Bari Weiss to Head CBS News as Pro-Trump, Pro-Israel Billionaire Ellison Family Expands Media Empire

[Uncle Joe]

We speak to journalist David Klion about the Trump-affiliated right wing's increasing grip on mainstream news media, as "anti-woke" pundit Bari Weiss takes the helm as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News. The former New York Times opinion writer, who left the paper over what she alleged was a climate of censorship, brands herself as a champion of free speech, but in reality "has a 20-year history of suppressing speech that she finds objectionable, especially when it's speech championing the rights of Palestinians and criticizing the state of Israel," says Klion. Weiss's ascension comes just after CBS's parent company, Paramount, completed a merger with Skydance, the media company founded by the son of billionaire Larry Ellison. Ellison, the founder of the tech company Oracle and soon-to-be part owner of social media platform TikTok in the U.S., is also a staunch supporter of Israel and has close ties to Donald Trump. Weiss's appointment by the Ellisons "is an ideological power play," says Klion. "It's about elevating her political ideology over the most important and storied news brands in the United States."