DON’T KID YOURSELF: There will be no consequences for the 60 Minutes hit job on Gov. DeSantis.

If you’re angry, it doesn’t matter. Nothing is going to happen. No one at CBS will be held accountable. No one will be fired, demoted, or even reprimanded. In fact, CBS will almost certainly pull this same type of stunt again in the very near future.

That’s the way it is.

The news industry is a multibillion-dollar monster, an untouchable beast with the power to influence legislation and launch wars. It’s accountable to nothing except for maybe elite opinion and its own kind, and even then, many journalists are unwilling to criticize “legendary” reporters and journalistic institutions for fear of souring possible career opportunities.

There’s a reason why Katie Couric is still beloved among her media peers, even after she was caught deceptively editing an interview to make Virginia gun rights activists look foolish. There’s a reason why ABC News has never been made to answer for the incident wherein it aired footage taken from a gun range in Kentucky and claimed the video showed a Trump administration-enabled war crime in Syria. There’s a reason CBS has never been made to answer for why it conspired with ABC to fire the CBS staffer suspected of leaking a video showing journalist Amy Robach claiming on camera her superiors spiked her reporting on Jeffery Epstein and his network of well-connected sexual predators. There’s a reason even disgraced newsman Dan Rather, who is treated now as an elder statesman of reporting, complete with journalism awards named in his honor, has been invited to participate in any Biden White House press briefing of his choosing.

There could be one consequence, however: “If Gov. DeSantis goes on to be the Republican nominee in 2024, he should thank 60 Minutes in his victory speech.”