Bari Weiss's ascent at CBS News was 50 years in the making | David Sirota and Jared Jacang Maher

"If you only just started paying attention to the inner workings of the media industry, you might think America's information environment transformed overnight. In the past few months, a president extracted settlements from media giants as his apparatchiks vowed state retribution against his opponents all as they defunded public media at a time when the president's biggest boosters own the algorithms that decide what information is amplified and suppressed."

"And now, a media industry billionaire has placed CBS News under the control of the conservative provocateur Bari Weiss, who is empowered to shroud her culture war and oligarch-friendly economics in what she calls journalism that is fair, fearless, and factual."

"Sketched out in never-before-reported documents, this plot aimed to destroy accountability journalism and make news outlets into champions rather than adversaries of power. If that seems like exaggeration, consider that almost exactly 50 years before Weiss's appointment, CBS's own president was boasting of his support for a conservative, antidemocratic political project and bragging about his efforts to shift his news division's media coverage away from scrutinizing corporate power."

Recent months featured a president extracting settlements from media giants, apparatchiks threatening state retribution, and defunding of public media while major boosters control amplification algorithms. Media consolidation produced ever-larger behemoths; some companies muzzled White House critics seeking presidential favors, and the White House reportedly brokered a social platform transfer to billionaire allies. A media billionaire placed CBS News under Bari Weiss, enabling conservative cultural and oligarch-friendly economic framing labeled 'fair, fearless, and factual' journalism. The shift reflects a half-century scheme, based on previously unrevealed documents, designed to destroy accountability journalism and convert news outlets into champions of power.

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