Oh, that guy

If you need more reasons not to watch CBS, The New York Times has several (gift link):

In a bid to remake the country’s top-rated news program, Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News, on Thursday unveiled an overhaul of 60 Minutes , replacing the show’s executive producer with a tech journalist and firing two of its on-air correspondents.

Ms. Weiss named Nick Bilton, a former New York Times technology columnist and a filmmaker who has directed and produced documentaries for HBO and Netflix, as her pick to lead the 58-year-old Sunday show. Mr. Bilton, who has never worked in traditional broadcast news, will replace Tanya Simon, who had been at the show for more than three decades.

CBS News also fired Cecilia Vega, the program’s first Latina correspondent, and Sharyn Alfonsi, whose segment on torture in Salvadoran prisons was pulled off the air abruptly last year by Ms. Weiss, who requested more reporting. It aired in full at a later date. Draggan Mihailovich, the executive editor of 60 Minutes , was also fired, as was Matthew Polevoy, a senior producer.

The name Nick Bilton sounded familiar, and I figured out why: I noticed the name in 2013, when Bilton wrote a piece for the Times about digital etiquette. In it, he said that he didn’t like getting thank-you e-mails and that people should should use Google Maps rather than ask for directions. He said that he and his mother communicated “mostly through Twitter” and that his father learned a “lesson” after leaving a dozen voice mails for his son that went unheard. I had some thoughts about that column.

In 2014, Bilton wrote a piece announcing that the pen was dead, having been replaced by the finger. I had some thoughts about that column too. I’ll quote myself: “I guess Nick Bilton doesn’t believe in thank-you notes either. Or love letters.”