Mon Blogcast: Bari Weiss/CBS; Israel/Hamas; Broncos win! Local elections
October 6, 2025
WOW: Bari Weiss is now editor-in-chief of CBS News
This has been rumored for a while but it's official now as Paramount buys The Free Press: The Future of The Free Press - by Bari Weiss
Paramount Buys Bari Weiss’s the Free Press for $150 Million - WSJ
Not only is Paramount (owner of CBS) buying Bari Weiss's "The Free Press" website and organization but it has named her editor-in-chief of CBS News.
I have been a subscriber almost since the beginning, before it was even called The Free Press. It has been a transformative thing for journalism in the past few years, in my opinion, and it makes me think that I -- although with much less lofty ambitions -- should be more aggressive on building up my own Substack. (Please do subscribe at http://rosskaminsky.substack.com. It's free and probably worth more than that! Substack itself is using today's news as a talking point to drive more people to start their own media outlets on their platform: The home for media startups - by Hamish McKenzie)
This will be the first of the old-line broadcast networks to take on a leader who is overtly opposed to the left-wing dominance of those outlets that we've suffered through for the past generation. I don't think that CBS will become Fox but I do think it will become, to use a Fox term, much more fair and balanced. It will be VERY interesting to see how that works out in ratings for CBS News, including their flagship "60 Minutes" program.
Bari and team know there are questions. From the article linked above:
If you have been here from the start, you might have questions. Wasn’t The Free Press started precisely because the old media institutions had failed? Isn’t the whole premise of this publication that we need to build anew? Why flee The New York Times only to head back into another legacy institution?
The answers are worth reading. Here are two paragraphs of many:
If the illiberalism of our institutions has been the story of the last decade, we now face a different form of illiberalism emanating from our fringes. On the one hand, an America-loathing far left. On the other, a history-erasing far right. These extremes do not represent the majority of the country, but they have increasing power in our politics, our culture, and our media ecosystem.
And:
What does this mean for CBS News? It means a redoubled commitment to great journalism. It means building on a storied legacy—and bringing that historic newsroom into 2025 and beyond. Most of all, it means working tirelessly to make sure CBS News is the most trusted news organization in the world.
Just One Thing: Antisemitism in America
I have a personal question for you at the end of this section...
Survey: Most Jewish Americans say antisemitism now part of daily life
I haven't personally faced any significant act of antisemitism in recent years, and maybe in my lifetime, except for a couple of emails from idiots whom I promptly ignore. But it really is all around us and it's getting particularly bad among young people.
I mentioned the other day that one of my kid's community college professors told the class that Israel is committing genocide (which is manifestly false and simply another blood libel against Jews.) Turns out that it was more than one of the professors and my kid isn't in any class that revolves around current events or history or politics or religion in any way.
Check out page 48 re support for Hamas among young people, primarily Democrats: HHP_July_2025_KeyResults.pdf
Support for Israel continues to deteriorate, especially among Democrats and young people | Brookings
So, here's the question: My high-school kid asked about putting an Israeli "Star of David" flag sticker on his car. I am very torn but my gut instinct is not to do it because of the risk to himself and to his car. Antisemites today including, I'm sure, lots of high school kids, are propagandized, energized, and likely to do something stupid. As much as I appreciate the important moral position of supporting good over evil, I think the risk of putting the sticker on the car exceeds the reward. My son, though, wants to be very up-front about supporting Israel over terrorists and their supporters and enablers. What do you think? email me at ross(at)iheartmedia(dot)com and let me know.
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Quite a win for the Broncos
The Denver Broncos, being in the AFC West, don't play the NFC East's Philadelphia Eagles very often, and of course only some fraction of those games are in Philadelphia. In fact, Sunday was only the 15th time the Broncos have gone to Philly and with their gritty come-from-behind win the Broncos notched their first win in Philly in almost 40 years.
The win, combined with a Chargers loss yesterday, has the Broncos tied for the lead in the AFC West. The Kansas City Chiefs play tonight in a game they should win against Jacksonville, which would then create a 3-way tie atop the division of 3-2 teams. (At the moment, the Chargers have the tie-breaker, though, having beaten the Broncos. These teams meet again for what might end up being an important game, in the final regular-season game of the year.)
Broncos vs. Eagles Series History: When was the last time Denver won in Philly? - Yahoo Sports
Broncos shock Eagles 21-17 for signature win of Sean Payton era | 3 takeaways - Denver Gazette
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Today's Guests
James Reeman is a Board member at Wings Over the Rockies. He's a former F-16 pilot with 31 years in the Air National Guard and currently a pilot with a major US airline.
We'll talk about the big event coming up at Wings Over the Rockies to celebrate the Marine Corps' 250th birthday
Event link: Semper250.com
Museum link: Wings Over The Rockies
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Stephanie Piko is the Mayor of Centennial (and a graduate of the Leadership Program of the Rockies.) With ballots soon to be mailed out, we'll talk a bit about local elections and how you might get a better sense of who you'd want to support when you're operating with relatively little information.
For Centennial specifically: Defend Centennial
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Other Stuff
I have no idea whether they’re being too aggressive. The optics aren’t good, though: Immigration agents use increasingly aggressive tactics in Chicago, alarming activists and residents | AP News
It doesn’t help the opponents of the aggressive enforcement when they “box in” ICE vehicles and overly threaten ICE agents. And it doesn’t help when the local police (reportedly…I’m not 100% sure on this) don’t respond to help when citizens are threatening/harassing federal law enforcement. That truly does invite Trump to send National Guard.
ICE spending money on ads pushing local law enforcement to get involved: ICE ad blitz aims to recruit for Trump mass deportation efforts | AP News
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The end of an era: The Fort, a historic landmark in Colorado, will be sold
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I don't know if I'm optimistic enough to call myself even cautiously optimistic because I'm not sure what's in it for Hamas to agree and I'm not even sure that the most radical fighters will go along if the bosses tell them to lay down their weapons. So I'll just call myself cautious.
I'm not sure what threat Trump thinks he's actually making when talking about "massive bloodshed." How is that different from what's already going on? (To be clear, I blame Hamas 100%. Israel is defending itself while doing more than any military has ever done to protect civilians even if there has never been a civilian population as complicit as the "Palestinians.")
Trump urges Gaza peace deal negotiators to "move fast" as meeting set to begin in Cairo - CBS News
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Did you know that Dave Chappelle is Muslim? I just learned that...
I don't know if it's more insane to say, while in Saudi Arabia, that the US has free speech problems (or even to suggest that the comedians can speak more freely in Saudi than in the US), or whether such a statement might be seen as having a grain of truth these days with Trump aggressively trying to get liberal late-night TV hosts fired for not being nice enough to him.
At Saudi Comedy Festival, American Free Speech Becomes the Punchline - The New York Times
Ben Shapiro skewers Chappelle (and others):
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Did you think about the government shutdown this weekend? Me neither. Trump, Republicans and Democrats still at impasse over government shutdown | AP News
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Makes sense to me, and I wish they'd have done this long ago. I also think that the American West doesn't live the same way the East Coast (or Europe) does. We tend to get up earlier and go to sleep earlier. Earlier start times: Arts organizations have seen the daylight - Denver Gazette
This is 10 years old but still an interesting graphic: Bedtime in America: Which Cities Stay Up The Latest?
In more recent data, CO is tied for 6th earliest avg bedtime: Life’s Essential 8 for Cardiovascular Health – Part 1, Sleep 7/29/2025 Update- Data – Apple Heart & Movement Study
And of course, Denver would drag the number later, so most of the rest of the state would be earlier. (That would be true in lots of states with big cities vs rural areas.)
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What an insane story: Ex-NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez stabbed multiple times in altercation leading to charges against him
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Not a surprise though I wish they did a breakdown among radio, TV, and newspapers rather than only lumping them all together. I suspect there's higher trust of radio than of TV, for example. Trust in Media at New Low of 28% in U.S.
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Fabulous: Woman’s self-penned obituary goes viral: ‘I died of FOMO’ | The Independent
The actual obit: Tribute – McCarthy, McKinney & Lawler
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For foreign policy and econ nerds, this is a good read: The Real China Model: Beijing’s Enduring Formula for Wealth and Power
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Good for her!
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Somewhat unusual for a judge to go with just what the defense wants, with no movement at all toward the higher sentence usually requested by the prosecution. Also interesting to note that the would-be assassin is now identifying as a female and the judge noted that as one reason to give the low-end sentence. If I were going to make an argument for a low-end sentence, it would be that the person did not actually commit the crime and turned himself in and seems truly remorseful.
Justice Kavanaugh's attempted assassin sentenced to 8 years in prison
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Let's see if other companies can figure this out as well... Sharpie Found a Way to Make Pens More Cheaply—By Manufacturing Them in the U.S. - WSJ
One of this term’s SCOTUS cases comes from Colorado: ‘Conversion Therapy’ at the High Court - WSJ
Trump cases dominate SCOTUS term (Semafor.com)
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Today's Video
The speed at which generative AI is improving is almost unimaginable. Will create massive opportunities for creativity and business...and massive risks of fraud and perhaps unemployment for actors and writers.
OpenAI’s social video app Sora makes fake clips of real people - The Washington Post