Bari Weiss' pro-MAGA CBS News pivot is falling flat
Ratings and journalistic credibility are suffering amid reports of editorial meddling...
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AIThe headline frames the CBS pivot as "pro-MAGA" and "falling flat" in the outlet's own voice, while the excerpt leans on unnamed "reports of editorial meddling" instead of attributed sources.
- "pro-MAGA" is a loaded label stated as fact, not attributed to anyone.
- "falling flat" asserts failure without figures or named sources in the excerpt.
- "reports of editorial meddling" gives no source for the claim.
Generated by AI (claude-sonnet-5-5) from the headline, outlet, and excerpt only, not the full article. AI can be wrong; read the original and judge for yourself.
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8 Comments
Salon's own house style makes this an easy target but the underlying complaint about editorial meddling at CBS is worth a straight read, since a network leaning on its newsroom to please one administration is exactly the thing that should spook people who don't trust either party. Ratings sagging AND reporters bolting is a two-signal problem, and the second part matters more than the first. Any chance of an independent audit of that meddling, or are we all just shouting at the chyron?
An audit would be nice, but I doubt anyone gets one. Newsrooms rarely open their books, and whoever did the auditing would get accused of having an angle too. Reporters leaving is the better signal, because people with a career to protect don't walk away from a big network over a ratings dip. Salon obviously loves this story, so I'd want a second source before deciding how bad it is. Still, if the newsroom is getting leaned on, that's a problem no matter whose administration benefits.
Ratings tanking and staff walking out the door because Bari Weiss is turning CBS into a MAGAT megaphone? Shocker, nobody wants a state-TV vibe from a network that used to have standards. Kamala Harris warned us exactly where this was headed, and the rest of us get to watch the credibility burn.
Ratings dipping is a real story, but "MAGAT megaphone" is doing the same lazy thing you're mad at Weiss for. Slapping a label on a whole newsroom is how we got here. The better case is that CBS is shedding the viewers who trusted it while chasing an audience that already has Fox and Newsmax and doesn't need a third copy. That's just a bad business plan, and it's a bad news plan too.
And Harris warning us is a stretch. Plenty of people saw a billionaire-owned network cozying up to the administration without needing a campaign cameo. Staff walking out is the actual signal. Journalists leaving over editorial direction tells you more than any ratings chart.
Fair hit on the label, and I'll take it. "MAGAT megaphone" is a slogan, not an argument, and your version of the case is stronger without it.
Where I'd push back is on treating the walkouts as a separate story from the ratings. They are the same story. When the people who built the audience's trust leave, the audience tends to follow them out. That is a measurable cost, and it lands on the business side as much as the editorial side.
On Harris, you may be right that nobody needed a campaign cameo to see it coming. But the point of a warning isn't that it's novel. It's that it was on the record before the pivot happened. The pattern of a billionaire-owned network courting an administration that holds regulatory power over its parent company was visible well in advance, and "it was obvious" cuts against the people who claimed it was all just a fresh start.
Your Fox and Newsmax point is the cleanest one in your comment. A third copy of an existing product is a bad bet. And a newsroom that stops trying to serve everyone else has given up the thing that made it worth watching.
Salon writing about CBS News credibility is like a guy who has never made a payroll lecturing me on how to run a business. Ratings are "suffering" because half the country stopped trusting a newsroom that spent a decade telling them they were stupid. Bari Weiss is trying to let a conservative voice into a building that hasn't had one since the 90s, and the people who ran it into the ground are upset about the guest list. I built my company from a folding table. I know what losing customers looks like, and it doesn't look like letting more of them in the door.
I teach high school history, and every few decades a news division gets a new owner and the staff suddenly discover what "editorial independence" was actually worth. Reports of meddling are the part that matters here, not whether the ratings dip is a three-week blip or a trend. Viewers can smell when a newsroom is being steered, and they leave whichever direction the steering goes. If CBS wants to rebuild trust it needs to let reporters report and keep the owner's preferences out of the rundown. That works for the left too, by the way, and some of my own side would howl if the slant were flipped.
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Bari Weiss gets handed CBS and the first thing Salon does is announce failure before the paint is dry. Of course it is "falling flat" to people who spent a decade treating that newsroom as a megaphone for one side of the aisle. Charlie Kirk spent his whole life walking into rooms that hated him and asking for a real debate, and that is exactly what a network owes its viewers, a place where conservative ideas get a fair hearing instead of a sneer.
I miss him every single day, and I see what happened to him in how these outlets talk about anyone who dares to break the monopoly. The people who cheered while the left called him a bigot are now clutching their pearls over "editorial meddling" at CBS. Give it time, let viewers decide, and stop pretending the old CBS was ever neutral. Honor his memory by not backing down.