'60 Minutes' Continues Down Propagandistic Path, Advocating For DEI Student Bands

The last time we covered CBS's "60 Minutes," the program ran a fawning review of the German government cracking down on free speech by conducting police raids against individuals suspected of "insulting" people in person or online. If you are still appalled by an American-based legal media brand shilling for Soviet-style censorship in the West, you are not alone.

This week, the program returned with an editorial griping about the "collateral damage" caused by Donald Trump's executive order to end DEI initiatives at the federal level. "60 Minutes" profiled the cancelation of a collaboration between the U.S. Marine Band and a group of minority students after the order.

"The United States Marine Band was founded in 1798. Thomas Jefferson gave it its nickname, 'The President's Own.' Today, 135 Marines still perform the score of the White House from parties to inaugurations. So, there was excitement, last year, when the Marines judged a contest for teenage musicians. The winners would perform with the band. Thirty students were chosen. The concert was scheduled. But, last month, it was canceled," the segment begins.

"President Trump had issued his executive order against diversity programs, and the young musicians were Black, Hispanic, Indian and Asian. Because they were silenced, many wanted to hear them including veterans of military bands who gathered in an improvised orchestra of equity that you might call America's own."

The band ended up performing this past Sunday at the Strathmore Music Center instead, which CBS says it paid for, including plane tickets. 

"Any questions were answered this past week. The students gathered in Washington for rehearsals and the performance. 60 Minutes did what we often do, covered the costs of plane tickets and travel to bring all of our interviewees to one place. Equity Arc decided to book the rehearsal space and the concert hall and try to replace the absent marine band—which turned out to be easy," anchor Scott Pelley narrated.

You can watch the full segment below:

CBS concluded that the band "looks like America." Well, that's simply not true. There was not a single white student in the band. White people exist in America, too.

Moreover, the episode fails to explain why students of color need DEI initiatives to succeed at playing music. The show cites a study claiming that 80% of American orchestras today are white. And? 

Around 72% of the U.S. population is white. That 8% difference is hardly justification for DEI, a concept that is inherently designed to punish and reward Americans on the basis of their skin color.

Further, CBS did not highlight a nationwide trend following the Trump DEI order. Rather, the episode focused on one isolated group of students and presented their case as proof that DEI is a net positive and Trump is wrong for limiting it.

The episode's thesis is painfully flawed. DEI is not a net positive. Americans are not stronger when they are judged based on their skin color. They are strongest when they are judged by their strengths, which DEI initiatives specifically seek to diminish.
 

At its core, DEI has made us weaker and more fixated on characteristics we cannot control, like our race and our gender.

Just take this formerly planned collaboration between the students and the U.S. Marine Band, for example. White students were excluded. Why? Because of the sins of their ancestors whom they never met? Because of the supposed advantages of strangers who looked like them years ago?

It's all so foolish. DEI is foolish.

And to see a once serious news program stoop to this argument is utterly shameful. "60 Minutes" used to be one of the premier news shows in all the American media, a show where objective journalism was heard.

Today, "60 Minutes" is a joke. In the past 12 months, the program has run a deceptively edited interview with Kamala Harris, an MSNBC-style monologue calling Trump cabinet members Russian assets and perverts, and a celebration of Germany's crackdown on the free speech of Western Christians.

"60 Minutes" is a shell of itself and the show's executives ought to be held accountable for inflicting irreparable damage to its storied history.