Twenty years ago, when Dan Rather was pushed out from CBS News following a controversial 2004 report on former President George W. Bush’s National Guard service, it was a massive scandal. While many remember it for being predicated upon shaky documents, it was also incredibly prophetic about the future media landscape: One that’s rapidly consumed by corporate interests, political pressure and the erosion of editorial independence.
After a 24-year tenure in the anchor chair of the “CBS Evening News,” Rather did not depart quietly. “They sacrificed support for independent journalism for corporate financial gain, and in so doing, I think they undermined a lot at CBS News,” he told CNN’s Larry King in 2007. “Somebody, sometime, has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news.” Rather filed an unsuccessful $70 million lawsuit against the network, and in the years that followed, he delivered a series of prescient warnings about the chilling effects of political appeasement.
Rather remained adamant, even through reputational degradation, that the real threat to journalism wasn’t liberal bias or declining ratings, but the corrosive takeover of the fourth estate by corporate and ideological power. Now, two decades later, CBS News has reached the end of a long corridor he warned us would lead to disaster.
Despite the narrative pushed by the right-wing campaign against him — which was led by Bush’s White House — Rather remained adamant, even through reputational degradation, that the real threat to journalism wasn’t liberal bias or declining ratings, but the corrosive takeover of the fourth estate by corporate and ideological power. Now, two decades later, CBS News has reached the end of a long corridor he warned us would lead to disaster.
This morning it was announced that Paramount, CBS’s parent company, has named Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief of CBS News. A former New York Times opinion page editor who resigned after she claimed to have been “silenced” amidst the George Floyd protests in 2020, Weiss went on to found the Free Press on Substack. With roughly 1.5 million subscribers, of which 170,000 are paid, the newsletter built its audience on contrarian opinion columns and critiques of “the woke left.” Weiss has cultivated a reputation as a reasonable dissident, eliding outright partisanship and granting her the appearance of neutrality while claiming the mantle to question progressive orthodoxy.
In a letter to Free Press subscribers, Weiss promised to deliver more of the same in her new role at CBS News. Describing the newsletter’s acquisition and her new position as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she noted the move “gives The Free Press a chance to help reshape a storied media organization—to help guide CBS News into a future that honors those great values that underpin The Free Press and the best of American journalism. And in doing so, to bring our mission to millions of people.”
Part of her mission at the Tiffany Network will be to tackle “illiberalism emanating from our fringes.” Weiss wrote, “On the one hand, an America-loathing far left. On the other, a history-erasing far right. These extremes do not represent the majority of the country, but they have increasing power in our politics, our culture, and our media ecosystem. Overlooked by all these so-called interlocutors are the enormous numbers of smart, politically mixed, pragmatic Americans. The people who believe, unapologetically, in the American project.”
On Thursday, the New York Times reported that Paramount’s acquisition of the conservative outlet would value Weiss’ operation at around $150 million. That’s quite the leap for a 41-year-old first made famous for her role in the battle for academic freedom in the Middle East Studies Department at Columbia University. At the same time Rather’s controversial reporting was challenging a sitting president, Weiss led a campus campaign designed to ruin the careers of Arab professors by equating their criticisms of Israel with anti-Semitism. Decades later, Weiss’ Free Press repeatedly criticized CBS News’ coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Weiss appears to have been hand-picked for the position by tech billionaire Larry Ellison, whose company Skydance recently purchased CBS through a purchase of its parent company, Paramount — and whose Oracle Corporation was just handed virtual control of TikTok in the U.S. by President Donald Trump. The Free Press’ stridently pro-Israel coverage, focusing on U.S.-centered culture wars, like criticizing campus protests rather than the bombing campaign or famine in Gaza, made Weiss an ideal candidate for Ellison’s apparent vision to reshape the global narrative around Israel’s war ahead of the third anniversary of Oct. 7.
Ellison, a former Democrat turned top Trump donor, is one of the world’s largest financial supporters of Israel’s military forces. His recent purchases of Paramount and TikTok signal that he will seek to use his massive new media footprint to maintain an environment where U.S. support for Israel remains strong, even while the American public’s support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nentanyah’s government is drastically declining. Weiss, for her part, is said to report directly to Ellison’s son, David, the chief executive of the new Paramount Skydance company — and whom she thanked profusely in her letter — rather than CBS News president Tom Cibrowsk, who is reportedly preparing to lay off up to 10% of CBS News’ staff in the coming weeks.
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“The fact that we don’t have money to pay journalists, but we have money to pay Bari Weiss between $100 and 200 million is indicative of what the Ellisons’ true goal here is,” one network correspondent told the Independent. “And it’s not journalism.”
CBS staff, according to reporting, worry that bringing in Weiss will reduce the willingness of the network to maintain a modicum of editorial independence to cover pro‑Palestinian views in a balanced manner. Some see Weiss as likely to tamp down coverage of Gaza or to emphasize narratives that align with the Israeli government’s ideology.
Despite having zero broadcast news experience, Weiss will oversee the Tiffany Network’s storied “60 Minutes” program. Earlier this year, several of the show’s top executives resigned after Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement with Trump, who had sued the network over the program’s October 2024 interview with then‑Vice President Kamala Harris. Despite the fact that CBS followed standard journalistic practices, Trump alleged the interview was edited in a way that falsely portrayed her responses — and gave her an advantage over him. Now, after the settlement and ahead of the official change in leadership, CBS News is now reportedly negotiating a potential “60 Minutes” sit-down with the president. Last month, the network named Kenneth Weinstein, the CEO of a conservative think tank and one-time Trump appointee, as the ombudsman for CBS News.
“I think the ombudsman, Bari Weiss, and the impending massive layoffs that are coming in a couple of weeks have everyone just kind of freaking out, like, literally freaking out,” another CBS journalist told the Independent. “It’s not a good place right now. There was a proper way to do this and a not proper way, and they’re doing it in the non-proper way, and maybe that’s by design.”
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Ultimately, Ellison’s megacorporation needs regulatory approval from Trump’s administration, and Weiss’ elevation is likely meant to appease the president’s complaints about ideological diversity. By bringing in a high‑profile critic of progressive media bias, CBS News can plausibly argue that it’s trying to include conservative perspectives. It’s a strategic move to reshape CBS News’ identity from the independence of the Rather era. Notably, it comes as the Washington Post, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, issued a new directive that the paper’s opinion section emphasize “personal liberties and free markets” — a rightward shift that has prompted high-profile exits from several longtime columnists, including Eugene Robinson and Ruth Marcus.
The capture of CBS News by a Trump-aligned billionaire and a culture warrior with an editorial agenda is not just a sign of media decay. It’s a sign that democracy’s referees are being replaced by players. The supposed watchdogs are now operatives. Dan Rather knew this was coming. He warned us that once news organizations are fully absorbed by corporate and political interests, they stop telling truth to power — and start laundering power’s version of the truth.
“I still know many people there, and I’m not ashamed to say that my heart is still there and probably always will be in a way, but this is an extremely tough time for them,” Rather recently said of CBS News. Speaking last month to SiriusXM host Andy Cohen, the legendary journalist lamented Ellison’s takeover. “It’ll be interesting to see how much, if any, pressure the new owners put on them to change the coverage to be more pro-Trump than to [be] independent news.”
