Winner of CBS-Funded Scholarship Blasts Network In Acceptance Speech

A young journalist who won a scholarship funded by CBS News blasted the network in his acceptance speech, claiming that the outlet’s direction “stains the legacy” of the award’s namesake.

Santiago Campos was awarded the Mike Wallace Memorial Scholarship at Wednesday’s News Night for the 47th News & Documentary Emmys. The scholarship is funded by a grant from CBS and given to a student seeking to pursue a career in television journalism. The fund is named for legendary broadcaster Mike Wallace, one of the first anchors on CBS’s 60 Minutes.

Campos, a high school senior from Washington, D.C., thanked his family and friends in his acceptance speech. He then moved to call out CBS News directly, amid applause from the audience.

He said:

While I want to thank CBS News for funding this generous gift towards my education, I want to acknowledge how the recent direction of the outlet stains the legacy of Mike Wallace, the namesake of this scholarship. As corporate elites take hold over the very pipes through which our information flows, journalism that serves people becomes increasingly harder to come by, yet ever more crucial. And what the people want is the truth. So if at any time you hesitate to utter the word ‘genocide’ or remain silent in the face of blatant lies, remember to ask yourself: Who is this for? I hope you choose us.

CBS News has been the center of consistent controversy since parent company Paramount’s controversial merger with media giant Skydance in August– a deal that required approval from President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission. New owner David Ellison has made sweeping changes to CBS, many of which are more in line with the president’s preferences.

The network chose not to renew its contract with Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and a frequent critic of the president. Ellison also installed The Free Press‘ Bari Weiss as the network’s new editor-in-chief in early October. Her tenure faced widespread media attention for her controversial decision to abruptly pull a 60 Minutes segment on deportations to El Salvador’s CECOT prison by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who announced on Wednesday that her contract was not renewed by the network.

“This was not a routine corporate transition; it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting, and it sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom,” she wrote in her announcement.

Weiss has also faced criticism over her initial refusal to fire the newly hired wellness guru Peter Attia over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the multiple snafus surrounding the newly hired Tony Dokoupil to anchor Evening News, and her reported choice to allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pick his interviewer when he sat down with 60 Minutes. Her time heading up the network has seen an exodus of many correspondents, including Anderson Cooper and Bill Owens. 

Watch above via C-SPAN.

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