Among the broadcast networks, the CBS Evening News on Thursday was the only news program not to mention Donald Trump’s sudden pardon of money-laundering cryptocurrency billionaire Changpeng Zhao.
While ABC, CBS and PBS all covered the somewhat surprising legal break delivered to the convicted Canadian-born Binance founder, it was crickets on the Bari Weiss-controlled former home of Walter Cronkite. Fox doesn’t have a nightly news show, but the pardon was covered by the likes of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal and Fox News as well CNN, the New York Times, AP, Reuters, Axios and many more.
With the pardon unveiled Thursday morning, the absence of any story on Zhao — one of the day’s biggest stories — is all the more noticeable as questions emerge over the entwinement the Binance boss has had in recent months with the Trump family’s lucrative crypto companies. Add to that the fact that one of the major elements of the Biden administration’s prosecution of Binance and its ex-CEO is the lack of oversight the crypto exchange provided to crack down on widespread criminal and terrorist use of the platform.
Specifically, that terrorist use included the likes of Hamas using Binance for its finances. In addition, global gangs moved around funds that came out of child sex trafficking, prosecutors said.
Entering a guilty plea in 2023 and stepping down from the Binance top job, Zhao got out of prison after four months in September 2024. Even with that punishment, the exec lost none of his controlling shares in the company, and with this week’s pardon he could move right back in to the crypto C-Suite.
At the regular White House briefing Thursday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered that Trump had “exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency.” In case you didn’t pick up what Leavitt and Trump were putting down, the press secretary then added: “The Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over.”
In that context, last night’s CBS Evening News led with the NBA gambling scandal arrests, the administration’s “expanding military campaign against drug trafficking in South America,” and interviews with Customs and Border Patrol’s Greg Bovino and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker over harsh ICE crackdowns in Chicago.
Halfway through the broadcast, a segment on the much-criticized demolition of the White House’s East Wing for Trump’s new donor-funded ballroom took center stage. In a follow-up, the broadcast took a look at the ongoing shutdown of the federal government and the fallout and delays being experienced at major U.S. airports. Towards the end of the broadcast, Gayle King previewed a October 24 CBS Mornings segment on the final performance of Misty Copeland at the American Ballet Theatre.
Still, from top to bottom, nowhere on the John Dickerson- and Maurice DuBois-anchored show was there even a mention of Zhao’s pardon, or his business relationships with the Trump family.
Of course, journalists decide every hour of every day which stories are newsworthy and need to be reported on and which ones don’t make the cut. However, whatever the judgment call, the absence of a big deal like the Zhao pardon does stand out, if nothing else for the political and geopolitical aspects of it.
It is worth noting the Zhao pardon was covered in a written piece on the CBS News website, with an update at 6:33 p.m. ET on October 23. As well, CBS Evening News‘ official X feed sent out a post as recently as 7:30 a.m. PT today.
However, reps for CBS News, which Free Press founder Weiss has been running for Paramount chief David Ellison since earlier this month, did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment on the lack of coverage of the Zhao pardon.
While Ellison has publicly offered a neutral political stance as his vision for CBS News, his appointment of Weiss as well as former Trump officials throughout CBS News and his inner circle has raised eyebrows. Those brows have gone even higher amid Paramount’s ongoing vigorous multibillion-dollar pursuit of Warner Bros Discovery — a pursuit partially fueled by the implied promise that the well-connected Paramount can get the whole deal approved by the feds faster than anyone else.
After some pink-slipping and culling (hello, Stephen Colbert) by the previous Shari Redstone regime, Ellison’s Skydance did receive quick regulatory approval of the $8 billion Paramount purchase once the corporate scalpings were done.
Donald Trump speaks during a law enforcement roundtable at the White House on Thursday
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
On the other hand, and probably causing ulcers down at the Melrose lot, Trump has repeatedly referred to Ellison and his Oracle-founding father Larry, the world’s second-richest man, as “friends of mine and “big supporters of mine.” Trump also said of the Ellisons that “they’ll do the right thing” and will unlock the “great potential” of CBS News, which hasn’t always been POTUS’ most admiring outlet, if you know what I mean?
No friend of the Trumps, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Thursday pilloried the pardon.
“First, Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a criminal money laundering charge,” the former presidential candidate said. ‘Then he boosted one of Donald Trump’s crypto ventures and lobbied for a pardon. Today, Donald Trump did his part and pardoned him. If Congress does not stop this kind of corruption in pending market structure legislation, it owns this lawlessness.”
As for current UAE resident Zhao, who goes by CZ online and elsewhere, and Binance … he said it all. “Deeply grateful for today’s pardon and to President Trump for upholding America’s commitment to fairness, innovation and justice,” Zhao wrote on X.
“We thank President Trump for his leadership and for his commitment to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world,” a Binance spokesperson said after the pardon was made public. “CZ’s vision not only made Binance the world’s largest crypto exchange but shaped the broader crypto movement. Binance remains focused on building a secure, transparent and user-first platform that reduces fees and increases access to the financial system for all.”
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