ALERT: Scott's Professional Announcement

I have a new home for my independent reporting

On January 24^th, I was sitting in a chair I’d dreamed of sitting in for decades. I was that night’s anchor for the CBS Weekend News. The studio is affixed to the main CBS newsroom at its Broadcast Center in New York. It’s the size of an airplane hangar. To be on the set feels as if you’re on stage in a theater. It’s enormous and regal.

Lights beam. Technicians surround you. And – as a bonus prize – you get some of the most talented writers, producers and reporters in television to help. That day was an extra special occasion because my protégé, Ali Bauman, who I’d mentored for 12 years, was going to be my duty correspondent in New York.

The big day quickly turned. Sadly so. Tragically so. Alex Pretti was shot and killed in Minneapolis mid-morning. I jumped on-camera to anchor a network special report, which slid into the halftime of a college basketball game on the CBS Television Network.

Then we had to make decisions. How much airtime can we afford for Alex Pretti’s death? How many resources can we throw toward it?

Turned out, we could throw some, but not all. The same was true on the other network broadcasts.

We only had 22 minutes of airtime for news. And we had so many other boxes to check. We had a winter storm plowing through the northeast. There were airport problems. There was action in the Middle East. And – we had commercial breaks, formatting issues. Then – oh by the way – that freakin’ college basketball game ran long and we had to shorten the broadcast.

Alex Pretti’s death and the cascading consequences from the killing got our airtime. But only some.

That chair didn’t feel so comfortable, after all.

We are in a new moment. And we have some big new challenges. Not only is democracy in peril, but the Constitutional separation of powers is being tested.

Lies are included in what used to be truth-oriented news coverage. Threats are pervasive. Trust is waning in institutions.

We need to use every inch of our bandwidth to inform each other about the firehose of news in America. And we need to explain clearly, conversationally and *direct to camera* what is happening and why it matters. Unfiltered and unencumbered.

That’s why I’m honored today to announce I’m joining the MEIDAS TOUCH team and its limitless platforms for news, context and enterprise reporting. Their platforms will be among the easiest places to see my work, as chances are, they already show up in your feeds. That’s why I’m honored to join MEIDAS TOUCH as their Chief Washington Correspondent and have a warm home to anchor “Scott MacFarlane Reports.”

MEIDAS TOUCH has always communicated in a way that mirrors my own style. They’re straight to the point: No wasted time, no crediblity given to malignant lies and they ensure a proper storytelling and context to best inform people.

We have the same North Star: Pro-democracy, pro-truth and no covering for any government official.

I’m not an opinion-ist. I’m not in this for hot takes, partisan talking points, to share my beliefs or to advocate. I’m guided by the facts.

I’ve been an enterprise reporter for 30 years, ever since I picked up a news microphone in college at WJPZ radio in Syracuse.

There are too many stories in America, and not enough reporters digging for new ones.

I’ll always be an enterprise reporter. The news you’ve been accustomed to seeing during my time at CBS and NBC will continue uninterrupted.

But now the platforms are huge and *LIMITLESS*.