October 7, 2025

SASHA STONE: The NYT’s Mean Girl Cope Over Bari Weiss and CBS.

Here is how the author of the piece, Jessica Testa, covers Bari Weiss’s exit from the New York Times:

In its nearly 100 years, CBS has not seen a leader quite like Ms. Weiss. Neither has the media industry. Ms. Weiss, 41, has ascended the mountain of journalism on a slingshot. In 2020, she publicly resigned as an opinion writer and editor at The New York Times to start a newsletter on Substack. Today, she has one of the most prestigious jobs in news.

Oh, is that what happened? She publicly resigned? I think there is a little more to the story, Ms. Testa. You know, that whole thing about how the New York Times lost its mind one night because of a massive Twitter hissy fit? Any of that ring a bell?

She then writes:

She achieved this without climbing the typical journalistic career ladder, and with no experience directing television coverage. She is richer in social clout than in Emmys or Pulitzers. And she is known more for wanting to rid the world of so-called wokeness than for promoting journalistic traditions. While newsroom leaders do not traditionally trumpet their personal beliefs, Ms. Weiss has described herself as a “left-leaning centrist,” a “radical centrist,” “a gay woman who is moderately pro-choice” — she is married to Nellie Bowles, a former Times reporter who is a co-founder of The Free Press — and a proud recipient of the label “Zionist fanatic.”

I laughed out loud reading the line, “newsroom leaders do not traditionally trumpet their personal beliefs.” They don’t? Since when? As far as I can tell, all of the major legacy news outlets have done nothing BUT trumpet their personal beliefs.

And let’s not forget this line, “And she is known more for wanting to rid the world of so-called wokeness than for promoting journalistic traditions.”

So-called wokeness? You mean it hasn’t gutted American culture and transformed it into cult-like, identity-obsessed dogma with pregnant men, chest-feeders, DEI mandates, sensitivity readers, and intimacy coordinators? Emptied out the box office, crushed television ratings, and sent voters fleeing the Democratic Party like rats off a sinking ship?

That’s the way Jessica Testa believes Bari Weiss “won,” by defeating “so-called wokeness,” and that, along with her billionaire pals, landed her a job at CBS News. That is what I call an act of bad journalism, Ms. Testa, because you left out the best part of the story: the truth.

Read the whole thing.

As Andrew Stiles writes at the Washington Free Beacon, the collective meltdown over Weiss is particularly telling, given how it could be just as easily framed by those in the legacy media: Liberal Media, Activists Silent as Bari Weiss Makes LGBTQ History at CBS News.

Bari Weiss made history this week as the first openly LGBTQ journalist to lead a major network newsroom. Paramount announced Monday that Weiss, the former New York Times opinion writer who founded the Free Press, would serve as editor in chief of CBS News. Alas, the landmark achievement was largely ignored by media outlets and LGBTQ activist groups that purport to celebrate diversity and inclusion.

Stories from the legacy wire services, Reuters and the Associated Press, did not even mention that Weiss was gay and happily married to Free Press cofounder Nellie Bowles. Neither does CNN’s report on Weiss’s new role at CBS News. The New York Times briefly mentions toward the end of its story that Weiss is married to Bowles, a former Times reporter, but does not address the historic implications for LGBTQ representation in mainstream media.

At Red State, Ward Clark asks: Is Bari Weiss Bringing Respectability Back to the Legacy Media?

Bari Weiss is not exactly a mainstream conservative. She describes herself as a “left-leaning centrist.” But it’s not her political views that are in the forefront here, but rather her journalistic skills and integrity – and her leadership ability. She’s facing a big, bloated organization with many entrenched legacy media adherents. It’s not an easy job ahead. The beast may well try to devour her, but Bari Weiss seems to understand that when you’re riding a tiger, the trick is to keep a good grip on its ears.

We wish her the best of luck at CBS. Maybe she’ll be able to turn them around.

Good luck — there are many, many deck chairs on this Titanic:

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll