Paramount Officially Acquiring The Free Press and Making Bari Weiss CBS News Editor in Chief: Report

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: MEDIAite

Oct 2nd, 2025, 4:03 pm


Paramount Skydance will be officially acquiring The Free Press and hiring its founder Bari Weiss as editor in chief of its CBS News division, with the deal to be announced this coming Monday, according to a report by Puck’s Dylan Byers.

Prior to the merger with Paramount, Skydance CEO and founder David Ellison “quietly courted” Weiss to bring her on board for a potential high-profile gig with CBS, according to a report by Oliver Darcy.

Weiss was an editor and writer at The New York Times, covering political and culture topics, until she left in 2020 and launched a Substack newsletter, later renamed as The Free Press. Earlier in her career, Weiss was viewed as being aligned with the center-left but has moved rightward on certain issues, garnering praise in conservative circles for her critiques of “woke” liberal excesses at the Times, other media outlets, universities, and prominent progressive institutions.

The merger took on larger political implications in the wake of President Donald Trump’s re-election, due to his vociferous criticism of 60 Minutes and CBS News programs and reporters — not to mention the lawsuit he filed regarding an interview of then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which Paramount settled shortly before the merger went through.

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/paramount-officially-acquiring-the-free-press-and-making-bari-weiss-cbs-news-editor-in-chief-report/

[FakeNoose]

1. Bari Weiss is originally from Pittsburgh

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bari_Weiss

[Lonestarblue]

2. CBS now joins the right-wing media circus.

Bari Weiss left the NYT in 2020 and wrote a highly critical diatribe of the paper and how its editorial staff refused to publish conservative viewpoints. I don’t recall, but she may have been responsible for the Times publishing the controversial Tom Cotton opinion in which he called for the Insurrection Act to be invoked and the military sent in to cities with George Floyd protests, which were mostly peaceful until right-wing actors like the Bugaloo Bois would show up to start the violence. The article below includes the controversy over the Cotton article.

“Weiss joined The New York Times as a staff editor and writer for the Opinion section in 2017. She quickly gained attention for her provocative takes on topics like campus politics and cultural appropriation. Her tenure at the Times was contentious, with some colleagues accusing her of promoting conservative views.

In July 2020, Weiss resigned from the newspaper in a public letter that went viral. She cited a "hostile work environment" and claimed she faced bullying from coworkers. Her departure sparked debates about ideological diversity in media and cancel culture.”

https://www.factualamerica.com/byline-blunders/bari-weiss-the-new-york-times-resignation-that-went-viral

[FakeNoose]

3. As I understand it, Ms. Weiss got labeled "conservative" when really it was just one issue

She is pro-Israel and pro-Netanyahu to the max. On other issues she is shown to be rather liberal and even progressive. (For example she supports same-sex marriage, and is currently married to a woman.)

Ah well ....

[yardwork]

4. Not at all coincidentally, I was "subscribed" to the Free Press this am.

I got a "welcome to the Free Press" email and then several more.

I did NOT subscribe. When I tried to unsubscribe I got sent to their website (I guess the Biden-era easy unsubscribe option is gone) and when I tried to unsubscribe there, I repeatedly got a "something went wrong."

Something went wrong all right. I don't appreciate having propaganda dumped in my Gmail and not being able to unsubscribe.

This is bullshit.

[BlueHurricane]

5. Bari Weiss? Not a good choice CBS

I've never been impressed with Bari Weiss or her "Free Press". She seems to be taken for a liberal herself - gay, worked for NYTimes, etc. by some folks but everything I've read of hers she seems to conveniently support right wing talking points.

It's like she wants people to think she's not right wing but in this - and every instance - she just happens to agree with the right wing talking points.

Here's an excerpt from an article by Bari Weiss on the Free Press site from October 30, 2024, right before the election:

"We’ve received a lot of questions about whether and who we’d endorse in this election. Given our mission of not telling readers what to think, but rather giving them the information necessary to make their own decisions, we will not endorse a candidate."

Sounds maybe reasonable, I guess? The whole rest of the article is spent disparaging other "left wing" media including The Nation, WaPo, NY Times. Who doesn't she criticize? no WSJ, USA Today, Newsmax, nothing disparaging on any news outlets like those. She mentions Karen Attiah at WaPo, who dared to be unhappy when Bezos, the owner - BANNED - the paper's intended Harris endorsement.

She's insidiously right wing while purporting to be above it all. It's maybe worse than being overt about her intentions.

Link to Free Press Article I sited - https://web.archive.org/web/20241104200438/https://www.thefp.com/p/the-free-press-votes

[Mysterian]

6. Pervasive right-wing propaganda is why the USA republic is failing

If we wish to retain democracy in the USA, we must recognize the danger of unbridled propaganda and do something abut it. Breaking up the right-wing media monopolies is one idea.

https://www.freepress.net/who-owns-media

[Takket]

7. Nothing advances you in life farther and quicker...

Than having absolutely zero experience in a position BUT being a loud mouth obnoxious right winger that does nothing but constantly complain about how you are being silenced and have no free speech.

[bmichaelh]

8. Could be much worse

There are stories that the Ellisons may be trying to buy Warner Bros Discovery as well.

I do not watch CNN but they could change CNN as well, which is part of Warner Bros Discovery.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/dan-rather-warns-against-ellisons-buying-warner-bros-1236371969/