Report: Bari Weiss Will Assume Editorial Control Over Basketcase Ratings-Disaster Partisan Spin-Shop CNN

Via Steven Miller, who's worried about Tater.

And what will happen to Fake Jake?

CBS News boss Bari Weiss is likely to gain editorial oversight of CNN if and when Paramount Skydance's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery is approved, according to a report.

Paramount executives are said to have held preliminary discussions with several candidates who would come in and run the business-side operations next to Weiss while she continues to oversee editorial.

The company is considering several big names, including current CNN CEO Mark Thompson, NBCUniversal News Group chairman Cesar Conde and former NBC News chief Noah Oppenheim, Axios reported.

Ben Sherwood, currently CEO of Daily Beast, and former CBS News president David Rhodes are also under consideration, according to the report.

The search implies that once the merger goes through, Weiss will also be put in charge of CNN's editorial operations, Axios said.

...

According to Axios, Ellison couldn't be more pleased with Weiss' performance thus far.

"The Paramount brass loves Bari Weiss," a source told the news site.

"She has the full confidence of David Ellison, who believes Bari has done a fantastic job as editor-in-chief."

...

Paramount Skydance's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has not yet closed, though both companies have said they expect the roughly $110 billion deal to be completed in the third quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approvals and any legal challenges.

Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have already approved the transaction, but the merger still faces scrutiny from antitrust regulators and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has said his office is reviewing the deal.

thanks to runner.

Fake Tapper knows that, like Pott Smelley, he'll be one of the first overpaid prima donna Theater Kid jokes to be fired by Bari Weiss, so he's preparing his Heroic Flounce.

CNN's The Lead host Jake Tapper leaned on his sanctimonious reputation late Wednesday afternoon as he devoted the first 14 minutes to huffing about CBS News firing longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley for his petulant reenactment of Pickett's Charge, thinking he could eviscerate his bosses and intimidate them in his "house."

For the second of three segments, Tapper turned to former ABC colleague Terry Moran and former CBS January 6 correspondent-turned-MeidasTouch host Scott MacFarlane. Both are now at Substack.

MacFarlane went first, declaring "[n]obody wins if 60 Minutes is damaged" because "[i]t's still one of those rare media entities, Jake, that can cut through the noise and cut through the clutter."

[Disgraced fake "journalist" now working for a Biden political PAC McFarlane] then embarrassingly referred to Pelley as "the living Mount Rushmore at CBS News" and that, speaking for himself, he wasn't known at CBS as "Scott" because that name had "reverence" reserved for Pelley.

"I'm surprised that anybody would get rid of a transcendent personality who can attract an audience or who is associated with the strength of a brand. You watch Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes. You knew you were going to get a comprehensive report. You never want to damage a brand by getting rid of the pillar of the entity," he further opined.

Scott Pelley was fired by CBS from the "anchor" position by Ben Rhodes' brother David Rhodes. For months, Rhodes schemed about how to solve "the Scott Pelley problem," as Sheryl Attkisson reported. She said that Pelley was "unpopular" at CBS because of his domineering incompetence, insisting on rewriting and censoring reporters' stories after, emptilly, assuring them that their reports would be the "stars" of the show.

She also made this funny quip about his preening, Look At Me ego:

Sharyl Attkisson @SharylAttkisson

Perhaps David Bloom put it best. "When Scott Pelley gets in line at Starbucks and orders coffee, he doesn't order what he really wants. He orders what he wants people behind him to hear him order."

Mount Rushmore? Seriously?

MacFarlane at least conceded much of 60 Minutes's large ratings are owed to its lead-in from NFL games.

...

The only explanation, [disgraced partisan lightweight fairy Terry Moran] argued, for the changes to the show are from Paramount Skydance boss David Ellison "want[ing] to curry favor with Trump."

Drool was missing from Moran's shirt as he said this about Pelley's fellow fired colleagues: "They fired Cecilia Vega and Sharon Alfonso, two fearless, bold journalists, troublemakers. I mean, in a good way, good trouble, right, as John Lewis used to say."

I can't help noticing they only made trouble for one political movement.

Tapper presented MacFarlane with the reality that "polls do suggest that the media trust is at an all-time low" and wondered if he saw any validity in that widespread belief in legacy media having "an anti-Trump spin, liberal spin."

MacFarlane scoffed, deriding the idea that those polls are legitimate or provide context:

...

Moran hurled predictable venom in his heart for half the country, arguing we're too partisan and stupid to appreciate what he believes is real journalism: "I think chasing MAGA audiences are a fool's errand because they don't want the kind of journalism that 60 Minutes does, which is in-depth and straight and fearless. They want the journalism that flatters their own prejudices."

Goodbye, Fake Jake! I got you a little going-away present:

Curtis Houck
@CurtisHouck

Jun 3

Jake Tapper just opened his show with a snarky commentary about how much he hates Bari Weiss and Nick Bilton for what they've done to Scott Pelley.

His panel to react? Former network correspondents-turned-Substackers Terry Moran (ABC) and Scott MacFarlane (CBS)

Curtis Houck
@CurtisHouck

Jun 3

WATCH: CNN's Jake Tapper opens his show with over 14 minutes melting down over CBS News, Bari Weiss, and Nick Bilton firing Scott Pelley....

Tapper: "Now, let's zoom out for a second to look at the core issues here and why this larger 60 Minutes overhaul may be happening because this story is relevant...

"[T]his is also a story of media consolidation and those who are trying to build big mega-companies in the environment where we have a President who is more than willing to impose his likes and dislikes on the regulatory world. Now, people close to Bari Weiss insists that the CBS overhaul is about culture, not politics. They think that 60 Minutes is an archaic institution that is in urgent need of reinvention. Bari Weiss argues that the news media needs to be fairer and needs to regain the public's trust, and her boss, David Ellison, says that CBS News needs to appeal to the 70 percent of the country that is in the political middle."

"On the other hand, what 60 Minutes defenders see as its strengths, the Bari Weiss individuals and executives see as potential shortcomings, and they're determined to rebuild this news magazine for a digital world in a vertical video age. But Scott Pelley and others at CBS, and others who used to be at CBS do think there's something more, something political behind this rebuild. They say that Paramount's new owners, with David Ellison at the top, are seeking a closer relationship with Donald Trump and his administration and that Ellison appointed Weiss to appease Trump and overhaul 60 Minutes, which Trump doesn't like, and all of CBS News, which Trump doesn't like."

"And this argument goes that all of this is happening in order to get approval of the purchase of Paramount last year by David Ellison's company and the pending purchase of Warner Bros Discovery any day now. And of course, we should note Warner Bros Discovery owns CNN. If you want to know one of the reasons why people keep suggesting that new ownership of these news organizations is behind wanting to curry favor with Trump, and that's one of the things driving all this, it's because of things that President Trump keeps saying, or Secretary Haggseff, just a few moments ago, President Trump said this to CNN's Kaitlin Collins...."

...

TAPPER: "A reminder that President Trump calls any reporting he doesn't like felt -- false, and any reporting he doesn't like garbage. Again, CBS News and Paramount reject the assertion of any political influence or interference."

So that's Fake Jake accusing Bari Weiss and Larry Ellison of making MAGA TV. He covers it with some he-said, she-said, but it's clear -- based on the number of words he devotes to each proposition, for one thing -- which side he's claiming is the truth.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:00 PM

| Access Comments