John Oliver used his essential section on Sunday’s Final Week Tonight to take an in depth take a look at Bari Weiss, the newly appointed editor-in-chief of CBS information.
Earlier this month, Paramount introduced that it had formally acquired The Free Press, the digital publication based by Weiss, and would deliver Weiss into the fold of CBS Information, which, as The Hollywood Reporter not too long ago reported, had been anticipated but in addition was greeted with dread contained in the information division. Weiss works outdoors of the present org chart by reporting on to Paramount CEO David Ellison, whereas The Free Press will stay a stand-alone enterprise outdoors of CBS Information.
Oliver started his section on Weiss by noting: “Let’s begin with the truth that she’s been given editorial management of an enormous information group, regardless that she’s by no means run a TV community, has no expertise directing tv protection and, as one 60 Minutes producer identified, just isn’t even a reporter. That’s true. She didn’t come up by means of the information web site of a newspaper, however by means of the opinion pages, that are a really completely different factor.”
As Oliver famous, Weiss “made a giant identify for herself” after being employed by The New York Occasions as a columnist.
The Final Week Tonight confirmed a clip of Weiss explaining: “My job explicitly was to usher in voices that wouldn’t in any other case naturally seem in The New York Occasions, both as a result of different editors wouldn’t suppose to fee them, or the writers themselves would suppose, you already know, The New York Occasions would by no means settle for me.”
His response: “Yeah, she was apparently tasked with discovering voices that The Occasions’ op-ed web page would by no means settle for, which is already a giant declare provided that earlier than she obtained employed there, it revealed op-eds from, and that is true, Muammar Gaddafi and Vladimir Putin. If The Occasions had been round within the fifteenth century, I’m guessing they’d have given an opinion piece to Vlad the Impaler. ‘Consuming the blood of my enemies isn’t disgusting; it’s stunning and brave.’”
Oliver famous that among the columns Weiss wrote at The Occasions included “one through which she argued that the left had gone too far in policing cultural appropriation,” one other that was “a largely sympathetic profile of the mental darkish internet, a time period that she popularized for individuals like Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro” and one other one “suggesting progressives had been so centered on labeling fellow People fascists, they missed alternatives to name out actual fascism, which is just a few weapons-grade whataboutism.”
That latter column, Oliver famous, obtained consideration on account of the truth that it contained hyperlinks to posts from the official Antifa Twitter account, which that was truly a “well-known hoax web site, which is fairly embarrassing. You don’t anticipate a Occasions author to fall for on-line hoaxes like they’re your 75-year-old aunt on Fb who retains posting that message saying, ‘I hereby state that I don’t give my permission to make use of any of my private information or images.’”
However her time at The Occasions got here to an finish after it ran an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton, who argued that federal troops must be used put a cease to protests towards police brutality. After the op-ed was revealed, many staffers argued that The Occasions shouldn’t have revealed it.
“And Bari Weiss wrote a collection of tweets a couple of supposedly heated employees assembly characterizing it as a civil warfare between the largely younger wokes and the largely 40 and up liberals,” Oliver defined. “That declare was strongly disputed by others on the paper, with one editor saying, ‘I’m in the identical assembly that Barry seems to be dwell tweeting. That is inaccurate in each characterizations. It’s not a civil warfare, it’s an editorial dialog, and it’s not breaking down alongside generational strains.’ So to be honest, it appears Barry Weiss does have some reporting expertise, particularly making an attempt to report what was taking place within the assembly, solely to have our personal co-workers say, ‘Hey, what the fuck are you speaking about?’”
She resigned quickly afterward and based The Free Press.
“Its first motto was ‘Sincere information for sane individuals,’ which feels scientifically engineered to set off a watch roll,” Oliver quipped, including: “Within the 5 years since, it’s grown to roughly 1.5 million readers, though solely round 1 in 10 truly pay to subscribe, that means it generates subscription revenues of about $15 million a 12 months, which isn’t nothing, however I’d argue additionally not fairly sufficient to justify somebody spending $150 million to amass it, as that could be a revenues to valuation ratio that will make Mr. Great [Shark Tank‘s Kevin O’Leary] begin vomiting blood.”
Oliver famous that Weiss has repeatedly insisted she’s solely within the fact, however then performed a clip of her speaking about The Free Press‘ course of for locating out the reality: “The identification of our model is truth-seeking, and our premise is you can’t get to fact in an echo chamber. The one manner that you just get to fact is by sitting subsequent to somebody — that is what makes it so completely different from any newsroom I’ve ever labored in — witting subsequent to somebody who disagrees with you, who you continue to respect, admire them and collaborate with them.”
Responded Oliver: “I imply, possibly, possibly that’s the way you do it as an opinion author, however that’s not the way you get to fact as a reporter, is it? You try this by leaving the newsroom and reporting. … And I’ll be sincere, there’s not a ton of onerous journalism on The Free Press web site. There’s actually not a lot of something there. There’s often only a handful of latest posts a day which may even embody bizarre shit like editorial cartoons from David Mamet, the playwright. And in the event you’re pondering, ‘I didn’t understand David Mamet might draw’ — enjoyable truth, he can’t.”
Oliver then went by means of a listing of headlines on Free Press tales, together with: “I Can Clarify Why the Nazi Salute Is Again,” “I Criticized BLM. Then I Was Fired,” “I Took Faith Out of Christmas. I Remorse It,” “I Need Folks to Have Extra Youngsters. Does That Make Me Far-Proper?,” “I Was Referred to as an ‘Inbred Swine’ at Princeton Final Evening,” “I’m 17. And I’m Immunized From Woke Politics,” “My Household Was Hunted by Nazis. However I Was Fired For ‘Defending Hitler,” “My Husband Desires to Be Cremated. I’d Ignore His Dying Want” and “I Used to Hate Trump. Now I’m a MAGA Lefty.”
Joked Oliver: “It looks like we’re simply two weeks away from an article titled ‘I Dressed My Useless Spouse up as Hitler for Her Funeral, and Now Her Woke Household Is Mad at Me.’”
He mentioned {that a} take a look at The Free Press‘ homepage won’t give the impression that the outlet is conservative. “However when you begin studying its articles, the pronounced theme that begins to emerge is the left has gone too far,” Oliver mentioned. “Principally, no matter concern you are feeling like that’s true for — Israel, campus politics, DEI or police reform — you’ll discover articles there to bolster that opinion. And look, I’m not saying the left by no means goes too far or that it’s immune from criticism in any respect, however it might generally really feel like The Free Press’ conclusions can get out forward of its proof, which brings us to the truth that a few of its items will be fairly poorly truth checked and in ways in which really feel essential.”
Oliver then introduced up examples of tales reported by The Free Press that different shops had contradicted with their very own reporting, together with accusations that the Transgender Middle on the St. Louis Kids’s Hospital was prescribing puberty blockers or hormone remedy with out appropriately conducting psychological well being assessments; one other on crime in Austin; and a 3rd on hunger in Gaza.
As for that latter story, it was shared by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his social media account with the caption “Details matter.”
This “is horrible for a number of causes, together with if Netanyahu ever shared one in every of our tales, I believe I’d burn this place to the fucking floor,” Oliver quipped.
He added of his choice to focus his essential section on Weiss: “The reality is, we wouldn’t even have finished this story had been it not for the very fact Bari Weiss has simply been named editor-in-chief of CBS Information, and that feels completely different as a result of there are numerous opinion-heavy shops on the market from left to proper and with low to excessive editorial requirements. This present [Last Week Tonight] is, amongst different issues, an opinion outlet, and whereas our employees works extremely onerous to analysis tales earlier than we write one thing and vigorously examine our information afterwards, we’re additionally not the information. And I wouldn’t need anybody who led a pure opinion outlet, not even one which I occur to agree with, to instantly be operating CBS Information. However it’s particularly alarming to have somebody doing it who has spent years placing out work that, for my part, is at greatest irresponsible and at worst deeply deceptive.”
Oliver then criticized Ellison for “suppose[ing] that she and her editorial sensibility make her a great match for the job.” He additionally famous that Ellison is reportedly planning to make a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, proprietor of HBO, dwelling to Final Week Tonight. That “isn’t supreme, though I’ve gotta say, if what he likes about Bari is that she forces him to have onerous conversations to get a bit uncomfortable, possibly he’ll like this,” he added.
The host went on to notice that the way forward for CBS Information is unclear underneath its new editor-in-chief. “Perhaps Bari Weis will fully reshape CBS Information,” he mentioned. “Perhaps she’ll flame out.”
However he cautioned his viewers to concentrate to any variations on the information group going ahead: “It’s price maintaining a watch out for delicate adjustments there as a result of, whereas I’m positive a lot of CBS’ good journalists will proceed to do nice work, in the event you begin seeing individuals resigning or getting fired, otherwise you begin seeing tales that appear off in a roundabout way, particularly if it includes the left going too far on a subject Bari Smart cares about, it’s price asking your self why that could be, as a result of sadly the a lot larger reply could be {that a} billionaire has chosen to inject contrarian right-leaning opinion journalism into an American icon.”