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Bari Weiss, co-founder and CEO of The Free Press, has been appointed CBS News’ editor-in-chief, Paramount announced on Monday. The Free Press will now operate under the company as well.
It’s a major move from the company, which merged with Skydance Corp. in August under CEO David Ellison. Under Ellison, the company has made several strategic acquisitions and is reportedly exploring acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery.
“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,” Ellison said in a statement. “We believe the majority of the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based, and we want CBS to be their home.”
Though she will remain CEO and editor-in-chief of The Free Press, Weiss will report directly to Ellison. The Free Press will maintain its own independent brand and operations, the company said.
Weiss and her wife, Nellie Bowles, launched The Free Press in 2021 with Weiss’ sister Suzy. She was previously an opinion writer for The New York Times.
Partnering with Paramount, Weiss said, allows The Free Press to expand its audience of 1.5 million.
“The values that we’ve hammered out here over the years—journalism based in curiosity and honesty, a culture of healthy disagreement, our shared belief in America’s promise—now have the opportunity to go very, very big,” Weiss wrote in a blog post on The Free Press.
Earlier this year, CBS and Paramount settled a $16 million lawsuit with President Donald Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Paramount then hired an ombudsman to analyze bias in CBS reporting.
Weiss said she believes in Ellison and “the entire leadership team who took over Paramount this summer.” She added that they plan to make CBS “the most trusted news organization of the 21st Century.”
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Jimmy Kimmel's suspension from the late-night airwaves has thrust lawmakers, government officials and the president to the forefront of the debate over free speech while also deepening the partisan divide amid the fallout over conservative activist Charlie Kirk's killing.
Since Disney announced Wednesday night that it would pull Kimmel's show indefinitely over the comedian's comments about Kirk's slaying, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr — who last night pressured ABC and local broadcasters to "to take action" against Kimmel — on Thursday morning defended his decision and accused the late-night show host of misleading Americans; House Democratic leadership in turn called on him to resign; and President Donald Trump told reporters in the U.K. that Kimmel was fired over bad ratings.
"They should have fired him a long time ago," Trump said. "You can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent."
Even former Vice President Mike Pence weighed in during an early Thursday morning appearance on CNBC to chide Kimmel for his comments while also expressing discomfort with Carr's pressure campaign.
"The First Amendment doesn't protect entertainers from being fired by their employers,” he said, adding, “I would have preferred that the FCC didn't weigh in in the wake of this.”
The furor over Kimmel's comments highlights how deeply divided America has become and how somewhat insensitive or even offensive remarks by public figures — and even the general public — have become fuel for those seeking to quelch opposing views.
Carr on Thursday accused Kimmel of upsetting “lots and lots of people” and hinted at going even further though, telling CNBC “we’re not done yet.”
“We’re in the midst of a very disruptive moment right now, and I just, frankly, expect that we’re going to continue to see changes in the media ecosystem,” Carr said.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday was among those demanding Carr resign.
“I can’t think of a greater threat to free speech than Carr in many, many years,” Schumer told POLITICO. “He’s despicable. He’s anti-American. He ought to resign, and Trump ought to fire him.”
Trump Wednesday night celebrated Kimmel’s show being pulled before calling on NBC to cancel “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
Former President Barack Obama on Thursday called the administration’s involvement in Kimmel’s cancellation “dangerous.”
“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama said in a post on X on Thursday.
His comments follow remarks he made on Tuesday night during an event in Pennsylvania, where the former president called Kirk’s killing “horrific,” though he added that he disagreed with many of the conservative activist’s statements.
“We can also, at the same time, say that I disagree with the idea that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake,” Obama said. “I can say that I disagree with the suggestion that my wife or Justice Jackson does not have adequate brain processing power. I can say that I disagree that Martin Luther King was awful.”
The Trump administration has also faced backlash from Democrats and some conservatives after Attorney General Pam Bondi proposed the idea of cracking down on “hate speech” in the aftermath of Kirk’s shooting.
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused the administration of trying to “intimidate” companies.
“We’ve got the Trump administration literally targeting individuals — you saw it with [Stephen] Colbert, now you’re seeing it with Kimmel — anybody that’s criticizing this administration,” Pritzker said. “They’re using the power of government to intimidate companies to fire people.”
Back in Washington, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said her Republican colleagues have “selective outrage.”
“Republicans scream 'free speech'… until the truth hurts their fragile politics,” she wrote on X. “Jimmy Kimmel gets suspended, but hate, lies, and conspiracy theories run free.”
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Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah said on Monday that she was fired from the publication over social media posts she made following the killing of Charlie Kirk.
Writing in a lengthy Substack post, Attiah said she was dismissed over her posts on Bluesky that she says were deemed to be "unacceptable,” “gross misconduct” and that endangered the physical safety of her colleagues.
“They rushed to fire me without even a conversation,” she wrote. “This was not only a hasty overreach, but a violation of the very standards of journalistic fairness and rigor the Post claims to uphold.”
A spokesperson for the Washington Post declined to comment on personnel matters. The Washington Post's public social media policyrequires employees to ensure any posts made do not make "reasonable people question their editorial independence, nor make reasonable people question The Post’s ability to cover issues fairly."
The guidance also urges staffers to "avoid curating your feeds in ways that suggest you have a partisan point of view on an issue The Post covers," though the policy specifically states that does not apply to columnists, critics and other practitioners of opinion journalism posting as part of their work.
Earlier this year, the publication shifted its opinion section to focus on supporting “personal liberties and free markets.” Owner Jeff Bezos said at the time that a “broad-based opinion section” was no longer needed because a diversity of opinions were available online.
In a statement, the Washington Post guild called Attiah's firing "unjust" and said it would continue to defend her rights.
"The Post not only flagrantly disregarded standard disciplinary processes, it also undermined its own mandate to be a champion of free speech," the guild said in a post on X. "The right to speak freely is the ultimate personal liberty and the foundation of Karen’s 11-year career at The Post."
Some of Attiah’s social media posts condemned political violence but also highlighted Kirk’s divisive comments on Black women. In her only post directly mentioning Kirk, she quoted the Turning Point USA founder’s comments that Black women lack “brain processing power.”
“I made clear that not performing over-the-top grief for white men who espouse violence was not the same as endorsing violence against them,” Attiah said.
Attiah, who started her career at The Washington Post in 2014, said the publication “silenced" her. She warned her firing is part of a larger trend.
“What happened to me is part of a broader purge of Black voices from academia, business, government, and media — a historical pattern as dangerous as it is shameful — and tragic,” she said.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom is warning President Donald Trump and Republican governors that if they go forward with redistricting proposals, he will also implement mid-decade redistricting efforts in his state.
In a letter to the president Monday, Newsom said California “cannot stand idly by” as Texas — and other GOP-led states — attempt to follow Trump’s directive to create Republican-favored congressional maps.
“If you will not stand down, I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states,” Newsom said. “But if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will happily do the same. And American democracy will be better for it.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Newsom’s letter comes as the battle over the Texas congressional map has begun to spread to other states, including Indiana.
With Democrats needing to flip just three seats to reclaim a House majority, Trump pressed the Texas Legislature to draw a new map that would give Republicans an additional five congressional seats. Democrats around the nation condemned the effort even as Texas officials began to move forward with a plan. Texas Democrats have left the state to avoid voting on the new map, with some settling indefinitely in California.
Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, headed to Indiana last week to urge Republicans in the Hoosier state to also create a new map. Separately, Ohio is mandated to redraw districts in the state, while talks are underway in Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. In total, Republicans could gain 10 or more seats ahead of the midterms.
Newsom on Monday called the efforts “hyper-partisan” and an attempt to “rig” upcoming midterm elections.
“You are playing with fire, risking the destabilization of our democracy, while knowing that California can neutralize any gains you hope to make,” Newsom wrote. “This attempt to rig congressional maps to hold onto power before a single vote is cast in the 2026 election is an affront to American democracy.”
While Democrats have previously threatened to gerrymander their own maps if Republicans move forward with theirs, no moves have been made yet.
In his letter, Newsom said district maps should be drawn by “independent, citizen-led efforts.”
In a Monday afternoon interview with Fox News, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to escalate his state's redistricting plans if Newsom moves forward with retaliatory redistricting.
"If California thinks they're going to move their needle to the extreme and eliminate five Republican numbers of the United States Congress there, Texas is not going to do five: We will add 10 more Republican seats using the same procedure they are using in California," Abbott said.
Jacob Wendler contributed to this report.
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Radio host Charlamagne tha God fired back at President Donald Trump, accusing the president of pushing authoritarian tactics after Trump called the radio host a “dope” in a recent social media post.
On Monday’s episode of his radio show "The Breakfast Club," Charlamagne said Trump also failed to deliver on key campaign promises and used his show to dissect the president’s Truth Social post point by point.
“Listen, my fellow Americans, we are in a strange time right now, a time we have never seen because authoritarian strategy is being used against anyone who speaks out against this administration,” Charlamagne, whose given name is Lenard McKelvey, said.
Charlamagne drew the ire of Trump after he joined Fox News’ "My View with Lara Trump," the president’s daughter-in-law. Charlamagne said under the new administration “the least of us are still being impacted the worst.” He also said the ongoing controversy around the release of information regarding the death of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein is driving a wedge between the GOP and its supporters.
Soon after, the president responded by calling Charlamagne a “racist sleazebag,” a criticism Charlamagne defended against on Monday.
“He called me a racist. I didn't mention race, not one time on Lara Trump. I didn't bring up the fact that President Trump issued an executive order directing oversight of institutions like the Smithsonian to remove or suppress narratives about systemic racism and Black history,” Charlamagne said, referring to an executive order earlier this year demanding the Smithsonian remove exhibits that divided Americans "based on race."
Charlamagne added that he was “just talking to your base” and letting voters know Trump hasn’t kept the promises he made on the campaign trail.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Charlamagne also accused Trump of making the economy “worse” before criticizing the president's decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, after the latest monthly jobs report came in well under expectations.
“It's actually hilarious to see you upset about the high unemployment rates when you let Elon Musk take a chainsaw to the federal government and fire a bunch of government workers earlier this year. You did that, President Trump, and now you're doing exactly what the Biden administration did, trying to convince America the economy is all good when it's not,” he said.
Still, Charlamagne said that he is actually “rooting” for Trump.
“President Trump, don't worry about Lenard, okay, don't worry about Charlamagne tha God. I know something I said hit a nerve and rattled you a little bit, but I don't want you rattled,” Charlamagne said. “I want you to end wars, okay? I want you to keep the border secure. I want you to have the economy booming, okay? I want all these things to be true. I am an American. I don't care who's in the White House. I want America to succeed. But I need you focused, and right now you’re not focused.”
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