NOTE: As has become our custom since we launched this endeavor, we are devoting the last ten days of the year to reprising what we consider to the best of what we’ve mused about in the 355 preceding trips around the sun. But since we’re evolving and we pride ourselves on having a foundation steeped in the reality of actual numbers, as a new wrinkle we’re making our choices with an emphasis on which were outlier performers in terms of Instagram and Substack views. Just like the big boys in streaming video, our highest recorded cumulative views tend to bubble toward the middle of the year where subscriber count is trending up and recency is less of a depresser. However, there are occasional exceptions to that rule, with the following piece from early October scoring far and away our greatest reach:
As if the news itself hasn’t been all that easy to digest lately, even for people who have way better stomachs than moi, the news about reporting the news just got a bit more DiGel-inducing yesterday when an update to a story that began to percolate weeks ago rebubbled. And in certain circles, it was seen as downright sickening, as NEWSWEEK’s Mandy Taheri reported:
Paramount Skydance is reportedly finalizing a deal to hire Bari Weiss, the founder of the Free Press, as editor in chief of CBS News. The move—which The New York Times and the New York Post reported, citing people familiar with the talks—has prompted online criticism from progressive commentators who have highlighted Weiss’ political views and raised concerns about potential bias and the future of the network…According to reports, the deal is set to be finalized on Monday.
Weiss, 41, is expected to helm CBS News, one of the country’s largest broadcast news outlets and home to the flagship show 60 Minutes. Prior to founding the Free Press in 2021, Weiss was an opinion writer and editor at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. She was also a senior editor at Tablet magazine. In 2020, Weiss left the Times, saying she had been “bullied” by liberal colleagues for her more conservative viewpoints.
Several liberal commentators have criticized Weiss’ reported move to the top of the broadcast agency, with some suggesting that it shows a capitulation to conservative demands. Journalist Mehdi Hasan wrote on X on Thursday, “The same people who complained about liberal bias at the main TV networks when they were never run by anyone as ideologically biased and polarizing as Bari Weiss is will have nothing to say now about this.”…Dean Obeidallah, a comedian, lawyer and journalist, wrote on X on Thursday: “‘Paramount Officially Acquiring The Free Press and Making Bari Weiss CBS News Editor in Chief.’ Yes a person who tried to get college professors fired for expressing concern for Palestinian Christians and Muslims will head CBS news. Turn the channel.”…Tommy Vietor, a Pod Save America host and former spokesperson for President Barack Obama and the National Security Council, wrote on X on September 21: “To sum it up: Murdochs and Trump supporters will own TikTok, Elon Musk owns Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg is an amoral choad who is for whoever is in power, Bari Weiss will run CBS News, ABC bends the knee to any threat, MSNBC is dying. Look at all the liberal media bias!!
The somewhat more experienced and grounded Stephen Battaglio of THE LOS ANGELES TIMES attempted to paint a somewhat less Chicken Little-esque picture, one that reflected more concern than alarm:
The rapid rise of Weiss — a former newspaper opinion page staff editor — to a major role in shaping the coverage of a TV news organization with no previous experience in the medium is an extraordinary move that is likely to be highly scrutinized…Will she remold the news division — which has been beset by management turnover and sustained pressure from President Trump — in her image? There will also be questions as to whether the founder of a relatively lean digital operation such as the Free Press will have a leadership role at a legacy TV news organization with more than 1,000 employees.
And according to VARIETY’s equally mature Brian Steinberg and Brent Lang, it would appear that Weiss may be more of a student of Andrew rather than Dale Carnegie:
Inside CBS News, staffers have been left to guess at what the results of Weiss’ hire will ultimately be. According to one person familiar with the newsroom, Weiss has made little if any effort to connect with top producers of CBS News programs to establish a rapport…(O)utside media observers have been puzzled by the addition of Weiss to the mix, because if she pursues the direction of Free Press – one article available on the site Friday bore the headline “The ‘Jews’ Are a Proxy for a Far Bigger Political Fight,” while a reprinted essay examines goings-on in Michigan City, Ind., billed as “The Most Ordinary Town in America” because residents appear to act without paying too much attention to social media – CBS News may appear to be trying to set a cultural or political agenda, rather than collecting and presenting facts…Under the deal, Paramount has agreed to buy Weiss’ four-year-old digital media business, which offers newsletters, reported pieces, podcasts, and what it calls “sense-making columns,” for around $150 million in cash and stock.
Look, I get how upsetting this seems to be to those with histories and arguably extreme views of their own. But unless your name actually is Dan Rather–who has every right to lament the overhaul that the gilded palace of journalistic integrity he was overlord of decades ago–I’d offer that you might want to take a deep breath and two steps back and actually look at the picture of what the public at large seems to be saying about what CBS NEWS is today.
Once again, Battaglio attempted to shine some objectivity along those lines:
There are reasons to shake up CBS News. The news division has a commanding presence on Sundays with programs like “CBS Sunday Morning,” “Face The Nation” and “60 Minutes,” but its daily programs – “CBS Evening News” and “CBS Mornings” – have long run third against similar offerings from ABC and NBC. One programming gambit that captures more attention in the current era is news commentary and partisan presentation. Fox News Channel has seen its share of viewership surge during President Trump’s second term.
Moreover, a day earlier MEDIAITE dropped a few sobering salvos that a majority of us–even a significant percentage of the lower-hanging fruit that very well could still be defaulting to CBS–aren’t necessarily buying what they’re selling–in some cases, to unprecedented levels:
A new Gallup poll shows that Americans’ trust in the media has sunk to its lowest level since the pollster started surveying the topic in the 1970s…
The specific question polled was, “In general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media — such as newspapers, TV and radio — when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly — a great deal, a fair amount, not very much or none at all?” Only 28% of Americans say they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly, the poll found — down from 31% in October 2024 and 40% in September 2020. This “marks the first time the measure has fallen below 30%,” according to Gallup.
The number of Americans who express trust in media reporting hit “record lows” across the partisan spectrum, Gallup found…Republicans’ confidence in media has trailed that of Democrats and Independents throughout the decades of Gallup’s polling, and hasn’t been above 21% in a decade. This latest survey showed Republican confidence down in the single digits (8%) for the first time…Democrats have traditionally expressed a notably higher level of confidence in media than those on the right, but still dropped to record lows in this poll, going back down to the previous low from 2016 of “the narrowest of majorities” (51%) saying they have trust in the media.
This latest poll was conducted via telephone, using both landline and cell phones, from September 2-16, 2025, with a random sample of 1,000 U.S. adults from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and the samples weighted “to match the national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, population density, party identification, and phone status (cell phone only/landline only/both and cell phone mostly),” according to Gallup’s polling memo. The total sample has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.
So yeah, when a firm as established as Gallup passes a verdict that no matter how many ways one wants to justifiably couch or qualify the degree of conclusivity self-generated opinions and statistical limitations which matches the cold harsh reality of Nielsen numbers, clinging to the memories of Cronkite just doesn’t cut it in my book.
But that said, maybe there’s a way for the likes of Weiss and those with like minds to find their voice without throwing out what’s left of the baby with the bath water. There is that hanging chad of needing to make a decision about the 11:30 pm time slot looming. Battaglio makes a compelling base that Weiss’ track record at the very least makes her an intriguing option for counterprogramming and cost-control in a daypart that the guys with the keys to New Paramount have already determined is too expensive to program with comedy writers and a band:
In a crowded sea of political and cultural pundits, Weiss found her own lane as a gay Jewish woman who attacked what she called the excesses of the political left, often saying it was intolerant of opposing viewpoints. She called herself “a diversity hire” at the New York Times’ reliably liberal opinion section and gained a following through her appearances on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.”…Described as a confident and skilled communicator, Weiss used her notoriety to attract investors for the Free Press, a digital media business offering newsletters, reported stories, opinion pieces and podcasts. Launched in 2021, it now ranks as the No. 1 best-selling politics platform on Substack.
Maher seems to be doing just fine, thank you, with a late evening dose of both sides conversation and commentary on the one weeknight where there’s no other first-run talk show, and was able to sustain himself economically despite less than full support from ABC affiliates during his POLITICALLY INCORRECT era. There’s more than enough objective history there for Team Bari to tackle the 11:35-ish wars as a proving ground and incubator for whatever else she and/or the Ellisons might want to inflict upon the rest of the network. And if it does make a dent, all the more reason then to start seeding those personalities and topics onto the franchises that are sorely in need of some sort of kickstart.
And as I’ve suggested on several prior occasions, based upon data I’ve been privy to there’s likely to be more overlap with CBS entertainment viewing and support for the current administration than those who have had a pristine and insular approach to CBS NEWS might be able to handle. Again, one can rather easily take Nielsen data on the zip code level and cross-pollinate it with similarly granular data from the likes of a Gallup or a Pew to be better able to determine exactly where the white spaces of opportunity exist. All in takes is money and desire. All indications are the Ellisons have both at their disposal. One can only hope what’s left of their research and insights team has the skill sets and internal respect to be included in those conversations.
If not, you know where to find me.
Until next time…
POSTSCRIPT: And as if to reinforce that this is a gift that keeps on giving, consider that last night’s 60 MINUTES was disrupted at the very last minute by a call from the subject of this musing, throwing her weight around to the tune of pissing off her rank and file. Were this a really big deal it’s possible this may have been worthy of an emergency drop, but in this climate it’s merely just another Monday in the knee-bending empire that was once called the Tiffany network. I have a very strong hunch this won’t be the last time we hear from Bari Weiss, now the enema within.