When I was a little girl, CBS was the core “American” network, running shows that especially appealed to the generation that defended America in World War II. Now, it’s a station so far to the left that it fired Sharon Osbourne from its daytime show, The Talk because she committed the paramount sin of defending free speech. (The show claims she quit, but the announcement makes it clear that she was given no other option.)

In the 1960s, most TV stations catered to Mom and Pop across Middle America. CBS was particularly known for that. As a little girl back then, I remember the family shows that everyone gathered together to watch: Green Acres, Mayberry R.F.D., The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Hee Haw, The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C, etc. They were invariably popular shows, appealing to the broadest spectrum of Americans. Only the super-sophisticated in the big cities didn’t like them.

As the rising class of Baby Boomers reached maturity, however, they demanded programs with less rural themes. So, in the early 1970s, all of the TV stations – but most especially CBS – started the process of “getting woke.” Of course, that woke concept didn’t exist in those days, but it was CBS that went for the really progressive TV shows that slowly but surely moved generations of Americans to leftist thinking: M*A*S*H, All In The Family, Maude, The Jeffersons, e.g.

And no, I’m not making things up when I say that these shows were deliberately formulated to shift public opinion to the left. Ben Shapiro put a Harvard hat over his yarmulke and snagged interviews with the writers, producers, and directors of the 1970s comedies on CBS and other stations. These people, assuming they were talking to a fellow leftist, were very proud of the way they’d inserted their political ideology into shows beamed out to America.

Shapiro wrote about these interviews in Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV. The book is a few years old now, but really should be required reading for anybody who wishes to understand how Americans have been programmed into their beliefs, not by family, community, and faith, but by Hollywood, a place often known for its complete absence of decent values.

In the 50 years since CBS catered to solid American values, it has traveled very far. Now, it’s a TV station so hostile to the Constitution, that it made it impossible for celebrity Sharon Osbourne to retain her place on The Talk, a vapid daytime talk show, all for the crime of defending free speech.

Osbourne’s troubles started because her friend Piers Morgan dared to say that he thought Meghan Markle was lying when she bad-mouthed the royal family and essentially accused the Queen of being a racist. You can read Morgan’s version of events here. Since few people are lower in my estimation than Markle, I tend to agree with his side of the story.

One of Osbourne’s conformer co-hosts on The Talk, Sheryl Underwood, is black.  According to her, the only reason that anyone could challenge Meghan’s unbelievable narrative was if that person were racist. Thus, while conceding that Morgan had not said anything racist, the problem, she said, was “the implication and the reaction to it to not want to address that, because she is a black woman, and to try and dismiss it or to make it seem less and it is.  That’s what makes it racist.”

In other words, it is no longer possible to challenge the truth of anything a black person says. Doing so is inherently racist.

Osbourne, 68, was raised in a less woke era and, despite living her entire adult life in the entertainment world, she was pretty sure that this is not the way it’s supposed to work in a free society.  “I know he has a right to say what he feels on the interview, as we have a right to say and everybody has a right to say what they feel with freedom of speech.” And with those words, even a groveling apology was not going to save her. 

And that was the end of Osbourne:

“Sharon Osbourne has decided to leave The Talk,” the network reportedly told USA Today. “The events of the March 10 broadcast were upsetting to everyone involved, including the audience watching at home. As part of our review, we concluded that Sharon’s behavior toward her co-hosts during the March 10 episode did not align with our values for a respectful workplace.”

Again, let me translate: The network that was once the most American station on TV just fired (because the language says she didn’t quit, she was fired)…just fired a woman for defending freedom of speech. Welcome to the Totalitarian States of America. And let me say, as I frequently do, this will not end well.

IMAGE: Sharon Osbourne. YouTube screengrab.