Once upon a time – and granted, this was a long time ago – CBS News was the crown jewel of the widely nicknamed “Tiffany Network.” Most notably, Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite were epitomes of journalistic probity and integrity. Murrow, lest we forget, was instrumental in exposing demagogic liar Joseph McCarthy. It would’ve been unthinkable that CBS News, in a quest for “balance,” would’ve ever paid the likes of McCarthy to be an on-air commentator.

But those days are gone, this is 2022, and the bosses at CBS News have now deemed it a fine idea to pay one of Trump’s notorious enablers to be an on-air commentator.

The goal is “balance” (translation: false equivalence), and the network’s top dogs clearly don’t care that Mick Mulvaney was a key player in the withholding of $400 million in crucial military aid to an American ally – that would be Ukraine – as part of Trump’s quest to pressure Ukraine’s president to concoct propaganda for Trump’s reelection campaign. Lest we forget, Trump was impeached about that. And Mulvaney, who was Trump’s acting chief of staff at the time, actually ‘fessed up about the extortion; during a 2019 press conference, he blurted: “Absolutely. No question about that….That’s why we held up the money.” Then he told the press to “get over it.”

From crime scene to the green room. It’s the American dream.

And the head of CBS News, co-president Neeraj Khemlani, has made it all possible. He reportedly explained the decision to some of his staffers (his comments were recorded): “If you look at some of the people that we’ve been hiring on a contributor basis, being able to make sure that we are getting access to both sides of the aisle is a priority because we know the Republicans are going to take over, most likely, in the midterms. A lot of the people that we’re bringing in are helping us in terms of access to that side of the equation.” (Italics are mine.)

Perhaps it’s presumptuous of me to school the leader of CBS News, to enroll him in a course called Reality for Dummies, but here goes: It’s sheer ignorance at this point to talk about “both sides of the aisle” and two sides “of the equation,” as if there were some magical equipoise. Because, as evidenced by the facts in contemporary America, only one of the major political parties believes in democracy. The other one is a cult that’s working at home and abroad to destroy democracy.

By what shred of logic is it wise to hire, for the purpose of news dissemination, a MAGA flack whose job, at the behest of a tinpot autocrat, was to spew propaganda? Call me crazy, but it seems wrong for a news network to put money into the pocket of a guy who referred to the first impeachment probe as “the hoax of the day.” The same guy who insisted in 2020 that journalists were exaggerating the threat of Covid-19: “The reason you’re seeing so much attention to (Covid) today is that they think this is going to be what brings down the president. That’s what this is all about.” The same guy who, while still working for Trump on the eve of the ’20 election, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that if Trump were ti lose the race, he would “concede gracefully.”

By the way, Mulvaney debuted on the air Tuesday. “So happy to have you here,” said anchor Anne-Marie Green – who then failed to tell viewers whom he had worked for.

Granted, CBS News has long been indulgent of all things Trump. In early 2016, then-CBS president Les Moonves gleefully said that Trump’s candidacy was great for his bottom line: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” But after more than five years of MAGA-wrought havoc, and endless lessons for a press corps seemingly locked into the old “balance” paradigm, one might think it would behoove a major network to learn some lessons and choose its hires more carefully. Surely there are still some Republicans whose credibility has not been shredded, some rational people who can critique the Biden administration with professional skepticism.

But apparently the leaders of CBS News have learned absolutely nothing. Instead, they have chosen to launder the reputation of someone who assailed the press and abetted a despot. As Walter Cronkite used to say, way back when the network warranted respect, “And that’s the way it is.”