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  "description": "Appointment follows Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump, reportedly also including $20 million in future programming benefits.",
  "path": "/free-press-blasts-the-free-press-with-founder-tapped-to-lead-cbs-news/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-10-08T13:36:46.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "_Free Press_",
    "__The Free Press__",
    "__the New Statesman__",
    "_described herself_",
    "_in July_",
    "_Truth Social_",
    "_dissented_",
    "_repeatedly warned_"
  ],
  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2025 – The newly-minted Paramount Skydance Corporation has acquired _The Free Press_ , a right-leaning opinion outlet, and named its founder **Bari Weiss** editor-in-chief of CBS News.\n\nThe nonprofit advocacy group _Free Press_, which campaigns for independent and publicly accountable media – and shares the almost identical name with Weiss’s group – blasted the move Tuesday as “a stunning turn” for the network once led by **Edward Murrow** , the legendary CBS broadcaster who exposed McCarthyism, and **Walter Cronkite** , “the most trusted man in America.”\n\n“Weiss, who has zero experience in broadcast journalism, will now shape one of the nation’s most trusted newsrooms under the control of billionaire CEO **David Ellison** , a close Trump ally,” Free Press said in an issued statement.\n\nThe outlet Weiss founded in 2021, __The Free Press__, has been called “unapologetically hawkish and anti-Palestinian,” with “little to say about the attacks on free expression the Trump administration has unleashed on pro-Palestinian activists,” by **Ross Barkan** in __the New Statesman__.\n\nThe outlet, which boasts 750,000 subscribers, frames itself as countercultural and anti–mainstream media, emphasizing freedom of speech and criticism of so-called “woke” culture. Weiss, its founder, once _described herself_ as “guilty as charged” to being a “Zionist fanatic.”\n\nWeiss’ appointment comes months after the Federal Communications Commission voted 2–1 _in July_ to approve Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. The merger approval followed weeks of controversy surrounding a legal battle President **Donald Trump** brought against CBS’ _60 Minutes_ , which resulted in Paramount agreeing to a $16 million settlement with the president.\n\nCritics alleged the settlement – which Trump boasted on _Truth Social_ as including “$20 Million Dollars more from the new Owners, in Advertising, PSAs, or similar programming” – amounted to a back-door deal to secure FCC merger approval.\n\n“FCC Chairman **Brendan Carr** withheld his approval until after Paramount settled a bogus lawsuit Trump brought against CBS News over 60 Minutes' editing of an interview with then-Vice President **Kamala Harris** ,” Free Press wrote.\n\nAs part of the approval, Skydance made concessions around bias monitoring and removal of diversity-equity-inclusion policies at CBS. A two-year commitment was made to appoint a CBS News ombudsman to investigate \"bias\" and ensure impartiality.\n\nFollowing the merger approval, FCC Commissioner **Anna Gomez** , who _dissented_, warned that Paramount Skydance Corporation “had agreed to never-before-seen forms of government control over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment,” actions she said “violate both the First Amendment and the law.”\n\nShe likened the ombudsman installed at CBS to “a government-sanctioned ‘truth arbiter,’”\n\n“Their role will be to ensure that journalists at CBS do not criticize this Administration or express views that conflict with its agenda,” Gomez said. “That should alarm anyone who values the core democratic principle of a free and independent press.”\n\nGomez has _repeatedly warned_ that the Trump administration was using the FCC to “censor and control” the press.\n\n“CBS journalists are already in open revolt, and for good reason,” the nonprofit organization Free Press wrote Tuesday. “The Trump administration has established a clear pattern of meddling in coverage, rewarding friendly outlets and punishing dissenters.”",
  "title": "Free Press Blasts 'The Free Press', With Founder Tapped to Lead CBS News",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T05:44:56.386Z"
}