Mediaite One Sheet: Bari Weiss, Minneapolis Coverage, Davos, and More!

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The Big Picture

Bari Weiss is personally calling reporters to spin the 60 Minutes fiasco — and badmouthing her own correspondent to the press. Gayle King‘s $15 million salary is now seen as “no longer viable.” John Harris is stepping aside at Politico as Spencer Stuart searches for his replacement — with Bret Stephens already in talks. Netflix sweetened its Warner Bros. bid to all-cash, leaving CNN’s future uncertain. And the Minneapolis story is cleaving along platform lines: 3.4 million posts on X about the church protest, 2,600 about an elderly citizen dragged outside in his underwear — with the numbers reversed on Bluesky.

Today’s sources: Status | Variety | Poynter | The Atlantic | NYT | Politico Playbook | Hollywood Reporter | The New Yorker | NewsBusters | Breaker | Nieman Lab | Feed Me | Simon Owens | CJR | Daily Carnage | Racket News | Free Press | Reliable Sources | To the Contrary | Punchbowl News | Barrett Media | The Desk

Top Story

CBS News Under Siege From All Sides

The network is facing criticism from the left, the right, and its own correspondents — and the hits keep coming.

Status‘s Oliver Darcy reports that hours before 60 Minutes aired its delayed CECOT segment Sunday, Weiss was personally calling reporters to shape coverage of the fiasco. During those calls, she expressed “significant frustration” with correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi — to outside journalists. A 60 Minutes staffer told Status she was “deflecting” criticism “by blaming us.” The staffer added: “You don’t gain and build trust when you insult us, come in and say we’re biased, don’t learn the place”…

Variety‘s Brian Steinberg spoke to 10 sources who say the network is “veering toward dysfunction.” King’s $15 million salary is now seen as “no longer viable in a weaker media economy.” King is considering a special correspondent role or one final year at lower pay “to bid farewell to viewers.” Weiss may also overhaul the streaming service, “potentially relying more on talk-heavy podcasts”…

Barrett Media‘s Lauren Ashburn writes that while ABC News dominates and NBC News chases, “Tony Dokoupil and CBS News struggles to define itself.” His counterparts “have big ratings leads and seem to have clear direction and momentum. Not so at CBS”…

Awful Announcing‘s Drew Lerner notes 60 Minutes buried its CECOT segment against NFL playoff coverage: “The NFL game was tied 7-7 in the second quarter when ‘Inside CECOT’ aired on CBS”…

Breaker‘s Lachlan Cartwright reports CBS News is still relying on outside consultants to field press calls about Weiss because they haven’t hired a full-time in-house flack…

NewsBusters‘ Jorge Bonilla offered the conservative counterpoint: after watching the final CECOT product, “we can conclude that Weiss was right to hold it.” The segment included new material addressing concerns Weiss had raised.

QUICK TAKE: Strong leaders keep internal disputes … internal. They don’t complain to the press about their own correspondents — especially when those correspondents can’t advocate for themselves publicly. Weiss continues to run CBS News like a media critic with a byline, not an executive governing a news division.

Three Takes

Minneapolis Coverage Splits Across Platform Lines

Racket News / The Fine Print, Matt Taibbi (guest post): The platform bifurcation is now quantifiable: The Cities Church protest generated 3.4 million posts on X and minimal traction on Bluesky. The ChongLy Thao arrest — an elderly Hmong-American citizen dragged outside in his underwear in 12-degree weather — generated 2,600 posts on X but dominated Bluesky. Jack Dorsey, asked if anything can fix this: “People chose their filter bubble and rarely pop out.”

NewsBusters, Jorge Bonilla: The church incident is a First Amendment violation the networks are ignoring. ABC gave it 19 seconds. CBS gave it 14. “You would think that the Elitist Media, self-styled custodians and keepers of the First Amendment flame, would be all over this story.”

To the Contrary, Charlie Sykes: Sykes cites the NYT‘s Lydia Polgreen: “In Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War.” Polgreen, a former foreign correspondent, describes the ICE operation as “an occupation designed to punish and terrorize.” The Dispatch‘s Nick Catoggio argues the administration views anyone “affiliated with the left” as “effectively a lawful combatant in a hot culture war.”

QUICK TAKE: The latest Minneapolis news cycle is also a Rorschach test. The right sees a mob attacking Christians. The left sees a military occupation targeting immigrants. Most Americans are only seeing one version — and, what’s worse, don’t know the other exists.

📰 Top Reads 📰

Breaker, Lachlan Cartwright
🚨 SCOOP — BRET STEPHENS TALKED TO DÖPFNER ABOUT POLITICO EIC JOB: Spencer Stuart retained to find Harris’s replacement. Carrie Budoff Brown is the internal favorite, but an external pick is “very real possibility.” Mathias Döpfner and deputy Jan Bayer spoke with NYT opinion columnist Stephens about the role. QUOTE (Stephens to Breaker): “Nothing to add.” … TAKEAWAY: Axel Springer is looking outside the building for its next Politico leader.

Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter
CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATORS BREAK WITH TRUMP ON GREENLAND: National Review says “the president needs to calm down.” WSJ‘s Holman W. Jenkins Jr. decries the “foolishness” and says Trump “needs therapy more than the U.S. needs to own the island.” Erick Erickson cites “insane impulse control issues.” The Washington Examiner calls Trump’s texts “almost deranged.” … QUOTE: “This is a movie we’ve seen many times before, with some principled conservatives speaking up while MAGA propagandists rush to explain — yet again — how this is actually strategic genius or 4D chess.” … TAKEAWAY: When the National Review and the Wall Street Journal sound like MSNBC, something has shifted.

Poynter, Tom Jones
TRUMP’S ONE-YEAR WAR ON THE PRESS, CATALOGUED: AP banned from events. CBS, NYT, BBC sued or threatened. Reporters kicked out of Pentagon. Public media defunded. Voice of America gutted. Late-night hosts targeted over jokes. … QUOTE: Trump’s conduct “appears to be following the blueprint of Project 2025.” … TAKEAWAY: The assault on press freedom is systematic, not episodic.

Media Newsletter, Simon Owens
PREDICTION MARKETS ARE FLOODING MEDIA: CNN partnered with Kalshi. Dow Jones/WSJ partnered with Polymarket. CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Sports Illustrated, Time all have deals. The Golden Globes featured Polymarket forecasts. … QUOTE: “The largest media outlets in the world are working to convert some portion of their audiences into gambling addicts.” … TAKEAWAY: News is becoming gambling content. I got ten bucks on gambling content becoming news.

Feed Me, Emily Sundberg
DAVOS DISPATCH FROM ALEX HEATH: “The party scene in Davos is out of control.” Hot tickets: Lightspeed House (Andrew Ross Sorkin, Scott Galloway), TIME (Matt Damon). Tonight: Meta, Anthropic, Palantir houses; Google media reception; NYT dinner; Qualcomm House with Trump White House’s Michael Kratsios. … QUOTE: “I don’t know how anyone survives a week of this.” … TAKEAWAY: The tech-media-politics industrial complex is partying through the transatlantic crisis and delights in reminding those of us stateside that we aren’t there.

The Free Press, Bethany McLean
BILL PULTE IS THE “LITTLE TRUMP” BEHIND THE FED ATTACK: FHFA director Bill Pulte allegedly used his position to get mortgage information on Trump’s political enemies — Letitia James, Adam Schiff, Lisa Cook. Sources describe him as “bull in a china shop,” “dictator,” “widely disliked within the administration” but backed by Don Jr. and the president. … TAKEAWAY: The Lisa Cook case at SCOTUS today has a shadowy backstory.

Breaker, Lachlan Cartwright
🚨 SCOOP — GABRIEL BROTMAN LEAVING AXEL SPRINGER: Gabriel Brotman, VP of Leading Global Partnerships, key figure in Politico acquisition, departing after almost five years for Soros Fund Management. Seen internally as “huge loss.” … TAKEAWAY: Yet another sign of instability at Axel Springer’s U.S. operation.

Media Newsletter, Simon Owens
NETFLIX PIVOTING TO THEATRICAL RELEASES: Ted Sarandos changed his mind after seeing Warner Bros. financials. … QUOTE: “The general economics of the theatrical business were more positive than we had seen and we had modeled for ourselves.” … TAKEAWAY: Irony alert — Netflix is now big enough to embrace the business models it once disrupted.

Nieman Lab, Sarah Scire
CRAIG NEWMARK PULLING BACK ON JOURNALISM FUNDING: The Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is stepping back. Key question he says other funders should ask: “Do the organizations have real plans to grow their audiences outside of their most faithful followers?” … TAKEAWAY: That’s him in the corner — one of journalism’s biggest individual funders is losing his religion.

CJR, Amos Barshad
THE SUBSTACK REPORTER WHO EMBRACES THE ACTIVIST LABEL: Jasper Nathaniel, 38, captures viral settler violence videos in the West Bank for his Substack Infinite Jaz. … QUOTE: “People on the internet tell me every single day, ‘You’re not a real journalist, you’re an activist.’ And I don’t care.” … TAKEAWAY: The journalist/activist/creator hybrid is becoming a model, not an exception. Or is this just a high-brow r

👀 What Got Missed? 👀

The newsletters covering Trump’s one-year anniversary focused almost entirely on the damage — the lawsuits, the defunding, the access bans. What they failed to ask: Is any of it working? Poynter‘s Angela Fu reported this week that the FBI searched a Washington Post reporter’s home. But there’s been no organized industry response. No joint statement from publishers. No coordinated legal strategy. Barrett Media‘s John Mamola put it plainly in a piece about Dan Le Batard: “Journalism hasn’t disappeared — but too many people have stopped standing up for it when it matters most.” The press is being attacked as a class but defending itself as individuals. That asymmetry is the story.

🏆 Newsletter of the Day 🏆

Breaker, Lachlan Cartwright — for delivering two genuine scoops in a single edition: Stephens in talks for the Politico EIC job and Brotman’s departure from Axel Springer. In a media news cycle dominated by opinion and reaction, Cartwright is still breaking news. Good on ya, mate!

The Bottom Line

Weiss is trash-talking her own correspondent to reporters. King is being told she costs too much. 60 Minutes scheduled its biggest story against football. Netflix is buying Hollywood but leaving CNN on the curb. Conservative commentators are calling Trump “manic” and saying he “needs therapy” — and that’s the National Review and Wall Street Journal, not MSNBC. As Tina Brown put it: “His surreal gift is the ability to force the entire world to enter his mad, magical thinking and give it serious credence.” The media is no exception. At least Ozempic reunited the Mac guys!

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