Liberal journalists exploded after Barry Weiss joined CBS News as editor-in-chief

The appointment of Barry Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News sparked online buzz Monday from liberal journalists and media personalities.

Weiss, the classical liberal who He famously resigned After denouncing what it called its “illiberal environment” in 2020, The New York Times later launched an independent media company, The Free Press, in 2022.

She was named editor-in-chief of CBS News on Monday after Paramount announced it was acquiring The Free Press for $150 million.

Weiss has been criticized by some on the cultural left for The Free Press reporting that challenges DEI, gender ideology and media narratives against Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas.

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Commentators and journalists in liberal media were outraged by Weiss’ promotion to a powerful position and took to social media to claim that she was unqualified for the role and that her editorial leadership would undermine the credibility of CBS News.

In a Posted on blueskyMSNBC host Chris Hayes compared Weiss to Vice President J.D. Vance, saying, “Barry Weiss and J.D. Vance are very similar personalities with very similar skills.”

Andrew Lawrence, deputy director of rapid response at Media Matters, mocked Weiss in another clip Share Bluesky: “I’m Glenn Greenwald. I’m Kyle Rittenhouse. I’m an AI-generated talking baby meme. I’m Barry Weiss, all those stories tonight on 60 Minutes.”

New York Times columnist Jamil Bouie He criticized her promotion As a “Hall of Fame fraud,” she wrote, “Five years ago Barry Weiss was trying, unsuccessfully, to get herself fired. Now she runs CBS News. That’s some Michael Jordan—.”

Barry Weiss joins CBS News as editor-in-chief, and Paramount buys free press for $150 million

“Anyway, we look forward to Barry Weiss restoring ‘Trust in the News’ where ‘Trust in the News’ means pumping propaganda to your oligarch,” he added in another post.

HuffPost deputy editor Phil Lewis argued that the appointment would promote “a rightward shift in the media’s most popular newsrooms,” while the left-leaning cultural blog Defector mocked CBS’ decision, calling it a step toward the “Vichy era.”

In a scathing post, dissident staffer Patrick Redford wrote that The Free Press is “only moving down and to the left” and criticized Weiss as having “the heart of a cop and the mind of a tadpole.”

Leaning to the left Slate magazine He similarly predicted that Weiss’s takeover would be a “disaster.”

“Vice has built a career against ‘wokeness,'” warned writer Nitish Pahwa, “and its critics fear that this might mean CBS News is more sympathetic to its causes: more unqualified support for Israel, more hostility to the ‘left,’ more ‘crossfire-style debates’ about popular nuisances like Zahran Mamdani and gender-affirming care.”

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Within CBS News, some employees reportedly reacted with dismay and concern about Weiss’ arrival. One reporter said The Independent“People use words like doomsday and doomsday — it sounds like some kind of doomsday.”

Reports of the deal first appeared last month on Puck News, Stirring up anger From liberal journalists.

Status newsletter author Oliver Darcy, formerly of CNN, lamented the impending deal, warning that it would “further erode” trust in CBS News among its viewers.

“David Ellison has vowed not to politicize Paramount — yet his first big move at CBS News is a big bet on Barry Weiss, one of the most polarizing figures in media,” Darcy began his newsletter Wednesday night. “Fiercely pro-Israel, proudly counter-cultural, Vice has built its brand on polarizing political commentary — presumably the kind of material Ellison has indicated to reporters he wants to escape from.”

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Likewise, HuffPost described Weiss as “the polarizing editor of The Free Press” in its report, and said the pending acquisition “offers a preview of how Ellison, the son of one Trump’s biggest allyintends to form CBS News going forward.

She joined CBS at a time of turmoil in both the network and the broader media industry, weathering the controversy surrounding 60 Minutes and the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

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Paramount CEO David Ellison pledged that Weiss’ “entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will revitalize CBS News.”

“This is an important initiative for our company, and Barry will report directly to me — leading the work of The Free Press and collaborating with our CBS News team on the quest to make it the most trusted name in news,” Ellison said in a statement. “We believe the majority of the country craves balanced, fact-based news, and we want CBS to be their home.”

Fox News Digital We have reached out to Vice for comment.

Fox News’ Brian Flood and Joseph A. Wolfson contributed to this report.