The Trump-friendly CBS News has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown over a social media post about Dennis Hastert, the child molesting former House speaker who died Monday at age 86.
Hastert’s legacy as the longest-serving Republican House speaker was destroyed when it was revealed that he had abused at least four high school students during his previous career as a teacher and wrestling coach in Yorkville, Illinois.
In 2016, Hastert was jailed for financial crimes in connection with hush-money payments he made to one of his victims to prevent his vile abuse from coming to light.
In an X post promoting its obituary of Hastert, CBS News mentioned how the Republican had “represented Illinois for two decades” before later being “jailed for violating banking laws.” The post made no mention of Hastert’s child sex offenses.
The network deleted the post and reshared the obituary Monday while admitting that the previous post, which glossed over Hastert’s crimes, had “missed the mark.”
“Hastert was jailed on charges related to his concealment of hush-money payments made to cover up sexual abuse,” the new post said.
Despite changing its social media post, CBS News’ article about Hastert’s death still only described him as being jailed for violating banking laws in its first paragraph and did not mention his sexual abuse of boys until the end of the second paragraph.
The post is the latest in a long line of embarrassments and scandals that have plagued CBS News since the MAGA-curious Bari Weiss was parachuted into the role of editor-in-chief, despite having no prior experience in television news production.
Since then, CBS News’ ratings have plummeted, some of its biggest stars have left or been fired, and the future of 60 Minutes is in doubt because of Weiss’ disastrous attempts to revamp the flagship newsmagazine.
Hastert was sentenced to 15 months in prison for evading banking regulations to conceal his hush-money payments. The only reason Hastert was not charged with child sex abuse offenses was that the statute of limitations had expired.
At his 2016 sentencing, U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin called Hastert a “serial child molester.” Hastert said he was “deeply ashamed” of his behavior but never explicitly referred to the child sexual abuse.
He served 13 months in federal prison before his release in 2017.
Hastert, who was House speaker from 1999 until 2007, died of natural causes at his home.
The Daily Beast has contacted CBS News for comment.
