It’s a question we have to ask too often: How stupid do the nation’s top journalists think we are?
The latest New York Times scoop on new CBS Editor-In-Chief Bari Weiss has some literally unbelievable claims in it. Media reporters Michael Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin began:
Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News, surprised senior staff at the venerable news program 60 Minutes during a meeting on Tuesday when she asked a provocative question:
Why does the country think you’re biased?
The inquiry was met with stunned awkwardness, according to three people who recounted details from the private session in Midtown Manhattan. The staff of 60 Minutes, the nation’s most-watched news program, view their coverage as firmly nonpartisan and reject criticism from President Trump and his allies who argue that it has a liberal slant.
That is simply ridiculous. These people know what they’re making is partisan and liberal. That’s the way they love it. They call themselves “independent” as part of the con job. They know they went soft on Biden and rough on Trump, because that's what's "necessary."
You get a similar guffaw out of this passage: "Still unanswered is how Ms. Weiss plans to juggle her duties at The Free Press, a website she co-founded and runs that mixes opinion and reporting, with her editorial oversight of CBS News, where reporters are discouraged from openly expressing their political views."
Whoever “discourages” them is most obviously ignored.
Grynbaum and Mullin write as part of the liberal elite that Weiss’s “rise was powered in part by critiquing the practices of old-line mass media like CBS.” She dared to question the party-line practices. Even asking about a perception of bias is “stunning” and “awkward.”
Predictably, Weiss “complained about a flurry of leaks concerning her early tenure, urging executives to identify the leakers in the newsroom.” Seeking to change the partisan culture is going to create an army of angry anonymous leakers. The Times found ten for this story.
The Times added Weiss's Free Press has criticized CBS, like whacking their Kamala Harris edits -- they were "concocting a deception," editing to make her sound better. How dare them! Oh, but it gets worse:
The site also wrote admiringly about Catherine Herridge, an investigative reporter who parted ways with CBS News in 2024 after she said the network tried to interfere with a reporting assignment to cover Hunter Biden, a son of former President Joseph R. Biden. In recent weeks, Ms. Weiss consulted with Ms. Herridge, according to people familiar with their conversation.
And last year, The Free Press published a leaked audio recording of an internal CBS News editorial meeting and lambasted the network for a perceived anti-Israel bias.
Perceived!? The Free Press reported after internal turmoil over morning host Tony Dokoupil's grilling of leftist author Ta-Nehisi Coates: "There was an open debate in the meeting about whether it is 'fair to talk about whether Israel should exist at all.'" That's more than a "perceived" anti-Israel bias! If you believe Donald Trump doesn't have a right to live, that is more than a "perceived" anti-Trump bias.
Near the end, Grynbaum and Mullin nitpicked Weiss's social media posts, like mocking Zohran Mamdani: "CBS News declined to comment on whether Ms. Weiss’s expression of strong opinions on major news events ran afoul of its ethics rules, or belied CBS News’s efforts to appear nonpartisan."
Stop! You're making us laugh too hard. Let us catch out breath....
