Broadcasters are obligated to use their Federally licensed spectrum “in the public interest”. The question is who defines what is in the public interest.
Realistically, CBS has been bent for some time. I have talked, before, about some years ago, when Scott Pelly was the anchor. how CBS “news” was pressing for US military intervention in the Syrian civil war. Almost every day, Pelly would introduce “a rare look inside a refugee camp in Turkey”, “rare” he said, in spite of these pieces running nearly daily. Invariably, they would put some “refugee” woman or kid in front of the camera, with the translation voice over saying “where is America? American needs to help us”. When I saw that exact thing, two or three days in a row, I realized it wasn’t “news”, it was PNAC propaganda. CBS kept up the drumbeat for intervention, until the US did put boots on the ground. I expect the future CBS to be more like Fox Noise, where even the morning fluff programs are packed with partisan vitriol.
That being said, of late, CBS has been less irritating that NBC or ABC, putting out a bit more “news” in addition to the expected daily weather hysteria and fuzzy puppy fluff. Switching to ABC would probably be a time saver. I have learned I can turn the ABC “news” off, at the first advertising break, and not miss anything useful. ABC’s cadence for the rest of the program is 3 minutes of advertising, 30 seconds of content, another 3 minutes of advertising, then 30 seconds of content, then 3 minutes of ads, until they run out the clock.
Steve