Apropos of Nothing: Let’s Examine Bari Weiss’ History of ‘Doing the Fucking News’

The future of journalism has never felt more bleak.

By Audra Heinrichs  |  October 8, 2025 | 11:49am
Photo: Getty Images In DepthPolitics
Apropos of Nothing: Let’s Examine Bari Weiss’ History of ‘Doing the Fucking News’

On Monday, Bari Weiss was named editor-in-chief of CBS News after parent company Paramount Skydance acquired The Free Press—a substack Weiss started in 2020 that eventually became the website—in a reported $150 million deal. While the conservative journalist, author, and podcast host will now report directly to Paramount CEO David Ellison, The Free Press will continue as a separate entity. If none of this elicits an immediate expulsion of your last meal, allow me to explain why it should.

For starters, Weiss—a self-designated “Zionist fanatic”—rose to prominence in the last decade via the mass production of ill-informed op-eds criticizing any leftist causes or ideological framework. Naturally, this included the degradation of gender affirming care (J.K. Rowling was the subject of Weiss’s podcast, The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling); intersectionality (in her words: a “caste system, in which people are judged according to how much their particular caste has suffered throughout history.”); and anyone who decried Libs of TikTok-led attacks on LGBTQ+ people (in 2022, Weiss accused Twitter of “censoring” Chaya Raichik’s deliberately inflammatory and dangerous account).

Despite her support of free speech, Weiss didn’t last more than three years as a staff editor and writer for the Opinion section of the New York Times due to the well-earned criticism she received for her relentless right-wing gobbledygook. In her memorable resignation letter, published on her Substack in 2020, Weiss blamed “unlawful discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge” and “caving to the whims of critics on Twitter” for her departure.

Weiss’ tenure at the Wall Street Journal also invited scrutiny for her belabored stances on the “PC police” and “social justice warriors” (read: anyone who isn’t racist, sexist, Islamophobic, or a Zionist hiding behind “free speech”). Not to mention her many crusades against Arab and Muslim professors while she was a student at Columbia University in the early 2000s. Weiss led a group of students in accusing several faculty members in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Civilizations (MEALAC) of making what they claimed were anti-Israel and antisemitic comments during class. In 2005, the university responded with a committee to investigate their allegations. While it determined one instance of behavior it deemed inappropriate, it found “no evidence of any statements made by the faculty that could reasonably be construed as anti-Semitic.” Further, it concluded there was a “lack of civility on campus”—primarily from pro-Israel students who “heckled” their professors for teaching about Zionism. 

What’s most disturbing, though, is how Weiss has achieved internet infamy for being a genocidal cheerleader—one who has spent the last five years both denying and justifying Israel’s crimes against Gaza. Some examples straight from The Free Press: In May, she published “The Gaza Famine Myth,” a piece that flouted credible findings from the United Nations and other medical groups and cruelly insinuates that Palestinians weren’t actually being starved. And in August, she published an “investigation” that argued images of emaciated children in Gaza weren’t that big of a deal because said children likely had pre-existing health conditions like cystic fibrosis and rickets.

In September, Weiss sat down with Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who calls herself a “big fan” of Weiss. During the conversation, which took place at Lincoln Center, Barrett told Weiss that, despite the whole host of evidence to the contrary, there was no evidence of a “constitutional crisis” in this country, and that America is simply in a state of “passionate disagreement.” Of course, Weiss did not push back.

That Weiss will now be at the helm of one of the most preeminent newsrooms in the country is not just outrageous, but nothing less than a breach of public trust. It’s not shocking; Paramount’s politics have been dubious of late. In September, the company condemned an industry boycott of Israeli institutions and companies “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.” The organization behind the pledge, Film Workers for Palestine, comprises more than 3,900 celebrities, filmmakers, and other industry figures. In a statement, Paramount accused the group of “silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality.”

But Paramount is hardly the only mass media and entertainment company trying to remove anyone who dares to question conservatism, Israel’s genocide, or the Trump administration; in the last three months alone, Karen Attiah was fired from Jeff Bezos’ The Washington Post for her reporting on Charlie Kirk’s shooting, as was Matthew Dowd from MSNBC. Then, of course, there was the Jimmy Kimmel of it all. The stewardship of most mainstream news organizations has been in question for a while now— still, the future of journalism has never felt more bleak.

According to Semafor‘s Max Tani, Weiss told CBS staffers on a Tuesday morning call that she couldn’t wait for them to “get to know” The Free Press, and wants to “win.” She then concluded the call with this shudder-inducing sentiment: “Let’s do the fucking news.” The current president of CBS News, Tom Cibroski, co-signed Weiss’ promotion on the call, asserting that “Bari’s energy and passion is infectious and you will feel it, big time.”

Everyone—but especially staffers who aren’t “Zionist fanatics”—should absolutely consider that sentiment a threat.

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