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Bari Weiss

Bari Weiss

The Great Weiss Whale

Bari’s takeover of CBS News, and her direct line to David Ellison, is sending a clear message: This is Bari’s CBS now, layoffs and all. The big question is what talent she’ll get to join her. Anderson Cooper will be her first test.
Dylan Byers • October 29, 2025
Dylan Byers • October 24, 2025
The Longwell Game
Sarah Longwell
Since the early days of Trump 1.0, The Bulwark has evolved into a hysteria-free, self-sustaining home planet for conservatives-in-exile, where the ethos, according to publisher Sarah Longwell, holds that democracy cannot be saved “from behind a paywall.” Now, she’s contemplating a Free Press-level exit, too.
Dylan Byers • October 10, 2025
Bari Poppins
Bari Weiss
With the week’s short-order wrangling of two former secretaries of State, Bari Weiss is already proving she can get things done at CBS News. But her management of layoffs and resurrecting the ‘Evening News’ will be the next tests in her very new assignment.
Bari Weiss
Dylan Byers • October 8, 2025
Bari, Bari, Quite Contrary
The overwrought media reaction to Weiss’s first days at CBS News would seem to validate the Ellison thesis for putting her in charge. But there’s plenty of cautious optimism inside the newsroom, too. “Having a new force come in isn’t the worst thing,” said one source. “Anyone who is acting like CBS News internally is aghast is not capturing the actual mood.”
Bari Weiss
Dylan Byers • October 3, 2025
You Only Live Weiss
After David Ellison’s yearlong courtship, Free Press founder Bari Weiss will finally begin leading CBS News on Monday. But can an editor who rose on her center-right-ish criticism of the mainstream media find her way now that she’s once again a part of it?
Bari Weiss
Dylan Byers • September 24, 2025
Baribucks
Bari Weiss, the Times defector turned Free Press founder, is now poised to cash a giant check from David Ellison and seize the reins at CBS News, sending staffers running for the smelling salts.
David Ellison
Dylan Byers • September 12, 2025
The Book of David
As he prepares a potential all-cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, David Ellison is aiming to reshape Hollywood and the news business on a Murdochian scale.
bari weiss
Dylan Byers • September 3, 2025
The Bari Market
With Paramount securely in his pocket, David Ellison is on the verge of acquiring Bari Weiss’s The Free Press and tossing her the keys to CBS News. The deal is on the 1-yard line, I’m told.
Jeff Shell
Dylan Byers • July 25, 2025
Dirty Skydancing
While the media universe overanalyzes the free speech implications of the tediously drawn out Paramount-Skydance merger—the Colbert-Carr-‘South Park’ of it all—CBS rank and file are pondering a simpler question: Who’s gonna fix the evening news?
Stephen Colbert
Dylan Byers • July 18, 2025
Colbert in the Bardo & Substack’s Next Chapter
News and notes on the latest media industry talking points: The timing, optics, and insider drama following CBS’s abrupt decision to cancel ‘The Late Show’ as the Paramount deal approaches the finish line; and what to make of Substack’s $1.1 billion valuation in a round led by The Chernin Group.