Breaking News, Part Next - Prose Poetry

The enshittification of Big Media continues apace. Or in other words, we again come not to praise but to Bari Weiss. And to offer an update about Washington Post owner and elfin arsonist Jeff Bezos. 

If cringe were sentient

Weiss, the recently installed, vastly unqualified head of CBS News oversees a network whose flagship news program, “60 Minutes,” aired a series of actor interviews on Sunday to “celebrate the movies” rather than report and assemble a piece on Federal law enforcement forces in Minneapolis and the violence against and death of U.S. citizens. Because how is a multi-million-dollar news organization with a small army of seasoned reporters and producers and camera people supposed to turn a story about the dominant event in our nation that quickly? 

On Monday, Weiss circulated a memo that there would be an all-hands-on-deck staff meeting Tuesday to discuss the future of the news organization. Speaking from experience, there has never been such a meeting, newsroom or probably anywhere else, that was worth a salamander’s shit. They were often masterclasses in corporate weasel speak about pivoting or re-prioritizing, with a side of layoffs or wage freezes or budget cuts; staff needed to do more with less and to work smarter, not harder. Unspoken was the fact that it would be more difficult and less pleasant to do your job. 

Weiss’s message Tuesday was heavy on “restoring trust in the media” and to emphasize streaming and to attract viewers through personalities and branding. She introduced a slew of new execs with titles that include “talent strategy” and “branding” and “development.” As for the newsroom’s ideological position, she said, “Our job is to present people with the fullest picture — and the strongest voices on all sides of an issue — and then trust them to make up their own minds.” 

Sounds good, yes? By all means, let’s find the strongest voices against vaccinations and in favor of warrantless stops and searches, and let people make up their own minds. Weiss, you might recall, alienated the newsroom almost from the jump when she turfed a bunch of veteran staffers and spiked a “60 Minutes” piece about the notorious El Salvador prison where U.S. officials sent detained migrants just hours before airtime. 

Real Muppets > Morning Show Muppet

She also installed morning show muppet Tony Dokoupil as anchor of the nightly CBS Evening News. He raised eyebrows almost immediately, and not in a good way, when he claimed that major media had missed on many stories and gave too much credence to advocates and elites and academics at the expense of the average American. He pledged to be “more accountable and more transparent than (Walter) Cronkite or anyone else of his era.” In one of his first broadcasts, he made no attempt at pushback or accountability in an interview with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after the military raided and snatched Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, instead yielding the floor to Hegseth to yammer about peace through strength and to flatter President Trump. A Dokoupil “exclusive” interview with Trump at a Ford automotive plant in Michigan predictably went off the rails, with both practically shouting at each other over the clatter of a factory floor and the President gasbagging for much of the 12-minute segment. When Dokoupil asked about economic concerns, the President launched into hyperbolic orbit and floated the idea that Dokoupil owed his promotion to the last election. “A year-and-a-half ago, our country was dead,” Trump said. “We had a dead country. You wouldn’t have a job right now. If (Kamala Harris) got in, you probably wouldn’t have that job right now. Your boss is an amazing guy, (but) might be bust. I doubt it in his case, but you never know. Let me tell you, you wouldn’t have this job. You wouldn’t have this job, certainly whatever the hell they’re paying you. Our country is rocketing right now, we have the hottest country in the world. If (Democrats) got in, we would be Venezuela on steroids.” 

Bloviating aside, Trump hit upon a kernel of truth. Dokoupil’s big boss is billionaire Skydance Media prez David Ellison, son of gazillionaire and Oracle founder and Trump and Israel supporter Larry Ellison. If Trump had not been elected, maybe Skydance’s purchase of Paramount Global and CBS doesn’t make it past a Federal Communications Commission not helmed by a Trump loyalist. Ellison the Younger also overpaid for Weiss’s media outlet, then installed her as head of CBS News. If she weren’t head of the news division, Dokoupil would still be chopping it up weekday mornings with Gayle King and Nate Burleson. 

His resume’ includes a ham-handed attempt to scold author Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2024 for a chapter in his most recent book in which he criticizes Israel for its treatment of Palestinians. That earned him a reprimand from previous leadership but played well to Weiss, herself an Israel sympathizer and conservative irritant who passes herself off as a centrist and seeker of truth. 

Speaking of truth seeking, Bezos continues to neuter his once proud newspaper into irrelevance and to provide ample evidence of his political leanings. The paper announced just last week that it had suddenly pulled the plug on coverage of the Winter Olympics, an event that it typically floods with staffers. A dozen folks were credentialed and had of course already made travel arrangements, and reportedly $80,000 had been spent on lodging. The Post’s deciders walked back the decision a bit earlier this week and will now send four reporters to Milan. 

This comes on the heels of a decision not to send Washington Nationals beat writers to spring training and amid rumblings that massive layoffs are just around the corner. It’s no secret that the Post has been hemorrhaging subscribers and losing money, but it shouldn’t be a concern for a man whose reported net worth is $252 billion and who vowed to continue its mission when he purchased it in 2013. After all, he spent $55 million on his recent Venetian wedding and his Amazon MGM studio $75 million to bankroll the execrable documentary on Melania Trump that he himself pitched. 

But in recent years, Bezos has shifted the paper rightward. He killed an editorial endorsing Kamala Harris for President, contributed to Trump’s inauguration and had a better seat for the swearing in than Cabinet appointees. He circulated a memo last spring that said the Post’s editorial page would champion “personal liberties and free markets,” both of which he absurdly claimed are “underserved” in the current news and opinion climate. Now comes word that layoffs may number in the hundreds and could kneecap the sports department. Tough times for my former brothers and sisters in the newsgathering business. 

I get that it’s a different world and people seek and consume information in assorted ways. News organizations need to keep up with the times and explore all manner of delivery. However you dress up the package, though, no amount of “branding” or “development” changes the fact that reporting is time-consuming, tedious, challenging, stimulating and occasionally dangerous. It’s a skill that sometimes is an art, which too many people now in charge of newsrooms do not understand or appreciate as they chase viewers and profits. Weiss said as much to staffers, that if everybody “does their jobs right, in a year’s time CBS News will look very different.” Even setting aside the glaring question of what the “right” way is to do a job that didn’t previously exist or has not been done that way before, she is without a doubt correct.