John Oliver Skewers Bari Weiss as He Warns of CBS Shift Under New Editor-in-Chief
HBO’s John Oliver tore into new CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss on Sunday, condemning her partisan tilt and the increasing influence of media ownership in news coverage.
Weiss was appointed to run CBS’s news division after the network’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, acquired Weiss’ right leaning media outlet, The Free Press, earlier this month. Skydance CEO David Ellison purchased the company for $150 million as part of his family’s $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global in August.
The move sparked fear and outrage from many on the left, who pointed to Weiss’ lack of experience and legacy media’s shift towards a more right-leaning stance, often in connection with appeasing the president.
Paramount settled a $16 million lawsuit from Donald Trump before the Paramount Global deal’s approval, and Skydance installed Trump ally Kenneth Weinstein as ombudsman. “This signals to everyone, especially to the man in the Oval Office, that CBS is no longer independent,” legendary CBS broadcaster Dan Rather warned, calling Weiss’s appointment “a dark day in the halls of CBS News.”
The host of Last Week Tonight highlighted these fears in a half-hour deep dive on Weiss in which he shredded her opinion-heavy credentials and the free rein she will reportedly be given at CBS, where she will report directly to Ellison rather than the network’s president.
“She’s been given editorial control of a massive news organization even though she’s never run a TV network, has no experience directing television coverage, and as one 60 Minutes producer pointed out, is not even a reporter,” said Oliver.
He went on to further disparage her qualifications, referring to her work both at The Free Press and as a New York Times opinion writer as “deeply misleading.”
“I wouldn’t want anyone who led a pure opinion outlet, not even one that I happen to agree with, to suddenly be running CBS News,” said Oliver, “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.”
The comedian issued a strong warning to his viewers, urging them that “if you start seeing people resigning or getting fired … 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,” said Oliver.
Watch above via Last Week Tonight.
