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John Oliver is sounding the alarm Paramount hires controversial pundit Bari Weiss As the new editor-in-chief of CBS News, he bought his anti-woke digital media outlet The Free Press for $150 million, warning that Weiss had engaged in “irresponsible” and “deeply misleading” journalism in recent years.
HBO’s late night star also takes special aim Paramount Skydance chief David EllisonNoting that he is “the latest in a series of billionaires taking over our journalism institutions” and that he has made “worrying changes”, Ellison may soon be his new boss.
Ellison, son of Oracle founder and close Trump ally Larry Ellison, is making a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the media conglomerate that owns HBO and CNN. it Reported over the weekend WBD rejected Paramount Skydance’s initial merger proposal, saying the price of $20 per share was too low.
Ellison’s attempt to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which will be backed by his extremely wealthy father, comes just two months after their closure. $8 billion Paramount merger After a politically tense process Democratic-led investigation begins In potential anti-bribery violations.
Other than this Paramount paid Donald Trump $16 million To settle a “meritless” lawsuit 60 minutes Interview and President’s Claim He Reached a Secret “Side Deal” Along with Ellison, Democrats are also considering Skydance pre-merger assurance To Trump’s handpicked FCC chairman Brendan Carr.
This included the establishment of an ombudsman to register “complaints of bias” on news networks. A few weeks after the merger was completed, Paramount announced that Kenneth Weinstein – a former Trump appointee and conservative think tank leader who has never worked in journalism – To serve as ombudsman for CBS News,
During his “main story” on the Sunday night broadcast last week tonightOliver spent more than half an hour reading Weiss’s journalism history while analyzing Weiss’s heretical website The Free Press, including digging into several stories published in it that disputed his controversial or outright false claims.
“He has been given editorial control of a large news organization even though he has never run a TV network, has no experience directing television coverage and, as a 60 minutes The producer said, he’s not even a reporter,” Oliver said. ”This is true. She came forward not through the news side of any newspaper but through the opinion pages, which is a very different thing.
Noting that the Free Press has devoted itself to “blatant topics” that “the left has gone too far,” he said Weiss has also been extremely vocal against diversity hiring policies. Notably, just before the Paramount-Skydance merger was approved, Ellison assured Carr that the new company would eliminate all diversity practices.
Oliver commented, “Basically whatever issue you think is true – Israel, campus politics, DEI or police reform – you’ll find articles to reinforce your opinion.” “And look, I’m not saying that the left never goes too far or that it’s at all immune to criticism. But sometimes it can feel like the Free Press’s conclusions can get ahead of its evidence, which brings us to the fact that parts of it can be fact-checked very poorly, and in ways that seem critical.”
Oliver specifically referenced three articles published by the site whose facts were called into question or dismissed outright, such as an article this year alleging that children in Gaza are malnourished. They were not suffering from starvation because they had other health problemsOr a story claiming that crime rates in Austin had increased under a progressive prosecutor, when in fact they went downOr the 2023 report of a gender clinic’s alleged “whistleblower”, who repeatedly refused by families Who were present in the clinic.
He also took aim at Weiss’ pre-free press tenure the new York Timeswhich he said saw him engage in “some weapons-grade whataboutism”, as well as make amateurish mistakes – such as when he cited a “well-known fraud site” and the official Antifa Twitter account. At the same time, Oliver mocked Weiss’s history of self-praise, such as comparing her resignation letter to Times For the infamous leaving scene in jerry maguire,
Ultimately, after spending the bulk of his show destroying Weiss’s journalistic credentials while questioning the legitimate value of The Free Press, Oliver defended why he was spending so much time talking about the former new York Times Op-ed writer.
Oliver declared, “The truth is that if it weren’t for the fact that Bari Weiss had just been appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News, we wouldn’t have made this story and it feels different because there are so many opinion-heavy outlets with editorial standards from left to right and low to high.” “This show is, among other things, an opinion outlet, and while our staff works incredibly hard to research stories before writing anything and rigorously check our facts afterward, we’re also not news.”
He added: “And I wouldn’t want someone who has led a purely opinionated outlet, even one I don’t agree with, to suddenly be running CBS News. But it’s especially worrisome to see someone doing it who has spent many years doing a job that is, in my opinion, at best irresponsible and at worst misleading.”
Then they turned their attention back to Ellison and how the billionaire has his eye on Oliver’s show and the cable network’s parent company, and wondering what that means for the media industry at large.
“And look, it’s not just about Bari Weiss being at CBS. It’s about the fact that CBS is now under the control of someone who thinks he and his editorial sensibilities make him perfect for the job, and who, coincidentally, is now preparing a bid for Warner Bros., home of Discovery, CNN and, uh-oh, HBO,” he said, before quipping: “Which isn’t ideal. Although, I have to say, if the twist about what he likes is that she forces him to have tough conversations that get a little uncomfortable, maybe he’ll like it?!
After highlighting that other long-respected legacy news organizations have seen billionaire owners increasingly interfere in their editorial direction, Oliver expressed concern that this would soon become the norm in the American media landscape.
“It’s important to keep an eye on the subtle changes there, because I’m sure many of the good journalists at CBS News will continue to do good work, if you start to see people resigning or being fired, or you start to see stories that seem out of line in any way, especially if it involves the left going too far on a topic that Bari Weiss cares about,” he concluded. “It’s worth asking yourself why that might be. Because unfortunately, an even bigger answer might be that a billionaire has chosen to inject contradictory, right-wing opinion journalism into an American icon.”
Meanwhile, it would certainly appear that many of the journalists and reporters at CBS News are not exactly thrilled with the prospect of working for Weiss, who describes herself as a “radical centrist” and “politically homeless.”
Even before Ellison officially named him the top editor of the Tiffany Network, the staff was “Literally numb” on the possibility of Weiss running the show, primarily over her lack of broadcast network experience and clearly pro-Israel stance.
During her first week on the job, she caused the employees to literally roll their eyes. His Sorkinesque call to arms Also to do “f***king news” going full elon musk By asking employees to describe their workday to him.
One employee said, “We are all being turned into dogs. And she is also seeing who will kiss her.” IndependentReferring to the Department of Government Efficiency The missile that Musk once led,