How Bari Weiss pushes propaganda to please the powerful
Weiss signals liberal and lesbian…but panders to wealthy elites, Libertarian tech bros, and Israel-friendly voices.
If you’re new to Bari Weiss’ management style, you may be surprised by the freefall in both credibility and ratings over at CBS News since her takeover. But it’s not a huge surprise if you’ve been following her years of tap dancing over at The Free Press:
She claims to be all about free speech…unless it’s this administration silencing dissenting voices.
She promotes academic freedom…unless a professor says something pro-Palestinian in class.
She claims to agree with liberals on many issues…yet constantly cherry picks the freakiest fringe progressives to cover.
She claims to have no ideology…but publishes zero criticism of Israel.
She claims fierce independence…yet ferociously criticizes the left while treating the right with kid gloves. (For example: Criticism of the President typically gets buried in compilation pieces like “Is Donald Trump Breaking the Law? Seven Experts Weigh In.”)
Now, she’s bringing that same energy to the home of Cronkite.
The latest example: The ICE officer who shot Renee Good “suffered internal bleeding to the torso,” according to the network. That seems iffy since video analysis reveals he was never even struck by the car. Nonetheless, citing “two anonymous US officials” was enough for Bari to run with it.
How has CBS News become a joke so quickly? Let’s follow the string-pulling…you may be surprised where it ends up.
Tony
This is Tony Dokoupil:
Tony has great hair, is married to Katy Tur, and converted to Judaism before marrying his first wife (who lives in Israel now with their two kids). As part of his conversion, he received a second (adult) circumcision. By the way, he’s quite public about his vasectomy. I wish I didn’t know so much about his genitals, but, y’know, here we are.
🔌 Support my hand-rolled, news-y, dark “is it comedy?” rants because who the hell else is gonna do it? You’ll get bonus stuff too. I appreciate it.
Before becoming the new anchor at CBS Evening News, he was best known for his attacky interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
How’s his new gig going? So far, he froze like a deer in the headlights on his first broadcast, “saluted” Marco Rubio, let Pete Hegseth give a free-range monologue, used a bogus Trump claim as a fact, and got told by the President that, without him, Dokoupil wouldn’t have the anchor job and wouldn’t be getting paid nearly as well. Also, the ratings are in a free fall.
Tough beat. However, Tony is just a useful chin here.
Bari
Which brings us to the woman who’s telling him what to do: Bari Weiss.
Weiss identifies (over and over again) as Jewish, lesbian, and a reformed liberal. She’s always telling people that because she’s running an identity shell game where she uses her “I used to be a liberal but then the wokes ruined it” card to smuggle in soothing propaganda for self-proclaimed “heterodox” thinkers (e.g. people who love Israel, wealthy tech bros, and Bill Maher fans).
Since I’m talking Jew stuff, some of my “as a Jew” bona fides for newbies here: I love Jews and Israel (my Israeli father served in the IDF). While I dislike the current right wing wacko gov’t there, I’m still a proud Zionist and am sick of “anti-Zio” loons in my comments. I just like to call balls and strikes fairly instead of doing the propaganda thing so that’s what I’m doing here.
How did she create this empire? Like Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, Weiss is a whisperer to powerful, rich men. For them, she’s like Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting…
So it’s no wonder tech VCs, Libertarians, and wealthy anti-wokers love her. Telling powerful people they’re actually the wronged ones is a killer product in a culture that views victimhood as currency.
This segment of On The Media (NPR) explains Bari’s bait-and-switchiness in more detail.
There’s this very quick, almost tacit acknowledgement that she agrees with liberals on the issue, but then the entire column is dedicated to criticizing them. This little move is sort of the basis for her whole career. I’m a liberal, but it’s very purposefully designed as a way to give the reader permission to agree without feeling like they’re being a conservative.
Now she’s bringing the same “objectivity” to CBS News. A 60 Minutes story on a torture prison? Kill it/needs more sourcing. That “internal bleeding” bunk? HIT 👏 PUBLISH 👏 NOW 👏.
But wait, there’s more…
David
Weiss was hired by/now reports to David Ellison, a man who looks exactly like you expect:
Succession fans: What Kendall Roy is to Waystar RoyCo, David Ellison is to Paramount Skydance. The big difference is Kendall’s a wannabe rapper while David’s a wannabe actor. And just like Kendall does whatever daddy wants him to do, David’s job is to please his papa…
Larry
Larry Ellison is the database king of Silicon Valley, one of the wealthiest men in the world, and, according to his biographer, thinks he’s God. He collects real estate, cars, airplanes, yachts, and wives. Larry is in his 80s now and doesn’t have time to do the day-to-day busywork of running a media company so he lets Davey be his errand boy.
Btw, having acquired Paramount and CBS, Ellison is also eyeing TikTok and CNN. Quite a lot of media control, eh?
At this point, let’s note Larry’s political views and friends in high places:
Ellison has a decade-long history with the Republican party and a close relationship with Trump going back to the president’s first term. Ellison has frequented Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for dinners and met him in the Oval Office…Trump said, “[Ellison’s] an amazing man and an amazing business person.”
Ellison is also close to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and has donated heavily to the Israeli military through the non-profit Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. In 2017, he gave the organisation its biggest-ever donation at the time – $16.6M.
Just how pro-Israel/Bibi is Ellison? He was a witness in Bibi’s graft trial, hosted Bibi on a vacation at his island, and, according to The Financial Times, indicated he was drawn to Bari Weiss because of her “pro-Israel stance.”
Which brings us to the ultimate “clients” here…
Don and Bibi
Netanyahu is increasingly focused on social media and describes the deal for TikTok as “the most important purchase that is going on right now.”
Meanwhile, 47 told Norah O’Donnell that CBS’s “new ownership” was “the greatest thing that’s happened in a long time to a free and open and good press.”
So here’s the real CBS News org chart post-makeover:
Conclusion
All that “we’re restoring faith in journalism” stuff is a smokescreen.
In truth, CBS News is way more valuable as a political pawn than as some barely-profitable news division. The end goal here isn’t to squeeze out a few more nickels by showing Skyrizi ads to the nursing home, it’s to push the views of Larry’s pals so everyone involved can accumulate even more power/wealth and get their preferred narratives amplified.
Weiss wants you to think she’s all about fearless reporters taking on the establishment. But what’s happening at CBS isn’t speaking truth to power. It’s speaking truthiness for power. It’s something Weiss perfected at The Free Press: a posture of dissent in service of the powerful.
Behind the paywall
Bonus for paid subscribers: Why I hated writing this piece, why this scheme won’t work, and the better way to defend Israel…
