John Oliver sounded an alarm about billionaire David Ellison’s hiring of Bari Weiss as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News.
Oliver devoted the bulk of his monologue on Last Week Tonight to Weiss’ career as a former New York Times opinion writer and then founding editor of The Free Press, which Ellison just bought for $150 million.
While he made fun of how Weiss has attempted to reframe her departure from The Times in 2020 as her Jerry Maguire moment “heard ‘round the world,” Oliver reserved more serious, harsher criticism for two stories from The Free Press that did not hold up under actual journalistic scrutiny.
The late-night host pointed to one story this year alleging that malnourished kids in Gaza didn’t die from starvation; the other, a 2023 piece from an alleged whistleblower who worked with trans families in Missouri, whose claims were refuted completely by the families in question.
“The truth is, we wouldn’t even have done this story were it not for the fact that Bari Weiss has just been named editor-in-chief of CBS News. And that feels different,” Oliver said. “Because there are many opinion-heavy outlets out there, from left to right, and with low to high editorial standards. This show is, among other things, an opinion outlet. And while our staff works incredibly hard to research stories before we write something and vigorously check our facts afterwards, we’re also not the news.”
He said he wouldn’t want any “pure opinion outlet” running CBS News, even if he agreed with their opinions. “But it is especially alarming to have someone doing it who has spent years putting out work that—in my opinion—is at best, irresponsible, and at worst, deeply misleading,” he said.
More worrisome, perhaps, for Oliver? Ellison, who became chairman and CEO of the new Paramount Skydance in August, reportedly has his sights on Warner Bros. Discovery, the company that owns Oliver’s prestige cable network and streamer.
As Oliver put it: “And look, it is not just about Bari Weiss being at CBS. It is about the fact that CBS is now under the control of someone who thinks that she and her editorial sensibility make her a good fit for the job, and who, incidentally, is now preparing a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, home of CNN and, uh-oh, HBO. Which isn’t ideal. Although, I’ve got to say, if what he likes about Bari is that she forces him to have hard conversations that get a bit uncomfortable, maybe he’ll like this?!”
Oliver called Ellison “the latest in a string of billionaires who have taken over our journalistic institutions, from The Washington Post to the L.A. Times, and started making worrying changes. Whatever complaints I might’ve had with their coverage before. And I have had plenty! My solution would never have been this. Because when these takeovers get announced, it’s easy to think, ‘well, thank goodness there are other outlets that are under some billionaire’s influence.’ And that is true. Because there is always another one, until there suddenly isn’t.”
He knows he cannot predict if Weiss will succeed or flame out at CBS News.
“It is worth keeping an eye out for subtle changes there, because while I’m sure many of CBS News’ good journalists will continue to do great work, if you start seeing people resigning or getting fired, or you start seeing stories that seem off in some way, especially if it involves the left going too far on a topic Bari Weiss cares about,” he said. “It’s worth asking yourself why that might be. Because unfortunately, the much bigger answer might be that a billionaire has chosen to inject contrarian, right-leaning opinion journalism into an American icon.”
The post John Oliver Sounds Alarm on Billionaire’s CBS News Takeover appeared first on The Daily Beast.
