With all the turmoil over free speech rights, I can’t believe Bari Weiss, co-founder of The Free Press, is considering selling out for millions to David Ellison, the new owner of CBS News, and taking the job of editor in chief or co-president of the network.

Weiss started The Free Press as an unflinching alternative to traditional media organizations. She positioned herself and The Free Press as brave, independent, dogged, fierce, provocative, high impact, committed to separating the signal from the noise. 

CBS is the network that caved when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused “Face the Nation” of deceptively editing an interview with her. Two days later, CBS announced the show would now air only interviews that are conducted live, or are prerecorded with no cuts or edits, giving away its editorial freedom. Editing interviews for clarity and brevity is a common practice in the news business. Removing that authority will just let politicians bloviate and eat up time.

It was CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, that was in the process of being taken over by Ellison, that settled an insane lawsuit with Donald Trump, agreeing to pay Trump $16 million over a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in which Trump alleged that the editing was intentionally deceptive to favor Democrats. As Anya Schiffrin, at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, has said, American media companies are demonstrating an unprecedented willingness to openly put their business interests ahead of their obligations to the public. “What’s happened in the last six months in the US is worse than anything we imagined,” she said.

It was Ellison who made commitments to the FCC that CBS’s “editorial decision-making reflects the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers”, that CBS would get rid of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and that CBS would create a new ombudsman position to review “any complaints of bias or other concerns.”

It was Ellison who appointed as that ombudsman Kenneth R. Weinstein, former head of a conservative-leaning Washington think tank, the Hudson Institute, who is likely to be a partisan enforcer. . 

It’s Ellison who, according to the Wall Street Journal,  wants to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery — the owner of Warner Bros. studios, HBO Max and cable news giant CNN, a deal that would require the approval of Trump’s regulators. What would Ellison, and Weiss, give to Trump to win that prize? Too much, I’m afraid.

At the September 21 memorial service for Charlie Kirk, Stephen Miller, the White House’s deputy chief of staff, said, “We will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil. They cannot conceive of the army that they have arisen in all of us.” Trump spoke about how much he hates his political foes. Trump has  said that the major TV networks have been overwhelmingly “negative” about him and suggested that “maybe their license should be taken away.” 

Trump went on to undercut a message of national cohesion, saying of Kirk, “He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them, That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them.”

Don’t think Trump and his minions won’t do all they can to continue to pressure and manipulate the mainstream media going forward. Does Bari really want to be part of that cowardly crew?