I worked in community journalism for 30 years. A source was always given the chance to comment. If they declined, that did NOT kill the story!
We added that the source “declined to comment” and that was essentially saying, “Look, we asked the guy to explain WTF he was thinking and he didn’t want to talk about it, so draw your own conclusions.”
Thank you for writing this. It is SO much more important to point out this story being killed as an affront to journalism than the gossip-y Olivia Nuzzi/ Ryan Lizza crap the Free Press fans were so recently obsessed with.
Weiss represents the worst kind of sell-out, the kind with blinders on who perch themselves on moral high ground. She most certainly has become what she proclaimed she was fighting against. Makes you wonder if she ever was for “free press.” Certainly not after getting her pay day. Welcome to state TV, Al Jazeera for the U.S.
It's the same well all these hacks go to: "The Left went too far on trans issues and made me think about pronouns, which is just ideological Marxism gone amok, so I had to move to the right." Bonus points for "And the students went too far on Gaza so I had to move to the right." (Whether or not the premise is true, it doesn't have to lead to that conclusion, but it's all too common.)
Yes! I was never impressed with Intersectionality theory, and runaway DEI in my opinion has caused a some (unintended?) negative outcomes. But that never through me into the arms of maga and I have zero respect for those for whom it did. They're weak-minded as far as I'm concerned, Weiss included.
Mike, I came to political awareness as a teenager watching CBS heroically cover the war in Vietnam, at a time when reporters were allowed to freely cover the battlefield and station themselves at the front, in order to report back to the American people the verifiable facts on the ground. It is deeply upsetting that CBS, given its history, has done a complete 180 and now sees its primary role as providing cover and ducking hostility from those in positions of high power. History matters and will not be kind to Bari Weiss or her accomplices.
This isn’t heterodoxy. It’s capture with better branding. When “fairness” means power gets a veto and silence becomes a kill switch, journalism hasn’t been cautious, it’s been deputized. The most damning part is how ordinary it’s made to look. No jackboots, just standards quietly doing the job of censorship while everyone nods along. That’s not neutrality. That’s surrender dressed as professionalism
The sign below the CBS News marquee should read Sketchy which would be truth in advertising. CBS is in the "never watch" bin at our house.
Adding to this now that I have had time to fully digest this article, I have always believed that Bari Weiss is a self serving hack. Her behavior at the NYT, the disingenuous BS Twitter "reveal", her RW slanted propaganda leads to that conclusion. Her "concerns" and excuses blaming the left is merely a fig leaf for her naked partisanship. She was brought into CBS not because she had any qualifications for the job but as a wrecking ball. That of course needs no real expertise, just a mountain of grievances and shameless antipathy which that woman has in abundance. CBS will become Breitbart in Cronkite clothing. It was .lost when Ellison bought it as a catch/kill operation. Another mouthpiece for the powers that be.
Thank you for calling this infuriating corruption, and the blatant hypocrisy of B Weiss, to our attention. What can we do? I guess I will write an impotent fuming letter to CBS and I certainly will boycott the channel.
Yes, the excesses of the left could be annoying, but they sprang from a better place: the ideals of social justice. The language policing was scolding and pious , to be sure, but to compare it to the silencing and censorship going on at CBS is Orwellian insanity—and you describe it as always so trenchantly, Mike.
Weiss is an embarrassment to the First Amendment. CBS is a shell of its former self. She needs to be fired immediately and held accountable. Edward R. Murrow is now rolling over in his grave. Good luck.
I don't understand how anyone can possibly be surprised by any of this. This is the goal that the Republicans in general, and Trump and his toadies and followers in particular, have been working toward since Nixon was exposed by the free press. This is precisely the purpose of removing the Fairness Doctrine and allowing the media to merge into a handful of billionaire-owned companies in defiance of antitrust law.
"People who know her insist she honestly believes the far left in this country is far more dangerous than anything Trump is doing."
Trump and his toadies and followers also either honestly believe this, or are willing to play along for the status and power it gives them. Just listen to what the true MAGA believers say when interviewed; they truly believe that a few transgender people, pronouns, masking in public, and gay marriage are a bigger threat to the nation than what happened in Guantanamo Bay under Bush II, or on January 6th, or what is currently happening with ICE, Venezuela, and on innumerable other fronts. They're radically brainwashed by the media, their religion, the internet, and numerous other sources of "information".
I don’t know that people are surprise, but certainly many are disgusted, simply on a visceral level to see what is happening to CBS. In a nutshell, it feels like a severe violation of our lovely freedom of the press’s and a “normalizing” of acts that ought to raise the ire of all.
Done with CBS which is not a difficult thing to give up. America runs on the money we spend. Stop watching, stop buying. Start boycotting. Our money talks just as loudly as theirs.
Bari Weiss and CBS are perfect for one another. Both have lacked credibility for a long, long time. CBS is entertainment and advertising, not education, enlightenment, or civic empowerment. We should have learned better in 2016, when former CBS executive chairman Les Moonves told us what mainstream media was really about. He slipped talking about the Donald Trump candidacy: "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS."
Three observations/questions: (1) What did anyone expect (except maybe Matt Taibbi)?; (2) “THE PRESS IS THE HIRED AGENT OF A MONIED SYSTEM AND SET UP FOR NO OTHER PURPOSE THAN TO TELL LIES WHERE ITS INTERESTS ARE INVOLVED” - Henry Adams 1896. Nothing new under the sun; (3) Bari Weiss, in addition to being an intellectual fraud, is an arch Zionist, and she was put in her current position by the archest Zionist. Let’s not forget this. It’s of a piece with these grotesque distortions.
Lots of good stuff in this piece, well written - thank you. Sounds like Weiss has the right’s version of TDS which is a zealot’s visceral hatred of whatever the the left and their ‘wokeness’ represents for them. Some aspect of that seems to trigger a shame/nausea/outrage center that short circuits normal thinking and results in immediate rejection and revulsion of the speaker and their argument. Nothing one could do to shut them down to protect the right thinkers could be wrong.
I worked in community journalism for 30 years. A source was always given the chance to comment. If they declined, that did NOT kill the story!
We added that the source “declined to comment” and that was essentially saying, “Look, we asked the guy to explain WTF he was thinking and he didn’t want to talk about it, so draw your own conclusions.”
Thank you for writing this. It is SO much more important to point out this story being killed as an affront to journalism than the gossip-y Olivia Nuzzi/ Ryan Lizza crap the Free Press fans were so recently obsessed with.
Weiss represents the worst kind of sell-out, the kind with blinders on who perch themselves on moral high ground. She most certainly has become what she proclaimed she was fighting against. Makes you wonder if she ever was for “free press.” Certainly not after getting her pay day. Welcome to state TV, Al Jazeera for the U.S.
It's the same well all these hacks go to: "The Left went too far on trans issues and made me think about pronouns, which is just ideological Marxism gone amok, so I had to move to the right." Bonus points for "And the students went too far on Gaza so I had to move to the right." (Whether or not the premise is true, it doesn't have to lead to that conclusion, but it's all too common.)
Yes! I was never impressed with Intersectionality theory, and runaway DEI in my opinion has caused a some (unintended?) negative outcomes. But that never through me into the arms of maga and I have zero respect for those for whom it did. They're weak-minded as far as I'm concerned, Weiss included.
Mike, I came to political awareness as a teenager watching CBS heroically cover the war in Vietnam, at a time when reporters were allowed to freely cover the battlefield and station themselves at the front, in order to report back to the American people the verifiable facts on the ground. It is deeply upsetting that CBS, given its history, has done a complete 180 and now sees its primary role as providing cover and ducking hostility from those in positions of high power. History matters and will not be kind to Bari Weiss or her accomplices.
The idea that Bari Weiss *of all people* believes in free speech or honest reportingis completely laughable.
https://jewishcurrents.org/the-real-war-on-free-speech
another quote to remember: "running interference for power while performing the aesthetics of objectivity"
This isn’t heterodoxy. It’s capture with better branding. When “fairness” means power gets a veto and silence becomes a kill switch, journalism hasn’t been cautious, it’s been deputized. The most damning part is how ordinary it’s made to look. No jackboots, just standards quietly doing the job of censorship while everyone nods along. That’s not neutrality. That’s surrender dressed as professionalism
The sign below the CBS News marquee should read Sketchy which would be truth in advertising. CBS is in the "never watch" bin at our house.
Adding to this now that I have had time to fully digest this article, I have always believed that Bari Weiss is a self serving hack. Her behavior at the NYT, the disingenuous BS Twitter "reveal", her RW slanted propaganda leads to that conclusion. Her "concerns" and excuses blaming the left is merely a fig leaf for her naked partisanship. She was brought into CBS not because she had any qualifications for the job but as a wrecking ball. That of course needs no real expertise, just a mountain of grievances and shameless antipathy which that woman has in abundance. CBS will become Breitbart in Cronkite clothing. It was .lost when Ellison bought it as a catch/kill operation. Another mouthpiece for the powers that be.
Thank you for calling this infuriating corruption, and the blatant hypocrisy of B Weiss, to our attention. What can we do? I guess I will write an impotent fuming letter to CBS and I certainly will boycott the channel.
Yes, the excesses of the left could be annoying, but they sprang from a better place: the ideals of social justice. The language policing was scolding and pious , to be sure, but to compare it to the silencing and censorship going on at CBS is Orwellian insanity—and you describe it as always so trenchantly, Mike.
The real reason she canceled it is that she’s a right winged zealot hell bent on covering atrocities the Trump admin commits.
Weiss is an embarrassment to the First Amendment. CBS is a shell of its former self. She needs to be fired immediately and held accountable. Edward R. Murrow is now rolling over in his grave. Good luck.
I don't understand how anyone can possibly be surprised by any of this. This is the goal that the Republicans in general, and Trump and his toadies and followers in particular, have been working toward since Nixon was exposed by the free press. This is precisely the purpose of removing the Fairness Doctrine and allowing the media to merge into a handful of billionaire-owned companies in defiance of antitrust law.
"People who know her insist she honestly believes the far left in this country is far more dangerous than anything Trump is doing."
Trump and his toadies and followers also either honestly believe this, or are willing to play along for the status and power it gives them. Just listen to what the true MAGA believers say when interviewed; they truly believe that a few transgender people, pronouns, masking in public, and gay marriage are a bigger threat to the nation than what happened in Guantanamo Bay under Bush II, or on January 6th, or what is currently happening with ICE, Venezuela, and on innumerable other fronts. They're radically brainwashed by the media, their religion, the internet, and numerous other sources of "information".
I don’t know that people are surprise, but certainly many are disgusted, simply on a visceral level to see what is happening to CBS. In a nutshell, it feels like a severe violation of our lovely freedom of the press’s and a “normalizing” of acts that ought to raise the ire of all.
Done with CBS which is not a difficult thing to give up. America runs on the money we spend. Stop watching, stop buying. Start boycotting. Our money talks just as loudly as theirs.
Bari Weiss and CBS are perfect for one another. Both have lacked credibility for a long, long time. CBS is entertainment and advertising, not education, enlightenment, or civic empowerment. We should have learned better in 2016, when former CBS executive chairman Les Moonves told us what mainstream media was really about. He slipped talking about the Donald Trump candidacy: "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS."
Three observations/questions: (1) What did anyone expect (except maybe Matt Taibbi)?; (2) “THE PRESS IS THE HIRED AGENT OF A MONIED SYSTEM AND SET UP FOR NO OTHER PURPOSE THAN TO TELL LIES WHERE ITS INTERESTS ARE INVOLVED” - Henry Adams 1896. Nothing new under the sun; (3) Bari Weiss, in addition to being an intellectual fraud, is an arch Zionist, and she was put in her current position by the archest Zionist. Let’s not forget this. It’s of a piece with these grotesque distortions.
Lots of good stuff in this piece, well written - thank you. Sounds like Weiss has the right’s version of TDS which is a zealot’s visceral hatred of whatever the the left and their ‘wokeness’ represents for them. Some aspect of that seems to trigger a shame/nausea/outrage center that short circuits normal thinking and results in immediate rejection and revulsion of the speaker and their argument. Nothing one could do to shut them down to protect the right thinkers could be wrong.
It took me a while to understand the term "the woke right". Well Weiss is an excellent example.
Ooooo. I love the “woke right” term. So on point.