Free Press founder Bari Weiss was just named editor-in-chief at CBS News after CBS owner Paramount and its CEO David Ellison acquired her center-right Substack publication for $150 million. There’s a lot to say about why this happened, what it means for a person with no news reporting experience and no experience in broadcast journalism taking over one of the fabled jewels of journalism—and what it portends to hand this power to a fierce critic of “woke” politics and culture who’s hesitant to attack the escalating authoritarianism of Donald Trump.
I spoke about this with the incisive Merrill Brown, a former television network executive, editor and media reporter. He was the founding editor-in-chief of MSNBC.com and the founding director of the Montclair State University’s School of Communication and Media. I hope you find his insights as valuable as I did.
