Paramount Buys the Free Press, Names Bari Weiss CBS News Chief

Paramount Skydance Corp. acquired the online news site the Free Press and named founder Bari Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News, a move likely to stir controversy inside and outside of the venerable news organization.

Weiss, 41, will report to Paramount Chief Executive Officer David Ellison and oversee the editorial direction of a news division whose programs include the prestigious 60 Minutes and CBS News Sunday Morning. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but other outlets have reported the acquisition values the Free Press at about $150 million.

“Bari is a proven champion of independent, principled journalism, and I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News,” Ellison said in a statement on Monday. “This move is part of Paramount’s bigger vision to modernize content and the way it connects – directly and passionately – to audiences around the world.”

To discuss how Weiss' selection could change CBS News, hosts Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec speak with Katie Fallow, Deputy Litigation Director for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek
with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Paramount Skydance officially announced that it's acquiring the online news
site The Free Press and naming a founder, Barry Weiss,
editor in chief of CBS News. It's a move likely
to stirt controversy inside and outside the venerable news organization.
Weiss is forty one years old. She's going to report
to Paramount CEO David Ellison. He's forty two years old.
He's a film producer. He's the son of software billionaire

(00:34):
Larry Ellison, who's one of the wealthiest people in the world.
She will oversee the editorial direction of a news division
whose programs include the prestigious sixty Minutes and CBS News
Sunday Morning. For more, we bring in a Katie follow
she's back with us. She's a deputy litigation director at
the night First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Her specialty
is threats to free speech and a free press in

(00:55):
the digital age. She joins US from New York. More
consolidation within the meetia industry, a media industry that is
already under lots of pressure, especially legacy media. But in
this case, it's legacy media marrying an upstart news organization
that started on substack after Barry Weiss left the New
York Times because she said she didn't have the freedom

(01:16):
to essentially publish what she wanted. How do you look
at a deal such as this in the context of
everything happening when it comes to the First Amendment, Katie, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
I think this the deal and the appointment of Barry
Weiss to be the head of CBS News raises a
number of questions about the media, media consolidation, free speech,
and the Trump administration, which I think you can't read
out of the picture here. Standing on its own, the

(01:45):
decision of Paramounts Guide Dance to acquire an upstart newsletter
or to appoint a new person as the head of
its news division CBS News Division on their own wouldn't
necessarily raly be big news in my view, because as
a private company they have the right to acquire whatever

(02:08):
news outlets they want, and a point whoever they want
to be the head of their CBS flagship news program. However,
I think you need to see this in the context
of a number of moves that Paramount has made in
the past year, and you have to see all of
this in the context of the Trump administration, and I

(02:30):
think what it raises the question of whether media companies
are changing their news coverage in order to appease the
Trump administration.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
All right, so are they?

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Well? I mean, I think, you know, if you take
each individual fact, maybe it doesn't prove that. But I
think if you see this recent move in light of
Paramount's decision before the merger to settle what was playing
a frivolous lawsuit brought by President Trump based on the

(03:06):
airing by sixty minutes of an edited version of its
interview with Kamala Harris and by all accounts, including by
CBS News's accounts and their lawyer's accounts, this was a
frivolous lawsuit that shouldn't have gone anywhere, and CBS had
a very strong First Amendment argument to get the case dismissed.

(03:29):
But then Paramount went ahead and settled this after not
just the lawsuit, but the Federal Communications Commission under Brendan
Carr Chairman Brendan Carr was investigating this same airing of
the Kamala Harris interview. So you have pressure coming to

(03:50):
bear from both Trump personally and from the Federal Communications Commission.
And I think it's been pretty widely reported that the
understanding is that PARAMOUNTS settled this case in order to
get approval for its merger. And I think you can
see the appointment of a you know, well known critic

(04:10):
of at least some parts of the left, Barry Weiss,
and you know, taking that into you know, coupled with, uh,
the appointment of an ombudsman who is from a conservative
think tank. Uh. You know, you look look at all
of those data points, and it suggests that CBS is

(04:31):
moving or Paramount is moving CBS in a different direction
in order to either appease Trump or to not draw
the ire of the Trump administration and it's regulatory agencies.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
So Kate, you know, Katie, we've talked about this, Tim
and I about kind of the fiduciary responsibility of anybody
who runs a public entity, right, So you know, I
kind of get some of this from that side or
from that Having said that, one of the things that
I think we've talked about, certainly in our own newsroom
or just among ourselves is this idea of you know,

(05:10):
the White House has been very specific or out there
that if they don't necessarily like a media organization, that
they will ban you. And so is it better in
terms of protecting free speech or making sure that everybody
can cover the White House that they play ball a
little bit and maybe aren't as combative, or are we

(05:33):
in doing that giving up what is such a core
of America, and that is the right to freedom of
speech and the free press to keep politicians accountable.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah. I mean, it's true that there may be tension
between the fiduciary duty or the profit seeking purpose of
private companies or you know, publicly held or whatever, just
private corporation which have one goal of you know, maximizing
profits versus free speech, which has the goal of ensuring

(06:10):
that people are allowed to say what they want free
from government interference. And as you mentioned, really critically the
role of the press in covering the government in a
fair and accurate way without you know, a thumb on
the scale from government pressure. So I think those could

(06:31):
be seen in tension with one another. On the other hand,
I think that and that is something that Frankly, yeah,
oh yeah, Frankly from the perspective of media consolidation. I
think that could have a negative impact on free speech,
and I think it's really important that companies and news

(06:51):
outlets resist that pressure.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
All Right, Katie, we know we will continue with you
in the future. Katie Fallow, Deputy Litigation Director the Night
First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Joining us here right
on Bloomberg BusinessWeek Daily monitoring the White House