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“Paramount said Monday that it has bought the news and commentary website The Free Press and installed its founder, Bari Weiss, as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, saying it believes the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based…
“[The Free Press] has grown to reach 1.5 million subscribers since Weiss started it in 2021 after leaving The New York Times as an opinion editor. When she left the Times, she wrote a letter of resignation that spoke of a culture of intolerance at the newspaper and said she was bullied by colleagues who disagreed with her.” AP News
The left criticizes Weiss, and worries that she will create right-wing bias at CBS News.
“As a student at Columbia, [Weiss] led a racist smear campaign against Arab professors who had the audacity to criticize Israel. As a New York Times columnist, she constantly hawked right-wing bile while posing as a liberal who was just tired of all the extremism and censorship on the left—a tedious bait-and-switch that nevertheless sent her media profile soaring…
“The Free Press has been relentless in denying the reality of the famine in Gaza. Just a couple of weeks ago, staffer Olivia Reingold ran an ‘investigation’ about the suspicious fact that many of the children who have recently starved to death in Gaza may have also had preexisting health conditions. Because, as we all know, if you’re sick, it means your starvation doesn’t count.”
Jack Mirkinson, The Nation
“Weiss appears to have been hand-picked for the position by tech billionaire Larry Ellison… one of the world’s largest financial supporters of Israel’s military forces…
“His recent purchases of Paramount and TikTok signal that he will seek to use his massive new media footprint to maintain an environment where U.S. support for Israel remains strong… The capture of CBS News by a Trump-aligned billionaire and a culture warrior with an editorial agenda is not just a sign of media decay. It’s a sign that democracy’s referees are being replaced by players.”
Sophia Tesfaye, Salon
“Weiss’s Free Press continues to cover America as if it’s still the summer of 2020… [But] The era of progressive institutions firing or silencing staffers who step out of line peaked five years ago and is now over. What looms over American culture at the moment is an authoritarian presidency…
“Leftists who engage in illiberalism are following the dictates of their ideological fanaticism… But when Trump cracks down on dissent and liberates violent supporters, he’s just being a bad boy… The Free Press has devoted only glancing attention to the administration’s Peronist economic ambitions, its historic self-dealing, its devastation of scientific research, and its legislative agenda that has engineered the largest upward redistribution of wealth in American history.”
Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic
“I doubt Weiss will fire reporters who voted for Kamala Harris or mandate positive coverage if Trump does something extreme. Rather, her influence is likely to be more subtle. For starters, reporters will probably be more gun-shy about pitching stories that make Israel look bad or emphasize racial inequality… It’s easy to cast Trump as antidemocratic and hostile to racial diversity because he openly takes those positions almost every day. It’s much harder to take on institutions and people such as Weiss.”
Perry Bacon, New Republic
The right praises Weiss, and hopes she will restore credibility to CBS News.
The right praises Weiss, and hopes she will restore credibility to CBS News.
“She is a self-identified ‘left-leaning centrist’ who admits to having cried at her desk when President Trump was first elected in 2016… Despite fearmongering that Weiss will drag CBS News into right-wing territory, the outlet’s new editor in chief says in a note to subscribers that she believes that the majority of Americans are part neither of ‘an America-loathing far left’ nor a ‘history-erasing far right’ and have been ill-served. She sees her new role as a way to reach those forgotten Americans.”
Brittany Bernstein, National Review
“In her letter to CBS employees, Weiss outlined ten principles that should be considered basic best practices for any straight news and investigative journalism outlet. Among the values she offered were ‘journalism that is fair, fearless, and factual’; ‘journalism that holds both American political parties to equal scrutiny’; ‘Journalism that embraces a wide spectrum of views and voices so that the audience can contend with the best arguments on all sides of a debate.’…
“That any of this could be controversial goes a long way toward explaining why trust in media reached an all-time low this month, with Gallup finding that just 28 percent of Americans — and a meager 8 percent of Republicans — have confidence in the ability of the mass media to report news ‘fully, accurately, and fairly.’”
The Editors, National Review
“At a time when the media industry is largely faltering financially while draining most of its credibility down the toilet, The Free Press is an extraordinary modern-day success story… In just four years, it boasts more than 1.5 million subscribers. It also expanded into hosting live events, including debates and panel discussions, before sold-out audiences across the country…
“In addition to Paramount’s purchase of Weiss’s site, she’ll also be rewarded with a top leadership role, which has been sorely lacking at this once-proud news division. There have been several low points over the years, including Dan Rather’s pathetic attempt to alter the 2004 presidential election with a farcical story questioning George W. Bush’s National Guard service by using ‘fake but accurate’ documents that were quickly called out as fakes…
“But the worst example of bias came after 60 Minutes interviewed (installed) Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and clearly manipulated one of her answers on a question about Israel to make her sound coherent. Criticism poured in, but CBS refused to release the transcript of the interview for months until President Donald Trump sued the company for election interference. CBS-Paramount eventually released the transcript and settled for $16 million.”
Joe Concha, Washington Examiner
