooms and cottages (for two nights or more) to visitors who agree to its requirement of silence.
Big Sur business owners advise visitors to travel on weekdays for less traffic and the best hotel rates, and to get on the road as early as possible.
Since its opening in 1937, the highway has been vulnerable to landslides and shifting ground, operating on a longstanding cycle of landslide, closure, repair, reopening and then another landslide, or sometimes a fire. The U.S. Geological Survey has identified the Big Sur coastline as one of the most landslide-prone areas in the western United States. The 2023-2026 closure was the longest in the highway’s history.
Over time, road crews have used increasingly sophisticated strategies. In the most recent efforts, Caltrans said, it used drones to help survey the slopes and remotely operated bulldozers and excavators to reduce risks to workers.
During the closure, no traffic was allowed on 6.8-mile span from just north of Lucia until about a mile south of the Esalen Institute. Drivers detoured inland by way of U.S. 101.
Correspondents of CBS’ 60 Minutes pose for a portrait in 2023. From left to right, they are Sharyn Alfonsi, L. Jon Wertheim, Bill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega, and Anderson Cooper. Former Executive Producer Bill Owens sits on the far right. Only Wertheim, Whitaker and Stahl remain at the program.
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When CBS fired Scott Pelley on Tuesday night, the new 60 Minutes executive producer, Nick Bilton, told Pelley it was for insubordination at a staff meeting the day before.
The veteran correspondent argues he was defending the DNA of 60 Minutes and the integrity of its journalism.
The battle royale over the network’s most prestigious and profitable news program is part of a broader fight over the direction of CBS News.
And given CBS’s acquisition by a billionaire family whose business interests have become intertwined with the political interests of President Trump, it reflects a larger war over control of the media in the current moment.
That father and son, Larry and David Ellison, bought CBS’ parent company, Paramount, last summer. In January, they became co-owners of TikTok’s U.S. operations. Now they’re seeking approval from Trump’s regulators to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN.
A glamorous show shorn, for now, of most its stars
CBS fired Cecilia Vega, a correspondent, and Tanya Simon, the executive producer, from 60 Minutes last week. They are shown in this photo at the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on April 25, 2026 in Washington, D.C.
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Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images/Variety
But the specifics of this individual episode matter — for 60 Minutes, CBS, its audience of millions, and even the news business itself.
The program has been the most glamorous post in broadcast news. The correspondents are the stars of the show. And now, there are just three of them.
Anderson Cooper left last month, concerned over the direction of the network’s coverage. Last week was a virtual bloodbath: correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi were fired. So were a producer and two show executives — including Tanya Simon, a longtime staffer who had stepped up as executive producer when her predecessor resigned in protest before the Ellisons’ takeover.
With Pelley’s ouster, only correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim remain. Now they are considering whether to resign, according to two associates with knowledge.
Their brand-new boss, Bilton, was previously a tech reporter for The New York Times and an investigative reporter for Vanity Fair. He executive-produced a documentary for Netflix about a couple accused of laundering Bitcoin and has been a producer on several other films.
Notably, he has no experience in television news.
Neither does Bari Weiss, whom David Ellison installed as the network’s editor in chief last October. The Ellisons also bought her center-right views-and-news site, The Free Press.
She has maintained that the network of Walter Cronkite needs a makeover for the digital moment. She has also contended for years that CBS, along with the rest of mainstream media, is too reflexively anti-Trump, anti-Israel, and too woke.
A rejection of CBS News executives’ overtures
The new executive producer of 60 Minutes, Nick Bilton, has been a tech journalist and documentary filmmaker, but lacks experience in broadcast news.
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Bilton attempted to set a conciliatory tone at Monday’s meeting — his first with the show. Pelley, a formidable veteran correspondent and former CBS Evening News anchor, wasn’t having it.
Pelley called Bilton unwelcome and unqualified. And Pelley said that Weiss was attempting to “murder” the program.
In firing Pelley on Tuesday, Bilton said the journalist had hijacked the meeting and rejected overtures to work constructively through their differences. (NPR obtained a copy of the firing notice.) Bilton wrote that Pelley’s “antipathy to the future of the show came through loud and clear.”
In his own statement late Tuesday evening, shared with NPR, Pelley accused CBS’s new news leadership of killing 60 Minutes‘ DNA and pushing him “to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story” and “to include assertions that are unverified.”
The accusations, to which CBS has not yet responded, echo those made by Alfonsi and Vega, the two correspondents fired last week.
Earlier this year, Alfonsi publicly complained after Weiss held one of her stories at the last minute, and kept it frozen for weeks, demanding an on-camera interview with a Trump White House official that never played out. It ran, unchanged from the intended version, with additional statements from the administration tacked on to the end.
After being fired, Vega said in a statement obtained by NPR that her team had “experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories.”
“Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both censorship and self-driven” Vega continued. “It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”
Weiss previously rejected Alfonsi’s and Vega’s allegations. (CBS said Vega’s claims, for example, were “not based in reality” while expressing appreciation for her work.)
Weiss and Bilton say digital threat requires a 60 Minutes overhaul now
In a meeting this morning, Weiss said that Pelley chose his own path — that is, to be fired rather than to find a way to work through his concerns, according to attendees. The network and Weiss have not yet publicly addressed Pelley’s accusations of interference.
Bilton and Weiss say they respect the show’s traditions, its accomplishments and its legacy of enterprise reporting, extended interviews and visual storytelling. It rose in the ratings 9% over the past season under Simon.
The two news leaders say, however, 60 Minutes needs to be overhauled before it becomes increasingly irrelevant in the era of streamers and other sources of news, information and entertainment in the digital age.
Interviews with 12 current and former CBS News staffers, from producers to executives, suggest great reservations and suspicions remain about Weiss’ judgment and her ability to handle the prominent and even famous journalists on whom her division relies.
Weiss had initially sought to reinvent the CBS Evening News, dropping a two-anchor format that had sagged in the ratings. Cooper turned down Weiss’ overtures to anchor it and left the network altogether, concerned about her approach, according to associates. (They spoke on condition of anonymity because Cooper has not chosen to speak publicly on the matter.)
David Ellison became chairman and CEO of CBS’ parent company, Paramount, after buying it last year.
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Noam Galai/Getty Images for Paramount/Getty Images North America
The ratings have continued to sag under new anchor Tony Dokoupil. And some CBS journalists, including producers who have left the Evening News, have publicly accused Weiss of making editorial decisions driven by politics. She has rejected those claims.
The decision to take on overhauling two key shows — one listing, one highly profitable, both high profile — carries significant risks for Weiss and the network, even apart from other considerations.
But the Ellisons’ presence cannot be ignored.
When Shari Redstone was negotiating the sale of CBS’s parent company, Paramount, to the Ellisons’ Skydance Media last year, the network announced the end of Stephen Colbert’s late night show. He had been one of the president’s most biting and acerbic critics.
David Ellison also made a series of concessions directly to Trump’s chief broadcast regulator, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, gutting CBS’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and appointing a conservative ombudsman to field complaints of bias against its news reporting.
Carr and other regulators approved the Paramount deal last summer.
The accommodations echo those made by other media titans.
Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos remade the editorial pages of the Washington Post, which he owns, into a far more hospitable zone for Trump at the outset of his second term. So did Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a noted medical device inventor. Amazon and Blue Origin have multi-billion dollar contracts with the federal government. Soon-Shiong’s medical research firm routinely has patent applications up for review with federal regulators. One was approved Tuesday.
The Ellisons are hoping to win approval from federal regulators next month for their purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal valued at more than $110 billion. It would include Warner Bros. Studio, HBO and CNN, among other properties.
As Weiss routs CBS News’ old guard, the question of what role she might play at CNN — and what changes that portends at CBS — hangs over journalists at the two networks. The fate of 60 Minutes serves as a high-stakes case study for both.
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