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The Conversation
The Conversation
Matthew Jordan, Professor of Media Studies, Penn State

As goes CBS Radio News, so goes the idea that news media should serve the public interest

Former CBS President William S. Paley, left, who once called broadcasting 'an instrument of American democracy,' speaks on his radio network in 1934. Bettmann/Getty Images

When CBS Radio News goes silent on May 22, 2026, Americans will lose access to news programming they’ve tuned into from their living rooms, kitchens and cars for nearly a century.

The once-bipartisan idea that the nation’s media should exist to serve democracy continues to fade with it, too.

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