\n<\/p>\n
The media world<\/span> is disgusted and indignant at CBS News\u2019s new editor-in-chef Bari Weiss\u2019s decision not to air<\/a> a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d segment critical of the Trump administration\u2019s deportation of Venezuelan migrants to a notorious prison<\/a> in El Salvador<\/a>. (In a now-deleted promo<\/a> clip for the segment, the reporter said the migrants endured \u201cfour months of hell,\u201d with one man saying, when asked if he thought he was going to die, \u201cWe thought we were already the living dead.\u201d) According to a statement<\/a> from CBS correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, the report had been internally reviewed and cleared by broadcaster\u2019s legal and standards departments. It had also been heavily promoted on \u201c60 Minutes\u201d\u2019 social media. But three hours before it was set to air, Weiss pulled the segment, citing the need for \u201cadditional reporting\u201d and on-camera interviews with White House officials \u2013\u2013 who had reportedly <\/a>refused to comment for weeks.<\/p>\n This was, of course, an excuse that didn\u2019t pass the most basic smell test. By all accounts, the piece had been thoroughly reported, and the idea that reporters need to secure on-camera interviews with government officials before reporting on government misdeeds effectively gives the administration veto power over CBS\u2019s news reporting, as Alfonsi pointed out.<\/p>\n The outrage in the U.S. media has been swift and more than justified. But in the back and forth, some key context is being overlooked \u2014 context that might help clarify that as bleak as Weiss\u2019s move is for the future of journalism, it is a perfect example of why Paramount\u2019s new owner, David Ellison, hired her in the first place. Her job is to suck up to Trump, yes, but largely as a means \u2013\u2013 not an end in and of itself. If Trump favors CBS and Paramount, it could undermine the pending Netflix\u2013Warner Bros. Discovery merger<\/a>, help Ellison take over WBD himself, and cement the Ellison family\u2019s media concentration<\/a> to further advance their business interests and their right-wing ideology. This is not just a matter of routine MAGA brain rot; there are material interests at work.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Unlike in traditional corporate media arrangements, Weiss reports directly to Ellison. Her role, from the onset, has been to police the CBS newsroom, an open acknowledgment that CBS News must reflect the ideological preferences of the Ellison family \u2014 namely, their fidelity to Israel<\/a> and surveillance capitalism<\/a>. <\/p>\n Despite efforts to paint Weiss as a \u201creporter\u201d and her publication the Free Press as a \u201cnews outlet,\u201d neither characterization is true. Weiss rose through the ranks as an opinion writer, going from Tablet to the Wall Street Journal to the New York Times to her own Silicon Valley-seeded and funded<\/a> media property, the Free Press. Along the way, she never did anything, at least not with any degree of consistency, that could be seen as reporting.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing inherently wrong with doing opinion writing and analysis (indeed, it\u2019s what I do), but it in no way qualifies someone to run an ostensibly straight news organization, especially one the size of CBS News. Installing a leader like Weiss is what a company does when it\u2019s attempting an ideological overhaul and gutting of a newsroom, not when they\u2019re attempting to appeal to middle America or modestly counter an alleged liberal bias, as some claimed at the time.<\/p>\n This is not just a matter of routine MAGA brain rot; there are material interests at work.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Weiss built her brand going after the targets popular with her wealthy backers: supposedly \u201cwoke\u201d college kids, trans people, and pro-Palestine voices, positioning her outlet as \u201cHonest. Independent. Fearless\u201d while carrying water for reactionary elites. Through that lens, Ellison\u2019s decision to buy the Free Press <\/a>earlier this year can best be seen not as a straight-forward business decision, but a commitment to a political project that would dovetail with the family\u2019s broader ideological and business interests in surveillance and military technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n A cursory look at the Free Press\u2019s YouTube channel (Weiss\u2019s closest analogue to running a TV news network) at the time of the purchase reveals a product of middling popularity. The site\u2019s videos rarely rack up more than 200,000 views, and the channel does not crack the top 1,000 on YouTube<\/a>. It\u2019s true that the outlet\u2019s Substack supposedly<\/a> had 155,000 paid subscribers, but by no objective metric did this justify its eventual $150 million purchase price. The payment was for something much less direct, and much less unseemly: Weiss integrating her political project with CBS News to slowly turn the once-storied brand into a tabloid news channel for cheerleading Israel, U.S. military interests, and right-wing social causes. By associating a valued name in journalism with Ellison and Weiss\u2019s agenda, their politics take on a sheen of credibility \u2014 a bargain that far exceeds any purchase price.<\/p>\n Central to this agenda is steadfast support for Israel. Ellison and Weiss\u2019s shared commitment to Israel is hard to overstate: Weiss began her career at Columbia attempting to get Palestinian academics fired<\/a>, and throughout her career has prioritized the topic with consistency, vitriol, and vindictiveness.<\/a> When Ellison\u2019s bid to buy Paramount was announced in the summer of 2024, his company Skydance published a press release<\/a> in The Jerusalem Post stating David Ellison \u201cloves Israel,\u201d has \u201cZionist values,\u201d and \u201cquietly donates quite a bit to the State of Israel and the IDF.\u201d Larry Ellison, David\u2019s father and the co-founder of Oracle, made what was the largest single private donation<\/a> to the nonprofit Friends of the Israel Defense Forces in 2017.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n