A post-merger purge of 2,000 at Paramount claims WBZ-TV political analyst Jon Keller

Old friend Jon Keller was laid off Thursday by WBZ-TV (Channel 4) as part of wide-ranging cuts at Paramount-owned CBS, writes Boston Globe media reporter Aidan Ryan (sub. req). Keller, a political analyst at the station for 20 years, was one of five staff members who lost their jobs, although he was the only on-air journalist.

Earlier this year the station laid off medical reporter Dr. Mallika Marshall, and veteran reporter Beth Germano retired. The departures represent a significant blow to the station given that television news depends on recognizable, trusted journalists.

According to Isabella Simonetti of The Wall Street Journal, the local cuts are part of a deep corporate purge by new chief executive David Ellison, whose Skydance Media company purchased Paramount earlier this fall. Some 2,000 employees are losing their jobs this week. Ellison, of course, is the Trump-friendly media mogul who bought Bari Weiss’ right-leaning opinion site, The Free Press, for $150 million and put her in charge of CBS News. Ellison is also trying to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery, which would add CNN to his holdings.

Multiple surveys show that local television is the most trusted source of news, but it’s hard to see how that trust can be maintained when a station like WBZ is losing some of its best-known and most accomplished journalists.

Jon and I go way back. He was the political columnist at The Boston Phoenix when I arrived there in 1991. He also worked as the producer for the late David Brudnoy’s outstanding talk show on WBZ Radio (AM 1030) and as a reporter for WLVI-TV (Channel 56) before moving to WBZ-TV. He did a stint as an op-ed-page columnist for the Globe. Both of us were also panelists on the now-defunct “Beat the Press with Emily Rooney,” on GBH-TV (Channel 2).

Jon is known for dogged reporting and incisive, often caustic political commentary. He’s also a skilled debate moderator and has presided over some of the state’s highest-profile encounters, including Senate debates between Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley in 2010 as well as Democratic primary foes Ed Markey and Joe Kennedy in 2020.

This isn’t the first time Keller has been caught up in corporate machinations. He lost his gig doing commentary for WBZ Radio some years ago when the station was sold to iHeartMedia; the TV operation remained part of CBS.

If you’re wondering where you’re going to get your Keller fix, you should know that he writes a political column on Mondays for MASSter List, part of State House News Service. This week he took on a longtime nemesis, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, calling the union “uber-arrogant powerbrokers” who misread the state Legislature in fighting against a bill to change the public-school reading curriculum in an attempt to improve low test scores. He managed to work in a reference to “onanism” as well. Keller wrote:

It takes a special form of hubris to assume that reform-hungry legislators who’ve been shoveling money into the system even as educational outcomes atrophy would meekly swallow the manure MTA leaders fed them at a September hearing on the legislation.

Best wishes to Jon and to everyone who lost their jobs this week so that Ellison can pocket a few more dollars. I hope this isn’t the last we’ve heard from Keller at Large in local broadcast news. But we’ll see.