#bari-weiss

#bari-weiss

Shuffling under the mortal coil this week (aka hosting the Gabfest), it's our OG players Steve, Dana, and Julia. Like a morose Danish prince contemplating a human skull, they gaze upon the Oscar nominated , based on the novel by Maggie O'Farrell inspired by William Shakespeare's life. Directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, Hamnet has brought some critics to tears and left others cold. Our hosts share where they landed.

was not an editorial decision, it was a political one.

Weiss had recently arrived in Los Angeles from New York, a city she'd left behind in 2020 along with her job editing and writing for the New York Times' "Opinion" section. Although Weiss technically left of her own volition - blasting the paper for its "illiberal environment" in her publicly posted resignation letter - it felt as though she had been hounded out in the wake of the Tom Cotton op-ed fiasco, during which her boss, James Bennet, had been forced to step down amid a newsroom revolt.

I'm flattered by all the press and everything like that, but I'm in a multi-year contract with Fox. So I don't know where everything's going. I'm signed on to Fox, very happy at Fox. And, you know, we'll see what happens at the end of that, he said.

"fair, fearless, and factual" reporting that "holds both American political parties to equal scrutiny"

Trumpism wants to capture your attention. And it won't hesitate to colonize, with the approval of its leader, all the world's main information outlets, streaming media and video game platforms. Emerging from the effervescent magma of the MAGA universe, a group of powerful businessmen are in orbit around Trump, fattening his businesses and helping him expand the reach of his ultraconservative rhetoric.

The clearest sign yet of Ellison's willingness to ruffle feathers and fundamentally remake iconic American media brands was his Monday installation of Bari Weiss atop Paramount's CBS News, the 98-year-old institution home to the likes of Walter Cronkite and "60 Minutes." Weiss, a former New York Times Opinion writer who resigned from The Gray Lady in 2020, has spent the years since building an anti-woke alternative to traditional media. That effort, The Free Press, is far from CBS News in sensibility and approach.

"I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News," said David Ellison, who took over this summer as the corporate leader overseeing the network when his company, Skydance, purchased Paramount. "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."