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<\/p>\nEoin Higgins is the author of \u201cOwned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voice on the Left.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Only a billionaire<\/span> could look at the sclerotic state of network television news and conclude that the problem is that coverage is not sufficiently to the right.<\/p>\n Yet that seems to be exactly the conclusion drawn by David Ellison, the billionaire whose company Skydance just bought CBS through a purchase of its parent, Paramount. Ellison\u2019s latest move was to acquire the\u00a0conservative outlet The Free Press and make the site\u2019s founder Bari Weiss the editor-in-chief of the massive CBS News journalism operation.<\/p>\n CBS News has not exactly been hostile to right-wing politics in the U.S., but Weiss\u2019s elevation drops the pretense of any independence at the network.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both Ellison, son of billionaire tech mogul Larry<\/a>, and Weiss are known for their uncompromising support for Israel and demonization of Palestinians and their advocates \u2014 the Free Press has gone so far as to stoke genocide denial<\/a> \u2014 and neither the billionaire nor the conservative pundit could have been pleased with CBS\u2019s coverage of the war on Gaza in the past year.<\/p>\n Ellison and Weiss are known for their uncompromising support for Israel and demonization of Palestinians and their advocates.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n After Tony Dokoupil implied<\/a> in an October 4, 2024, interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates that the writer was an antisemite for writing about Israel\u2019s system of apartheid in Palestine, the network\u2019s editorial leaders told staff the \u201cCBS Mornings\u201d anchor\u2019s tone did not meet its standards. Weiss\u2019s Free Press published a retort<\/a> on October 7 from \u201cThe Editors\u201d bemoaning that CBS was marking the anniversary of the attack \u201cby admonishing Tony Dokoupil.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Days later, The Free Press went after CBS again<\/a> because the head of standards at the network cautioned journalists at the network to, in line with international law, not refer to contested Jerusalem as \u201cbeing in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n These are the sort of mild-mannered positions on Palestine we can expect the network to abandon completely \u2014 the canary in the coal mine of CBS\u2019s turn from its current, Ellison-led purported independence with a conservative bent to out-and-out right-wing propaganda shop.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Putting Weiss in such a position of power is a move aimed at instituting a more rigid ideology at one of the country\u2019s major news networks.\u00a0<\/p>\n The former New York Times opinion page editor, who spun her resignation in 2020 as an act of principle<\/a> against the groupthink at the paper, is now poised to control the direction of CBS\u2019s esteemed \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d It\u2019s a long way to come for Weiss, whose resignation letter<\/a> to the Times \u2014 recently taken offline<\/a> \u2014 claimed she found the paper\u2019s \u201cilliberal environment especially heartbreaking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, she can institute the same level of illiberalism at CBS News that\u2019s found at The Free Press, where deviations from the overall cultural conservatism and fervent pro-Israel coverage are seldom, if ever, found.\u00a0<\/p>\n No wonder that some free speech heroes<\/a> are largely staying quiet on the Palestine exception<\/a> if it\u2019s in hopes of landing a plum gig under a Weiss-run CBS News.<\/p>\n Putting Weiss in charge of CBS News is like \u201cdropping a grenade\u201d in the newsroom, as one former staffer put it<\/a>. That grenade is sure to impact how the network covers Trump, Israel, and the U.S. in general \u2014 and his short run as CBS\u2019s owner shows that\u2019s just what Ellison wants.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
Weiss at the Helm<\/strong><\/h2>\n