October 13, 2025

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: John Oliver Slams Bari Weiss’ Takeover of CBS News: She’s ‘Spent Years Putting Out Work’ That ‘Is at Best Irresponsible and at Worst Deeply Misleading.’

“She’s been given editorial control of a massive news organization even though she’s never run a TV network, has no experience directing television coverage and, as one ’60 Minutes’ producer pointed out, is not even a reporter,” Oliver said. “That is true. She didn’t come up through the news side of a newspaper but through the opinion pages, which are a very different thing.”

Oliver then dissected her publication, the Free Press, which he said enforces a “pronounced theme” that “the left has gone too far.”

“Basically whatever issue you feel that is true for — Israel, campus politics, DEI or police reform — you’ll find articles there to reinforce your opinion,” he said. “And look, I’m not saying the left never goes too far or that it’s immune from criticism at all. But it can sometimes feel like the Free Press’ conclusions can get out ahead of its evidence, which brings us to the fact that some of its pieces can be pretty poorly fact-checked, and in ways that feel important.”

Though Oliver said that “there are many opinion-heavy outlets out there” — of which “Last Week Tonight” is one — he acknowledged that his show is “not the news.”

“I wouldn’t want anyone who led a pure opinion outlet, not even one that I happened to agree with, to suddenly be running CBS News,” he said. “But it is especially alarming to have someone doing it who has spent years putting out work that, in my opinion, is at best irresponsible and at worst deeply misleading.”

Actually, it should be a perfect fit in one sense — CBS has been “a pure opinion outlet” for over a decade longer than Oliver has been alive.

Exit question:

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll