On Friday's All In show, MSNBC's Chris Hayes and Alex Wagner freaked out over news that independent journalist Bari Weiss will be named as editor in chief of CBS News and worried that it would become like state TV under her leadership.
Wagner, invoking her time working for CBS News, denied CBS's history of personal bias affecting their reporting, claiming that the outfit separates opinion and journalism like church and state.
Hayes set up the segment:
We know what it looks like when a country's leader takes over the free and independent press. It's something we've covered here repeatedly -- authoritarian governments either seizing control of news outlets or managing to kind of take them over through ostensibly legal means while consolidating power. And we know what to look for. This week, we've learned about a change in leadership at one of our country's biggest news outlets -- one of its most storied and famous -- that's raising a lot of eyebrows.
Hayes recalled that Weiss would be appointed to the position, and then added:
Now, I've got to say, Bari Weiss is not the first or second or even 50th person you would consider for a role like editor of CBS News. This is someone who has never even worked in news. She's worked almost exclusively in what you might consider opinion journalism. And don't get me wrong, that's fine -- there's nothing wrong with it. I'm an opinion journalist -- I've made my whole career in it. I like opinion journalism. But you wouldn't hire me to run a news division.
After linking the choice to the FCC allowing Paramount and Skydance to merge, the MSNBC host intoned:
And announcing Bari Weiss as the new editor in chief of CBS suggests one possibility we face here is that the news division's direction could start to resemble what we have seen concretely in other places -- countries like Hungary or Turkey where you have these tentpole legacy media properties that are purchased by regime allies who then turn them into regime media.
He then brought aboard Wagner -- who went from MSNBC to CBS and eventually back to MSNBC -- and brought up an interview Wagner did in Hungary about the state exerting influence over the media. Wagner -- who was so biased in her first stint at MSNBC that she once, while interviewing Chelsea Clinton, bizarrely asked her to adopt her and put her in a bag -- claimed that CBS was never biased when she was there and called the recent changes a "partisan takeover."
After being asked by Hayes if Weiss's selection was "weird," Wagner responded:
...it's not weird -- it makes total sense when you're thinking about it in the context of a total takeover -- a partisan takeover of a legacy institution like CBS News. As someone who worked there coming from MSNBC, I can tell you there is no experience that I can recall that was as much of a sort of -- there is such a church and state between opinion and news at a place like CBS, and it prides itself on being a place where, you know, the filter is strong and tight against opinion and personal views.
It's like she never watched Steve Kroft lob softballs at Barack Obama, all their "Syrupy Minutes."
After complaining about several recent moves by CBS, and complaining that Weiss has "a very clear agenda," she concluded: "...it is a stunning chain of events, Chris, as someone who worked there and saw the degree to which they held their nonpartisanship and their sort of -- their news history, the home of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite -- like that is the CBS brand. It's shocking to see."
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes
October 3, 2025
8:52 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS HAYES: We know what it looks like when a country's leader takes over the free and independent press. It's something we've covered here repeatedly -- authoritarian governments either seizing control of news outlets or managing to kind of take them over through ostensibly legal means while consolidating power. And we know what to look for.
This week, we've learned about a change in leadership at one of our country's biggest news outlets -- one of its most storied and famous -- that's raising a lot of eyebrows. The Washington Post now reports the newly merged media giant Paramount/Skydance -- which was allowed to merge from the FCC -- is expected to announce Monday it will pay $150 million in cash and stock for the online publication, The Free Press, and name its founder, Bari Weiss, to CBS News's top editorial job, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Now, I've got to say, Bari Weiss is not the first or second or even 50th person you would consider for a role like editor of CBS News. This is someone who has never even worked in news. She's worked almost exclusively in what you might consider opinion journalism. And don't get me wrong, that's fine -- there's nothing wrong with it. I'm an opinion journalist -- I've made my whole career in it. I like opinion journalism. But you wouldn't hire me to run a news division.
The news of her new position comes after we learned that the entire Paramount/Skydance deal was closely overseen by FCC chair Brendan Carr. FCC had to approve the merger and with a very obvious set of concessions and agreements made to allow it. And so David Ellison -- who's son of Oracle co-founder and big Trump supporter Larry Ellison -- is going to run Skydance now that parent company CBS put Bari Weiss in front of the news there -- as Larry Ellison himself prepares to take a huge stake in TikTok which the government is overseeing a sale of.
And announcing Bari Weiss as the new editor in chief of CBS suggests one possibility we face here is that the news division's direction could start to resemble what we have seen concretely in other places -- countries like Hungary or Turkey where you have these tentpole legacy media properties that are purchased by regime allies who then turn them into regime media.
Alex Wagner is an MSNBC senior political analyst who worked at CBS and Paramount for nearly six years. Earlier this year, she covered protests in Hungary, and she talked to media professionals there about how the regime overtook broadcasters to replace news with propaganda, and she joins me now. Alex, you're the first person I talk to because of your reporting in Hungary. Before we get to that, I want to play a clip, like, did you have the same reaction I have? Which is -- and this is no shade at Bari Weiss at all in terms of what her particular talents or abilities might be -- but when I saw that, I just thought to myself, like, this is a very weird hire for a place that's just been taken over with these very specific set of concessions made to a, you know, Brendan Carr -- the same guy who tried to run Jimmy Kimmel off air -- this individual who doesn't really have news experience to run one of the most storied news organizations in the country.
ALEX WAGNER: Yeah, I mean, it's not weird -- it makes total sense when you're thinking about it in the context of a total takeover -- a partisan takeover of a legacy institution like CBS News. As someone who worked there coming from MSNBC, I can tell you there is no experience that I can recall that was as much of a sort of -- there is such a church and state between opinion and news at a place like CBS, and it prides itself on being a place where, you know, the filter is strong and tight against opinion and personal views. And that's, I think, the reason people work at CBS.
It doesn't have the biggest budgets, but it has the reputation, and this -- the events of the last year -- the capitulation of CBS -- the shameful decision on the part of Shari Redstone to take money over principle and uphold journalistic ethics by doing a deal with effectively the Trump organization -- the Trump organization -- the Trump White House and Brendan Carr to get a multimillion-dollar merger approved; the firing of Stephen Colbert; the hiring of an ombudsman who's a Trump lackey to mind the store, if you will, on behalf of Trump and his agenda; and now the appointment of someone who has a very clear agenda, no experience, and is clearly aligned with the values of the new CBS.
I mean, it's just -- it is a stunning chain of events, Chris, as someone who worked there and saw the degree to which they held there nonpartisanship and their sort of -- their news history, the home of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite -- like that is the CBS brand. It's shocking to see.
