After months of criticism from former CBS News staffers and other leftists over her push for even-handed journalism, new Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss appears vindicated: CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil pulled in 6.4 million viewers on January 19, its biggest audience since 2021.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
RATINGS: <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CBSEveningNews</a> with Tony Dokoupil delivers 6.4 million total viewers on Jan. 19 &#8211; its largest audience for the broadcast since 2021. The CBS News flagship evening broadcast also averaged 803K in the key adults 25-54 demographic, according to Nielsen Big Data + Panel…
— CBS News PR (@CBSNewsPress) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNewsPress/status/2014478489613738286?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The first flashpoint came when Weiss spiked an investigative segment by Sharyn Alfonsi titled &#8220;Inside CECOT,&#8221; which focused on a notorious prison in El Salvador. Weiss said the segment lacked sufficient context and did not include a response from the Trump administration. The backlash later escalated when roughly 200 former CBS staffers and industry figures signed an <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/12/29/media/cbs-news-journalists-to-urge-david-ellison-to-protect-independence-after-bari-weiss-pulled-60-minutes-report-on-salvadoran-prison/">open letter</a> to Paramount CEO David Ellison, expressing &#8220;deep reservations&#8221; about Weiss&#8217;s leadership and urging him to protect the network&#8217;s &#8220;crown jewel&#8221; from what they called her &#8220;clumsy editorial interference.&#8221;
Weiss later drew criticism after reportedly sending a memo to staff asking for a detailed account of their weekly working hours, signaling a shift toward stricter newsroom expectations.
When she was hired, former CBS News anchor Dan Rather <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/dan-rather-bari-weiss-skydance-paramount-merger-statement/">stated,</a> “It is also hard to believe Weiss will be an equitable steward of the storied news division &#8230;”
The usual suspects have declared war on Weiss for refusing to continue CBS News&#8217;s slavish devotion to leftist perspectives. Even David Letterman called the media outlet a &#8220;wreck,&#8221; saying its integrity had been &#8220;eviscerated by these idiots that have taken it over.&#8221;
The Guardian<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/05/bari-weiss-cbs-news?utm_source=chatgpt.com"> reported</a> earlier this month, “ &#8230; her three months as editor in chief have been more chaotic than even many of her critics expected. ‘There is blood in the water,’ said one CBS News journalist.”
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/business/media/cbs-evening-news-bari-weiss.html">chimed in</a>, “Her reimagining of CBS News has faced heavy scrutiny, and even became a punchline on her own network: At Sunday’s Golden Globes, broadcast by CBS, the host, Nikki Glaser, earned one of her biggest laughs when she declared that CBS News was ‘America’s newest place to see BS news.’”

Bari Weiss

Ratings Don’t Lie: Bari Weiss Scores A Major Win At CBS News

CBS Evening News

Legacy Media

Media

Ratings

U.S.

All the Hollywood celebrities are out and showing their absolute rage — but not at the Iranian government mowing people down in the streets.
As cataclysmic events take place in Iran, with apparently hundreds or thousands of protesters being shot to death, a number that has even been estimated to be 10,000, it’s good to know the folks in Hollywood have their priorities straight. 
The Golden Globes were held on Sunday night, providing an opportunity for members of the Hollywood contingent — who prize their pseudo-morality over everyone else&#8217;s — to make a stand.
After all, they&#8217;ve made stands on issues as far back as Tibet in the 1990s (which they conveniently have now forgotten all about).
Remember when last year, a bunch of Hollywood celebrities pranced around like fools, claiming that a genocide that was not happening was, in fact, happening, and criticized the State of Israel for defending its own existence. 
This year, they have a different cause because, hey, new day, new cause. Now, what could that cause be?
The cause of the Iranian people who are out in the streets risking their own deaths to defy the mullahs? The people of Iran, many of whom are secular and westernized in their attitudes toward the state? Are those the people toward whom Hollywood directs all of its sympathies? Are they sparing a moment for those people? 
Of course not. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2344-gross-hollywood-attacks-ice-ignores-slaughter-in-iran?elementPosition=4&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Hollywood put on a show at the Golden Globes, and everything was about ICE and LGBTQ and Bari Weiss taking over CBS, because, you see, these are the real threats. 
According to people in Hollywood, you should have your eyes focused like a laser beam on the predations of ICEt enforcing the law with regard to illegal immigration and deporting people for welfare fraud.
You should have your eyes focused like a laser beam on Bari Weiss taking over CBS News and preventing it from its long history of inaccurately reporting the news. 
You should be focused like a laser beam on the terrible predations that affect LGBTQ+- people all over the United States.
It is an act of bravery to stand up at the Golden Globes and virtue signal on behalf of the LGBTQ+- community.
So last night, a bunch of celebs showed up and decided — as our Moral Guideposts, the lodestars of our civilization — that the chief things you need to worry about as an American are ICE, LGBTQ+-, and Bari Weiss.
Hostess Nikki Glaser began the evening by going after the most deserving target, who deserved her absolute rage: Bari Weiss and CBS News.
Mark Ruffalo showed up and said it was hard to pretend anymore that we don&#8217;t live in a “dictatorship.”
Thus saith the man who wears a tux at the Golden Globes and gets paid millions of dollars to play the same character that he has played in every other miniseries and movie for the last two decades.
“We have a woman, Renee Good, was murdered in our streets of America today, and we got literally stormtroopers running around terrorizing. And as much as I love all this, I can&#8217;t. I don&#8217;t know if I can pretend like this crazy stuff isn&#8217;t happening. It&#8217;s so hard to pretend anymore,” he complained.
It&#8217;s hard for him to pretend? He’s an actor.
This is a person who spent the last two years basically standing on behalf of terrorist groups in the Middle East. But it&#8217;s very hard for him to pretend that there aren&#8217;t “stormtroopers” wandering the streets.
You know what&#8217;s cool about being able to say that sort of thing? There aren&#8217;t stormtroopers wandering the streets — because throughout history, when there were stormtroopers wandering the streets, celebrities didn&#8217;t get to go on camera and talk about how there were stormtroopers wandering the streets.
In fact, there are many places on Earth where the stormtroopers do wander the streets. For example, Iran, where there are stormtroopers shooting people in the head for protesting.
Did Ruffalo have a word for them?
Nope. He had a little pin that read, “Be Good,” referencing Renee Good.
Hollywood always seems to pick the side that opposes law enforcement or opposes the West.
“The guy’s a convicted felon or convicted rapist. He&#8217;s a pedophile,” Ruffalo said of President Trump. “He&#8217;s the worst human being. If we&#8217;re relying on this guy&#8217;s morality for the most powerful country in the world, then we&#8217;re all in a lot of trouble. So this is for her. This is for the people in the United States who are terrorized and scared today. I know I&#8217;m one of them. I love this country. And what I&#8217;m seeing here happening is not America.”
He slandered the president of the United States as a pedophile, called him the worst person in the world, for, among other things, extraditing Nicolás Maduro — a Marxist dictator responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands and probably hundreds of thousands of people and the exile of literally millions of people. That, to Mark Ruffalo, is a big moral problem.
Not a word to spare for the millions marching in the streets in Iran right now, thousands of whom are getting mowed down by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Ariana Grande also showed up wearing her ICE Out pin, the new hot thing in Hollywood.
Frankly, any amount of weight added to her garment puts her at risk of falling over.
Wanda Sykes showed up to talk about LGBTQ+-, saying, “You know, there&#8217;s some people pissed off that a queer black woman is up here doing the job of two mediocre white guys.”
This is where Hollywood puts its priorities. There are people on earth literally putting their lives at risk, their bodies on the line for their own freedom.
And Hollywood has nothing to say to them. Nothing.
Are you seeing protests on campuses in favor of the Iranian people right now? Have you seen a single protest?
You have not.
Have you seen a single mass protest by all of these international-law-loving, human rights-adoring left-wingers, the Zohran Mamdani wing of the Democratic Party, in favor of the protesters in Iran, who simply want their horrifying theocratic regime gone?
You have not.
Have you seen a single comment from Democrats, beyond a kind of “thoughts and prayers?”
You have not.
Have you seen protests in the streets?
You have not.
Have you seen calls for material aid?
You have not.
It’s sad-sack nonsense, because there are people in the world who are doing something courageous and incredible right now.
And Hollywood and the Left are gladly looking the other way.

CBS’s Coverage of the 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards – Arrivals

Hollywood Attacks ICE, Ignores Slaughter In Iran

Ben Shapiro

CBS News

Golden Globes

Hollywood

Iran

Leftists

LGBTQ

Mark Ruffalo

Minneapolis

Minnesota

Opinion

Wanda Sykes

At the beginning of every New Year, journalists, and other flagrant abusers of God’s precious gift of life, make lists of predictions about what will happen in the year to come. Turning their corruption-riddled minds to politics and culture and other topics they know absolutely nothing about, journalists forecast absurd scenarios that would confirm them in all the boneheaded prejudices that made their reporting such utterly useless crap-fountains in the year that just ended. 
But unlike journalists, we at the Daily Wire are committed to telling the truth. And the truth is we have no freaking clue what’s going to happen in the next ten minutes let alone the months ahead. The future’s not ours to see, as Doris Day said, shortly after she let out an ear-piercing scream that startled the assassin so that he only wounded the ambassador, leaving Jimmy Stewart free to find his kidnapped son and knock the kidnapper down a flight of stairs to his death, a conclusion that makes absolutely no sense if you stop and think about it for even a minute.
Where was I? Oh yeah.
Since predicting the future is very popular and since no one knows the future, the Daily Wire has developed a system for forecasting the events of the year that is far more scientifically consistent than any other. Namely, we just make stuff up and hope we get lucky and can create the illusion that we’re much smarter than we are.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-261-it-s-crazy-out-there?contentProgram=The%20Andrew%20Klavan%20Show&amp;contentType=ShowEpisode&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;location=Home%20Tab&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Home%20Featured%20Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974735 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-1024x171.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
So here are my predictions for 2026.
In early March, a tarantula the size of the Chrysler Building will descend on New York City and begin to devour the inhabitants, who will find this a welcome relief from the policies of Zohran Mamdani. President Donald Trump will rush to the scene, armed only with an emerald-encrusted titanium sword he borrowed from Glenn Beck’s collection of titanium swords encrusted with various precious gems. Trump will single-handedly slay the spider, whereupon Democrats will condemn this violation of the arachnid rights guaranteed in our Constitution, and will spend the rest of the month having cocktails and photo ops with sad-looking tarantulas around the country, before heading to local hospitals to be treated for bites. &#8220;The View&#8221; will dedicate an entire show to the long history of anti-tarantula bias, until a guest tarantula crawls over Sunny Hostin’s hand, causing her to let out a high-pitched shriek that goes on for ten uninterrupted minutes before anyone realizes this is not just her usual commentary. At CBS News, meanwhile, editor-in-chief Bari Weiss will come under fire when she pounds a tarantula to death with a high-heeled shoe before anyone has time to explain to her that it was on its way to be interviewed for &#8220;60 Minutes.&#8221; And Candace Owens will announce that a spider the size of the Chrysler Building could only have been created by God, proving once again that a Jew is to blame.
In the culture, Netflix Chief of Content Bela Bajaria will proclaim that all married couples in Netflix movies must be mixed race and all children must be homosexual unless they’re transgender in which case they can be heterosexual because that would be homosexual. When Netflix’s audience share sinks to zero percent, Mrs. Bajaria will tell interviewers, “Our pictures are still big. It’s the audience that got small,” and then descend a long staircase declaring, “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille,” before being carted off to a mental institution or to become head of Warner Brothers, depending on how the deal turns out.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will step down, resting on his accomplishments of watching Minneapolis burn to the ground while Somalians bilked American taxpayers out of billions of Somolians. Or possibly Somolians bilked us out of Somalians. Either way, they should both go back where they came from.
Finally, Democrats will take back the House in the mid-terms, and immediately move to impeach Trump for flagrantly causing world peace and American prosperity. Republicans will keep the Senate, but Chuck Schumer will reassure journalists, “The government is still big, it’s the people who got small,” and then descend a staircase declaring, “I’m ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille,” before he’s devoured by a gigantic tarantula.
All right, that last part is just a personal daydream of mine.
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fifth installment, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/After-That-Cameron-Winter-Mysteries/dp/1613166869/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3EGZUC370LG46&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Y_NI0mDOKeowShheDQTVx5NH-fAeimJoCD56_T0Acpl8C0mup7uJf-nGGSRLEItaaekoDnvS2vWLMa4Zd2UBXQ8Y-g-P502jOWz-Y8IX3ZQsdlO7WMLrg1xIhNoKmjCorSWUR4C2l_RbiZ7apJ1MfPzGOrrEf7AdAXX6xwnJRVP_XqUfWuMuVthTWscaU3P4vgmS86-96n-721enHfX12CFQWTajqFbVnrsDkexfUf4.6_gTH6h1Bb9Pn375QdF_VAVZSayDvjQBBKGXE-MTiFo&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=klavan&amp;qid=1754049918&amp;sprefix=%2Caps%2C80&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">After That, The Dark,</a> is NOW AVAILABLE. Follow him on X: <a href="https://x.com/andrewklavan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@andrewklavan</a>.
The views expressed in this satirical piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

NYC Tarantula

Here Are My Predictions For 2026

Andrew Klavan

Democrats

Humor

Netflix

New York City

Satire

CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil delivered a New Year&#8217;s Day message promising changes in coverage at the legacy media network, at least as far as he is concerned. Dokoupil, who will helm the outlet&#8217;s iconic &#8220;CBS Evening News,&#8221; said he was ready to pull out all the stops to make viewers trust the news again.
Dokoupil, who appeared regularly on &#8220;CBS Mornings&#8221; alongside hosts Gayle King and former pro-footballer Nate Burleson, is making the move to primetime amid other changes being made by new Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss. He delivered a statement promising to do better via a video posted Thursday to X.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;On too many stories, the press has missed the story. Because we&#8217;ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.&#8221;
That changes now. The new CBS Evening News… <a href="https://t.co/NKdvRJjYCS">pic.twitter.com/NKdvRJjYCS</a>
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/2006696909235171821?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 1, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;A lot has changed since the first person sat in this chair,&#8221; Dokoupil observed. &#8220;But for me, the biggest difference is people do not trust us like they used to. And it&#8217;s not just us. It&#8217;s all of legacy media. And I get it. I get it because I&#8217;ve been hearing about it from just about everybody for more than 20 years as I&#8217;ve traveled America on this assignment or that.&#8221;
Dokoupil went on to list a number of stories with which people on one side of the aisle or the other had taken issue: from COVID lockdowns and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton&#8217;s emails to Hunter Biden&#8217;s laptop, the Iraq War, and former President Joe Biden&#8217;s fitness for office — and he said that he understood why people were so upset.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible c-link--underline" href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=christmas&amp;utm_content=christmassale25" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=christmas&amp;utm_content=christmassale25" data-sk="tooltip_parent">Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
&#8220;On too many stories, the press has missed the story. Because we&#8217;ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you,&#8221; he conceded. &#8220;And I know this because, at certain points, I have been you. I have felt this way, too. I have felt like what I was seeing and hearing on the news didn&#8217;t reflect what I was seeing and hearing in my own life — and that the most urgent questions simply weren&#8217;t being asked.&#8221;
&#8220;So here&#8217;s my promise to you,&#8221; Dokoupil declared. &#8220;You come first. Not advertisers, not politicians, not corporate interests. And yes, that does include the corporate owners of CBS. I report for you — which means I tell you what I know, when I know it, and how I know it. And when I get it wrong, I&#8217;ll tell you that, too.&#8221;
He said that also meant he would hold everyone &#8220;to the very same standard&#8221; and dig in to &#8220;what works in this country and what doesn&#8217;t — and not only what should change, but the good ideas that should never change. I think telling the truth is one of them.&#8221;

CBS Mornings

CBS News Anchor Announces New Direction For 2026: Actual Journalism

Journalism

Politics

Actor George Clooney claimed during a recent interview that new editorial chief Bari Weiss is &#8220;dismantling CBS News as we speak,&#8221; wringing his hands about a possible future in which the United States would be forced to operate &#8220;without a functioning press.&#8221;
Clooney did not just single out CBS News in the interview, a <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/news/george-clooney-bari-weiss-destroying-cbs-news-1236619406/">cover story</a> published by Variety. In fact, he argued that a number of legacy media outlets had lost their footing when they settled various lawsuits with President Donald Trump.
&#8220;If CBS and ABC had challenged those lawsuits and said, &#8216;Go, f*** yourself,&#8217; we wouldn’t be where we are in the country,” Clooney says. “That’s simply the truth.&#8221;
Clooney cited the ABC News lawsuit and suggested that the network should have fought harder — in spite of the fact that longtime anchor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/stephanopoulos-said-rape-after-exec-producer-warned-him-not-to-so-many-times-report">George Stephanopoulos</a> had been warned &#8220;so many times&#8221; prior to his broadcast not to say that Trump had been found &#8220;liable for rape&#8221; because it was demonstrably untrue. The anchor&#8217;s failure to comply with that directive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-wins-millions-in-defamation-suit-against-abc-news-george-stephanopoulos">cost the network millions</a>.
His main beef was with the new direction taken by CBS News under new Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss — who was offered the job by David Ellison, Skydance founder and Paramount chairman, after a merger.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible c-link--underline" href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=christmas&amp;utm_content=christmassale25" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=christmas&amp;utm_content=christmassale25" data-sk="tooltip_parent">Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
&#8220;Bari Weiss is dismantling CBS News as we speak. Am I worried about film studios? Sure. It’s my business, but my primary loyalty is to my country. I’m much more worried about how we inform ourselves and how we’re going to discern reality without a functioning press,&#8221; he complained.
Clooney, who is largely credited with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-view-scolds-george-clooney-for-op-ed-calling-on-biden-to-drop-out">turning the tide</a> against former President Joe Biden in the summer of 2024, has been very critical of President Trump — a former friend of his — as well.
&#8220;It’s a very trying time. It can depress you or make you very angry. But you have to find the most positive way through it. You have to put your head down and keep moving forward because quitting isn’t an option,&#8221; he said, adding of Trump, &#8220;I knew him very well. He used to call me a lot, and he tried to help me get into a hospital once to see a back surgeon. I’d see him out at clubs and see him out at restaurants. He’s a big goofball. Well, he was. That all changed.&#8221;

George Clooney

George Clooney Claims Bari Weiss Is ‘Dismantling CBS News As We Speak’

George Clooney Claims Bari Weiss Is 'Dismantling CBS News As We Speak'

White House Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller fired back after a 60 Minutes correspondent accused CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of yanking a story about the Trump administration’s deportation of hundreds of immigrants to CECOT for “political reasons.”
“This is another pathetic 60 Minutes hatchet job. They are trying to tell sob stories about Tren de Aragua gang members who drill holes in people’s hands, who rape and murder little girls?” Miller <a href="https://grabien.com/story?id=562966&amp;utm_source=cliplist&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=cliplist20251224&amp;utm_content=story562966">said</a>.
“You actually have somebody, from the outside, new, who’s trying to actually act like an adult over at 60 Minutes and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, you failed to talk to the administration, you failed to put in any sort of context, whatsoever, for the story, and so she’s decided to pause the story and now there’s an open revolt at 60 Minutes,” Fox News host Charles Hurt said to Miller. “First of all, were you contacted at all about this package, and what do you make of all of it?”
“I don’t remember anybody reaching out to me,” Miller replied. “Of course, as you know people put things at the comms inboxes and general feedback comments, but I don’t remember getting anything.”
“But more fundamentally, this is another pathetic 60 Minutes hatchet job,” he continued. “They are trying to tell sob stories about Tren de Aragua gang members who drill holes in people’s hands, who rape and murder little girls? This is the gang who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered Jocelyn Nungaray. Remember her? That precious 12-year-old girl from Texas who was taken from her mom and went through horrors none of us can imagine?”
“And you have these 60 Minute producers who are living in comfort and security in their West End condos trying to make us feel sympathetic for these monsters?” he asked rhetorically. “Have you seen the tattoos, the face tattoos, the body tattoos on these killers? Would one 60 Minutes producer or writer agree to spend 30 minutes — I’ll make a deal. We will pick one person at random that we sent to CECOT, just a random lottery drawing, and they will spend one day, overnight, in your apartment.”
“Who is taking that deal at 60 Minutes? Nobody, because they know that these are monsters who got exactly what they deserved,” he declared. “Because under President Trump, we are not going to let little girls get raped and murdered anymore. And every one of those producers at 60 Minutes engaged in this revolt, fire them. Clean house, fire them. That’s what I say, Charlie.”
“And yet, somehow, they’re the compassionate ones and you’re the mean ones. But we’re glad you&#8217;re the mean ones and getting the job done,” Hurt concluded.
“I held that story because it was not ready,” Weiss <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/business/media/cbs-news-bari-weiss-60-minutes.html">said</a>, adding that the story had been reported by other news organizations. “The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment in this prison.”
The Daily Wire previously<a href="applewebdata://3CD6EBF5-83C4-49D9-9C71-580D795F3B88/v"> reported</a>:
<blockquote>
Weiss prevented the segment on El Salvador’s CECOT prison from airing on Sunday over concerns that the piece lacked important information, such as “the Trump administration’s argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT.” She stated in a memo to CBS News staffers:
Last month, many outlets, most notably The New York Times, exposed the horrific conditions at CECOT. Our story presents more of these powerful testimonies—and putting those accounts into the public record is valuable in and of itself. But if we’re going to run another story about a topic that has by now been much-covered, we need to advance it. Among the ways to do so: does anyone in the administration or anyone prominent who defended the use of the Alien Enemies Act now regret it in light of what these Venezuelans endured at CECOT? That’s a question I’d like to see asked and answered.”
“At present, we do not present the administration’s argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT. What we have is Karoline Leavitt’s soundbite claiming they are evildoers in America (rapists, murderers, etc.). But isn’t there much more to ask in light of the torture that we are revealing?” Weiss asked. “Tom Homan and Stephen Miller don’t tend to be shy. I realize we’ve emailed the DHS spox, but we need to push much harder to get these principals on the record.”
In her third point, Weiss criticized one of the angles of the “60 Minutes” segment, arguing that it focused too much on the illegal immigrants sent to CECOT who do not have criminal histories and not enough on the violent criminals who have been removed from America.
“The data we present paints an incongruent picture. Of the 252 Venezuelans sent to CECOT, we say nearly half have no criminal histories. In other words, more than half do have criminal histories. We should spend a beat explaining this,” Weiss said. “We then say that only 8 of the 252 have been sentenced in America for violent offenses. But what about charged? My point is that we should include as much as we can possibly know and understand about these individuals.”
</blockquote>
Zach Jewell contributed to this story.

President Trump Makes An Announcement In The State Dining Room Of The White House

Stephen Miller Blasts 60 Minutes, Defends Decision To Halt CECOT Segment Over Lack Of Context

Stephen Miller Blasts CBS After Bari Weiss Halts ‘60 Minutes’ CECOT Segment Over Lack of Context

60 Minutes

Stephen Miller

Tren De Aragua

In a five-point memo sent to CBS News staff on Sunday, Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss laid out each of her reasons for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cbs-news-pulls-60-minutes-segment-on-notorious-el-salvador-prison-needed-additional-reporting">postponing</a> a &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; segment on the Salvadoran prison where the Trump administration has sent hundreds of illegal immigrants.
Weiss prevented the segment on El Salvador&#8217;s CECOT prison from airing on Sunday over concerns that the piece lacked important information, such as &#8220;the Trump administration&#8217;s argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT.&#8221;
The segment, spearheaded by CBS News journalist Sharyn Alfonsi, focused on interviews with some of the illegal immigrants who were sent to CECOT and have since been released. After Weiss pulled the story from Sunday&#8217;s lineup, Alfonsi claimed that it was for &#8220;political&#8221; reasons, arguing that if they hold a story because the government has not commented on it, they are becoming a “stenographer for the state.”
Weiss, however, argued that the segment did not attempt to go deep enough to present its viewers &#8220;with the full context they need to assess the story.&#8221; In the first point her <a href="https://x.com/thesimonetti/status/2003142908854313225">memo</a>, Weiss argued that other legacy media networks had already extensively covered the &#8220;horrific conditions&#8221; at the Salvadoran prison and CBS News needed to do more to &#8220;advance&#8221; the story to justify a &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; segment.
&#8220;Last month, many outlets, most notably The New York Times, exposed the horrific conditions at CECOT. Our story presents more of these powerful testimonies—and putting those accounts into the public record is valuable in and of itself,&#8221; Weiss said in her memo. &#8220;But if we’re going to run another story about a topic that has by now been much-covered, we need to advance it. Among the ways to do so: does anyone in the administration or anyone prominent who defended the use of the Alien Enemies Act now regret it in light of what these Venezuelans endured at CECOT? That’s a question I’d like to see asked and answered.&#8221;
The segment reportedly focused on highlighting the “brutal and torturous conditions” endured by those sent to CECOT. Despite CBS News pulling the segment domestically, it aired briefly in Canada and then was shared online.
Weiss urged &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; producers to &#8220;push harder&#8221; to set up interviews Trump administration officials, such as adviser Stephen Miller and border czar Tom Homan.
&#8220;At present, we do not present the administration’s argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT. What we have is Karoline Leavitt’s soundbite claiming they are evildoers in America (rapists, murderers, etc.). But isn’t there much more to ask in light of the torture that we are revealing?&#8221; Weiss asked. &#8220;Tom Homan and Stephen Miller don’t tend to be shy. I realize we’ve emailed the DHS spox, but we need to push much harder to get these principals on the record.&#8221;
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible c-link--underline" href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=christmas&amp;utm_content=christmassale25" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=christmas&amp;utm_content=christmassale25" data-sk="tooltip_parent">Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
In her third point, Weiss criticized one of the angles of the &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; segment, arguing that it focuses too much on the illegal immigrants sent to CECOT who do not have criminal histories and not enough on the violent criminals who have been removed from America.
&#8220;The data we present paints an incongruent picture. Of the 252 Venezuelans sent to CECOT, we say nearly half have no criminal histories. In other words, more than half do have criminal histories. We should spend a beat explaining this,&#8221; Weiss said. &#8220;We then say that only 8 of the 252 have been sentenced in America for violent offenses. But what about charged? My point is that we should include as much as we can possibly know and understand about these individuals.&#8221;
Weiss also blasted the producers&#8217; decision to include analysis from students at the University of California, Berkeley, asking, &#8220;What does the analysis add?&#8221;
Weiss concluded by telling the staff that CBS News should better explain &#8220;the legal rationale by which the administration detained and deported these 252 Venezuelans to CECOT.&#8221;
&#8220;It’s not as simple as Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act and being able to deport them immediately. And that isn’t the administration’s argument. The admin has argued in court that detainees are due &#8216;judicial review&#8217;—and we should explain this, with a voice arguing that Trump is exceeding his authority under the relevant statute, and another arguing that he’s operating within the bounds of his authority,&#8221; Weiss argued. &#8220;There’s a genuine debate here.&#8221;
CBS News said on Sunday that the CECOT segment would air at a later date.

Bari Weiss Had 5 Reasons For Yanking ’60 Minutes’ Report On El Salvador Prison

El Salvador

Trump Administration

A &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; segment on the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador, where the Trump administration has sent hundreds of illegal immigrants, was postponed by CBS News on Sunday, sparking controversy within the newsroom now led by Bari Weiss.
The segment was spearheaded by reporter Sharyn Alfonsi, who interviewed some of the illegal immigrants who were sent to CECOT and have since left the prison where they say they endured &#8220;brutal and torturous conditions&#8221; while incarcerated, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/cbs-news-pulls-60-minutes-segment-correspondent-calls-decision-political-841ea812?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqfvdbwaMHbjC_tduBBpNfrxbO3ws_qL0ncaSLYx572CvvS9lQNwYVUNXjT5dZM%3D&amp;gaa_ts=694937c8&amp;gaa_sig=EnNwFGlrqgHmB3-M_EO7xOfFABCTxj8DotddywZo-bUvRgIUmiMI7Hvm9965mlO7zYxNwLpubF-z3MFkxJoKHw%3D%3D">reported</a>. CBS News said Alfonsi&#8217;s segment would air at a later date after the company &#8220;determined it needed additional reporting.&#8221;
Democrats and the legacy media have focused much of their criticism of Trump&#8217;s massive deportation operation on the Salvadoran prison, where Trump has sent planeloads of people. The prison is used by El Salvador&#8217;s right-wing president, Nayib Bukele, to hold violent gang members and drug traffickers. Earlier this year, Bukele agreed to take in illegal immigrants deported by the Trump administration and place them in CECOT.
Weiss, who became CBS News editor-in-chief in October, was concerned about apparent bias in the &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; CECOT piece and suggested adding an interview with a White House official, such as Stephen Miller, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/business/60-minutes-trump-bari-weiss.html">according</a> to The New York Times. In a statement on Sunday, Weiss said that it&#8217;s common to hold stories and segments that &#8220;lack sufficient context&#8221; or &#8220;are missing critical voices.&#8221; She added that she looks forward to airing the CECOT prison segment &#8220;when it&#8217;s ready.&#8221;
“My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be,” she said.
Alfonsi, however, called the last-minute decision to pull the segment from Sunday&#8217;s show &#8220;political,&#8221; saying that the segment had already undergone extensive fact-checking and legal review.
“It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one,” Alfonsi wrote. The journalist said that they had reached out to the Trump administration for comment, arguing that if they hold a story because the government has not commented on it, they are becoming a &#8220;stenographer for the state.&#8221;
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible c-link--underline" href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=christmas&amp;utm_content=christmassale25" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=christmas&amp;utm_content=christmassale25" data-sk="tooltip_parent">Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
CBS News appears to be changing its approach to how it covers the Trump administration under Weiss after &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; has faced criticism for its seemingly anti-Trump tilt. Last year, &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; was ripped for its editing of an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. President Donald Trump sued CBS News&#8217; parent company, Paramount, over the edits that he argued made Harris&#8217; answers sound more coherent. Paramount settled the lawsuit for $16 million amid a massive shakeup at the company, with billionaire David Ellison taking over.
After Ellison and Weiss took the reins of CBS News, leftists expressed concern about the network&#8217;s direction, while many people on the Right celebrated the change as a potential return to unbiased news reporting. President Trump, however, believes that CBS News has &#8220;gotten worse&#8221; under Ellison&#8217;s leadership. After &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; aired an interview with Trump ally-turned-critic Marjorie Taylor Greene earlier this month, Trump said that CBS News is &#8220;NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME!&#8221;
&#8220;Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!&#8221; he added. &#8220;Oh well, far worse things can happen.&#8221;

CBS News Pulls ’60 Minutes’ Segment On Notorious El Salvador Prison: ‘Needed Additional Reporting’

Illegal Immigation

An emotional Erika Kirk said during a CBS town hall event that those justifying her husband’s assassination need saving from God.
“You&#8217;re sick. He&#8217;s a human being. You think he deserved that? Tell that to my three-year-old daughter,” Erika told CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
Weiss asked Erika, a mother of two young children, what she has to say about people justifying her late husband Charlie Kirk’s murder.
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA and a conservative powerhouse, was assassinated on a college campus in September while engaging in political debate with people he disagreed with — a common practice for the 31-year-old. Media figures and others on the Left have callously reasoned that Kirk had it coming because he believed and said things they disagreed with.
“You wanna watch, in high res, the video of my husband being murdered and laugh? And say he deserves it? There’s something very sick in your soul and I pray that God saves you,&#8221; the young widow told Weiss. &#8220;I pray.”
“The internet in this world has dehumanized us,” Erika added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Addressing the people justifying Charlie Kirk&#8217;s murder on the basis of his beliefs, Erika Kirk said: &#8220;You&#8217;re sick. He&#8217;s a human being. You think he deserved that? Tell that to my 3-year-old daughter.&#8221;<a href="https://twitter.com/MrsErikaKirk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MrsErikaKirk</a> sat down with <a href="https://twitter.com/bariweiss?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bariweiss</a> for a CBS News Town Hall, just days… <a href="https://t.co/8P31w4JQQR">pic.twitter.com/8P31w4JQQR</a>
— CBS News (@CBSNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1998875782395936983?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
Erika also revealed during the event, which aired Saturday night, that it took her three months to get the strength to even walk into her and Kirk&#8217;s bedroom after his assassination.
She recalled lying in her daughter&#8217;s bed after the murder and writing her thoughts out. Those words, she said, were later the basis for her fiery address to the nation just days after Kirk&#8217;s assassination.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
For months after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Erika Kirk says she couldn’t even walk into her bedroom. Instead, she tells CBS News that she slept in her daughter’s bed. And it was lying there, unable to sleep, where she wrote the words she’d later deliver live on YouTube:
“You… <a href="https://t.co/Uz4ypGeILd">pic.twitter.com/Uz4ypGeILd</a>
— CBS News (@CBSNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/2000012640597205472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/erika-kirk-rebukes-the-mind-virus-conspiracy-theories-about-her-and-turning-point-usa">Erika Kirk Rebukes The ‘Mind Virus’ Conspiracy Theories About Her And Turning Point USA</a>

CBS News Town Hall With Erika Kirk

‘Tell That To My 3-Year-Old’: A Fiery Erika Kirk Responds To Justification Of Charlie’s Murder

assassination

Charlie Kirk

Crime

The Left owns Hollywood lock, stock, and barrel. Or, to be more accurate, used to own.
New media rebels are finally giving the progressive monopoly some small but fiery competition. Think “The Joe Rogan Experience,” a contrarian podcast where alternative perspectives get millions of views across media platforms. Or a certain conservative outlet that produced the <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/amiracist/?gad_campaignid=21933436219&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiAq7HIBhDoARIsAOATDxBm2hPQ6CcuV09hj6BwyoTy0cbj2esalZiZVU_F95kQ04U2iaLygZIaAsO6EALw_wcB&amp;utm_campaign=air&amp;utm_content=na_subscriptions&amp;utm_medium=paid&amp;utm_source=googlesearch">most popular documentary of the last decade.</a>
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter-turned-X struck another blow against the Left’s pop culture cartel. Still, the Left’s near stranglehold on the arts remains in place, leaving a David vs. Goliath battle in progress.
Enter David Ellison, a corporate titan with a small but mighty slingshot.
<div id="attachment_997647" style="width: 876px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-997647" class="size-large wp-image-997647" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-2239551629-866x576.jpg" alt="David Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer of Paramount Skydance Corp., during the Bloomberg Screentime event in Los Angeles, California, US, on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. Screentime gathers the moguls, celebrities, and entrepreneurs defining the next phase of pop culture to discuss and debate the future of Hollywood studios, the boom in sports and live music and the impact of AI on the creative industries. Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="866" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-2239551629-866x576.jpg 866w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-2239551629-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-2239551629-768x511.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-2239551629.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px" />Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
The CEO of Skydance Media is now a major player in the entertainment space following his company’s acquisition of Paramount. And he could loom even larger should Skydance <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/david-ellisons-paramount-seen-front-runner-warner-bros-discovery-deal-2025-10-23/">add Warner Bros. Discovery</a> to its portfolio.
Ellison isn’t a number-crunching executive handing the creative side off to colleagues. His company’s biography says he “oversees the entire Skydance film slate.”
The son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison (one of the world’s richest men) is personally invested in entertainment, above and beyond his background with USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and memberships in the Producers Guild of America and the Television Academy.
<div id="attachment_997643" style="width: 876px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-997643" class="size-large wp-image-997643" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-450392142-866x576.jpg" alt="Larry Ellison, chief executive officer at Oracle Corp., speaks during an event at the company's headquarters in Redwood City, California, U.S., on Tuesday, June 10, 2014. Ellison announced today that Oracle Corp will be releasing a new in memory database system called 12c in July 2014. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="866" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-450392142-866x576.jpg 866w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-450392142-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-450392142-768x511.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-450392142.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px" />David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
An <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/features/david-ellison-hollywood-takeover-paramount-warner-bros-1236569136/">expansive Variety profile</a> suggests he’s willing to shake up the status quo in order to stay profitable in an uncertain time for film and TV studios. The old ways no longer work, he believes, and there’s plenty of evidence to back him up, given Hollywood’s uncertain present.
The bigger issue, one that could turn the cultural tide? He’s MAGA=adjacent. President Donald Trump has referred to the Ellisons as “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/media/ellison-wbd-trump-warner-bros-discovery-bid">friends” and “big supporters.”</a> 
Exaggerations? Possibly. The younger Ellison has been coy about his ties to Trump, telling a press gaggle earlier this year that he <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/david-ellison-paramount-plans-politics?srsltid=AfmBOopmFhN2gwtpuslNfLqAi5xkwi8GFifA8TAs49IslmXixJozLRyB">wanted to avoid political conversations</a>.
“Half my family is Democrat, half my family is Republican … I don’t intend to put my finger on the scale.”
That’s both an improvement on the status quo and something that speaks to both the cultural moment and the sense that Hollywood, Inc. has spent years alienating a huge swath of the country at its peril.
Ellison could make a sizable play for said swath by playing it down the middle. And, on occasion, reaching out to the Right when it makes sense. 
He recently partnered with the Trump administration to bring a UFC extravaganza to the White House lawn next year. That’s part of the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/paramount-wins-exclusive-us-rights-ufc-77-billion-deal-2025-08-11/">company’s $7.7 billion (with a B) UFC deal</a>. That sport skews decidedly young and male, a far cry from the “toxic masculinity” cries circulating in some Hollywood projects.
<div id="attachment_997651" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-997651" class="size-large wp-image-997651" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-2242789414-864x576.jpg" alt="ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - OCTOBER 23: UFC President and CEO Dana White is seen on stage during the UFC 321 press conference at Etihad Arena on October 23, 2025 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-2242789414-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-2242789414-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-2242789414-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-2242789414.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC</div>
Team UFC isn’t in lockstep with the Democrats like most sports, either. You won’t find an “End Racism” logo on any octagon. Some <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/29/mma-trump-election-433529">MMA stars are pro-Trump</a>, while key figures like Rogan and UFC CEO Dana White both endorsed the leader’s 2024 campaign.
Ellison recently acquired the center-driven Free Press news outlet and hired founder Bari Weiss to restore CBS News as a trustworthy platform.
Weiss, a center-Left lesbian with a passion for old-school journalism, is the kind of person few people of Ellison’s status would embrace. He chose her anyway, hoping she would restore the CBS brand to its former glory. She quickly axed departments tied to race and climate.
That Variety profile mentions upcoming Ellison projects, such as a “Top Gun” sequel, the Heartland hit that Hollywood has yet to Xerox in any meaningful fashion. The only recent film to capture “Top Gun: Maverick’s” spirit? “F1,” the Brad Pitt racing film from earlier this year. Both hit films were shot by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-all-american-director-you-dont-know-by-name">same director</a>, Joseph Kosinski.
<div id="attachment_997633" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-997633" class="size-large wp-image-997633" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-1395478401-864x576.jpg" alt="SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - MAY 04: (L-R) Brian Robbins, President &amp; CEO, Paramount Pictures, Bob Bakish, President and CEO, Paramount Global, David Ellison, Joseph Kosinski, Tom Cruise, Shari Redstone, Non-Executive Chairwoman, Paramount Global, Jerry Bruckheimer and Christopher McQuarrie attends the Global Premiere of &quot;Top Gun: Maverick&quot; on May 04, 2022 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-1395478401-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-1395478401-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-1395478401-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/GettyImages-1395478401.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Leon Bennett/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures</div>
Other Ellison films include a “Call of Duty” video game adaptation from Trump-friendly director Peter Berg and a cowboy feature the liberal outlet dubbed a “Western version of ‘Taken.’”
For years, Hollywood seemed willing to lose money in order to push a progressive message. The best example? It kept late-night TV reflexively liberal, ignoring viewers who craved a second opinion. Fox News shamed the industry by giving right-leaning Greg Gutfeld a late-night showcase, and his ratings numbers now speak for themselves.
That’s called leaving money on the table. Would Team Ellison do that?
CBS famously put an end to Stephen Colbert’s reign on “The Late Show,” giving him until May of 2026 to peddle his nonstop Trump barbs. That move came a month before Skydance acquired Paramount, Colbert’s then-employer.
As Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/skydance-colbert-late-show-anti-bribery-laws-paramount-senators-letter-1236476164/">reported</a>, “&#8230;Stephanie Kyoko McKinnon, Skydance’s general counsel and co-president of business operations, said in part … “Skydance was “not involved” in CBS’s decision to cancel “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert&#8230;”
None of this means Ellison plans to turn Skydance into a Fox News-like media empire. No channels dedicated to Dinesh D’Souza documentaries or Chuck Norris films. It’s far more significant than that, potentially.
Ellison’s mission could give half the nation a veritable safe space, a company that won’t insult them and, on occasion, deliver content that speaks to their values. Hollywood needs fresh thinking and a way to reach audiences who have been chased away by A-list talent for far too long.
A key reason why the Oscars, a once-beloved TV institution, is no longer a ratings juggernaut is that too many stars rage against the show’s audience. Viewers hate them back by turning the channel.
Megastars no longer move the political needle every four years, in part, due to that animosity.
An Ellison-ized Hollywood could tell stories that would never otherwise be told. Imagine features on how Venezuela’s socialism crashed a once-prosperous nation. Or heroic tales that speak to the best American values, not just Oscar-bait dramas reeking of greedy capitalists or cruel men of faith.
It’s the kind of industry shake-up Hollywood needs, and it may take a billionaire of Ellison’s status to make it happen. Or, as screenwriter William Goldman said about Hollywood, “nobody knows anything.”
But if Ellison bucks conventional wisdom, he actually could make Hollywood great again.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Key Speakers At The Bloomberg Screentime Conference

Paramount’s New Boss Has One Mission: Make Hollywood Watchable Again

Billionaire

Dana White

Donald Trump

Entertainment

Movies

Paramount

Silicon Valley

Tom Cruise

Video Games

White House

CBS News is reportedly set to name Bari Weiss as its inaugural editor-in-chief after Paramount inked a deal to buy Weiss’ outlet, The Free Press, for $150 million.
Weiss will report directly to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, circumventing both CBS News president Tom Cibrowski and CBS president George Cheeks, who typically oversees all CBS News executives, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/10/02/media/paramount-skydance-to-name-bari-weiss-editor-in-chief-of-cbs-news-sources/">New York Post</a>.
Weiss’ The Free Press will not be incorporated into CBS News, but will remain a standalone property under Paramount.
The $150 million buyout of The Free Press involves cash and stock options, according to the Post.
Weiss will move to helm the news division at CBS, vaulting her over reporters and anchors to have a significant hand in managing the editorial direction of the outlet, a remarkable comeback for a journalist who left The New York Times under controversial circumstances five years ago.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=fall40&amp;utm_content=fallsale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial">Get 40% off new DailyWire+ annual memberships with code FALL40 at checkout</a>
Weiss has long been seen as an independent voice since her departure from the opinion page of The New York Times in 2020. In her resignation letter, Weiss <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/business/media/bari-weiss-resignation-new-york-times.html">cited</a> “bullying by colleagues” and an “illiberal environment” among her reasons for leaving the paper. With the deal with Paramount, Weiss has sprung into a highly influential position as media organizations grapple with the heavy progressive slant that the largest outfits have operated under for decades.
Paramount’s decision to move Weiss to the helm of CBS News reflects a new dynamic in corporate media to invite in voices that are more critical of the political Left wing of the country. Though Weiss is not a conservative, she is friendly with many on the Right, often inviting them to come on her podcast “Honestly,” and her ascension should be seen as a positive development for conservatives who want to see a more balanced approach to politics in corporate media.

Bari Weiss To Direct CBS News As Editor-In-Chief As Part Of Free Press Deal: Report

The following is an edited transcript of a recent interview between Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley and writer, podcast host, and author Coleman Hughes on a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/arguments-for-a-colorblind-america-with-coleman-hughes-5-5-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sunday Extra edition of Morning Wire</a>. They discuss Coleman’s new book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/End-Race-Politics-Arguments-Colorblind/dp/0593332458/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9._h60-qX0FVqYwEkR4727shgT8ZTliBnE-akfWHgvqRM-GrYX2xXpdDyMeBS7txWqiCrkMs40YZDOJq0H8XhQYnFpof7UfQ576iR67iozqBCKO6S_uwsf1Y_NUYhlYq0PvT1R_AJ3jFj2pKZLBtNVN_Db5KHpDQmXLpTySrfa63P672QGuKZz_0gqqqxK0WSQzJKHz8MFi_kNzmIB8C1sGgAzfFGU3mxOgyyV2l0BZCE.qFFTfmVuiIXitZcyJyxXMn-a3F612ji872fykwxuH14&amp;qid=1714698506&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America</a>” and how his push back on DEI is making waves.
JOHN: Joining us now is Coleman Hughes, podcast host and author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/End-Race-Politics-Arguments-Colorblind/dp/0593332458/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9._h60-qX0FVqYwEkR4727shgT8ZTliBnE-akfWHgvqRM-GrYX2xXpdDyMeBS7txWqiCrkMs40YZDOJq0H8XhQYnFpof7UfQ576iR67iozqBCKO6S_uwsf1Y_NUYhlYq0PvT1R_AJ3jFj2pKZLBtNVN_Db5KHpDQmXLpTySrfa63P672QGuKZz_0gqqqxK0WSQzJKHz8MFi_kNzmIB8C1sGgAzfFGU3mxOgyyV2l0BZCE.qFFTfmVuiIXitZcyJyxXMn-a3F612ji872fykwxuH14&amp;qid=1714698506&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America</a>.” Coleman, thanks for coming on. 
COLEMAN: Thanks for having me.
JOHN: So I want to start with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sunny-hostin-gets-wrecked-after-accusing-independent-author-of-being-co-opted-by-republicans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an interview</a> you did with The View that went viral last month. One of the hosts, Sunny Hostin, branded you a “conservative” and suggested you&#8217;re being used as a pawn by the Right. What do you make of that encounter and the stir it caused – and how would you define your perspective ideologically?
COLEMAN: So, I&#8217;m a political independent, I&#8217;ve only voted twice. I&#8217;m 28-years-old, so that&#8217;s a function of my age. Both times I voted for Democrats – Hillary and Biden, though I&#8217;m not opposed to voting for Republicans. So those are my politics. What I make of that appearance was that Sunny Hostin, rather than address my arguments, she sought to paint me as somehow a compromised individual, either financially compromised or ethically compromised. And instead of attacking her on the same grounds, I just kind of calmly debunked her accusations and then moved back to the topic. I think the contrast between how she was arguing in such bad faith and how I just calmly responded, I think that contrast is what made the moment go semi-viral, because that&#8217;s just something you don&#8217;t see on daytime television. I think people were struck by that.
JOHN: Before we get to your book, I wanted to ask you about something else that’s been in the headlines: the anti-Israel protests we’re seeing at elite universities. You graduated from Columbia, which has been a hub for these protests. Do you see a correlation with the kinds of protests we&#8217;re seeing on campuses and the emphasis on Diversity Equity and Inclusion in academia? Is there a crossover between this Left-wing protest culture and DEI?
COLEMAN: So I think the thing people don&#8217;t understand about DEI and why people criticize DEI is that DEI is an ideology. DEI is the ideology, which says that you can divide the world into oppressors and oppressed. White people are the oppressors, Jews are the oppressors, and the oppressed are black people, brown people, Hispanics, and so forth. DEI departments and DEI bureaucracies are usually clusters of bureaucrats who basically buy into this philosophy. But it&#8217;s the philosophy itself that is the problem and that philosophy is very much synced up with the protests you&#8217;re seeing now on Ivy League campuses where Jews in general are seen as oppressors, as “colonizers,” really. That very much syncs up with the DEI bureaucracies that have generally viewed white people and Jews as oppressors who are not really subject to the same protections as students of “color.”
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire/arguments-for-a-colorblind-america-with-coleman-hughes-5-5-24" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LISTEN: The Morning Wire interview with Coleman Hughes</a></h4>
JOHN: This gets us to the premise for your book, and many of the statements you&#8217;ve made publicly, which is that we need to strive for a colorblind society. First, how do you define color blindness within the context of modern society?
COLEMAN: For me, color blindness isn&#8217;t pretending not to notice race because, as adults at least, we all notice race. But, what colorblindness really should mean, at its deepest level, is that we try our very best to treat people without regard to race, both in our personal lives and in our public policy. So, I tell you I&#8217;m gonna do my best not to treat you differently because of your race. I&#8217;m going to ask that you do the same to me, and we&#8217;re both going to ask that our government does not treat us differently based upon our skin color. And whenever the government has a legitimate interest in trying to help disadvantaged people, we&#8217;d ask that they do that on the basis of class, income, wealth, socio-economic measures, rather than based on the color of my skin or my racial identity. If you&#8217;re for what I just said, you&#8217;re for colorblindness as I define it in my book.
JOHN: You contrast this colorblind ideal to the concept of what you call “neo-racism” and its emergence in contemporary discourse. How do you define neo-racism and how does it differ from traditional forms of racism? 
COLEMAN: So, the philosophy I just described as DEI is fairly close to the philosophy I call neo-racism in the book. It&#8217;s a philosophy that says Whiteness is inherently bad and anything but whiteness is inherently good, inherently morally superior. This is a philosophy that was pretty marginal in American life for many decades. You could find it in Critical Race Theory seminars for many decades, but you&#8217;d never encounter it if you were just a normal person navigating typical spaces. Until about 2013, when we all got smartphones with cameras, and everyone and their mother was on Facebook, that fundamentally changed how information spread. And that caused a scenario where people were now seeing unrepresentative, misleading clips of police firing on unarmed black Americans, preferentially promoted in their social media algorithms, which gave the false impression that racism was on the rise, when in fact, it&#8217;s been on the decline for many, many decades. When that happened, the ground became fertile in people&#8217;s minds for this philosophy of neo-racism, or DEI, to spread way beyond the narrow corners of the academy where it used to live. It then spread into your social media feeds, into your K-12 classrooms, where now you have kids essentially being taught that whiteness is a bad thing and taught to be ashamed of their race. You have black kids and Hispanic kids taught to exaggerate their victimhood and wear it as a kind of badge of pride. All of this has wreaked havoc on race relations. All of it is a backslide from what is the proper goal, namely the goal of the civil rights movement, which is to denounce racism in all its forms, whoever it&#8217;s directed at, and to emphasize our common humanity. The fact that beneath this skin, we are all more alike than we are different. The essential fact about you is not the race or the group that you belong to, it&#8217;s your personal qualities. It&#8217;s how you treat people. It&#8217;s your values and so forth. So, that&#8217;s how I describe it.
JOHN: You bring up the civil rights movement. There&#8217;s an ongoing attempt to co-opt Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In recent years. We&#8217;re being told that his message was far different than most people remember it — that he doesn&#8217;t want people judged by the color of their skin — but that he actually had a different vision, a much more DEI and sort of Marxism-aligned vision. Can you explain that debate and which side you stand on?
COLEMAN: Well, as for Marxism,  it&#8217;s just a historical fact that he rejected Marxism. Anyone can read his essay called “<a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/my-pilgrimage-nonviolence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">My Pilgrimage to Nonviolence</a>” where he explicitly talks about why he rejected Marxism. But on this larger question of what did Dr. King believe? Every year on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, there&#8217;s a series of articles in the Huffington Post and various liberal outlets, Left-leaning outlets, – and they&#8217;re all the same article, they all say the same thing. They say Dr. Martin Luther King was a radical and they imply that he would kind of agree with woke anti-racists like Ibram X. Kendi, Ta Nehisi Coates, the Black Lives Matter movement, and so forth. But they all do the same thing, which is they lie by doing a bait and switch. They say Martin Luther King was a radical, and then the only quotes and arguments they can pull from to prove that have nothing to do with race. They have to do with other topics, like, for instance, MLK was against the Vietnam War before that was a popular position. So he was considered an anti-war radical, he was a pacifist, which was very controversial at the time, in the mid-60s. And he was also for things like universal health care and a guaranteed minimum wage, what you would call today kind of Democratic Socialism of a Bernie Sanders variety. Again, that was very controversial then too. None of those ideas, however, have anything to do with the issues he is alleged to have been a radical on – namely, racial identity, the importance of race. He never wavered on that issue. He always felt that the important thing was common humanity, not to divide black from white, not to judge people based on the color of their skin, but rather on the content of their character and steadfastly against policies that discriminated in any direction on the basis of race. No one&#8217;s ever been able to show that he supported those things because he didn&#8217;t, and he was very clear about that. So you have many scholars on the Left saying that the Right are the people that have sanitized and co-opted Dr. King&#8217;s legacy. In fact, the opposite is closer to the truth. It&#8217;s the so-called “anti-racists” that have had to ignore half of what Dr. King said in order to make it seem like he would agree with what they&#8217;re doing today, which he wouldn&#8217;t.
JOHN: What do you see as the main drawbacks of anti-racism or neo-racism, particularly in its effects on social progress and its impact on black individuals?
COLEMAN: One of the negative effects it&#8217;s had on black people is to persuade us that current discrimination is the main cause of black standing relative to white Americans. It&#8217;s made a kind of toxic victimhood mentality the norm – where I really don&#8217;t think that that kind of a mindset, which blames white supremacy for everything, is useful. First of all, it&#8217;s not true. And so it&#8217;s a misdiagnosis of the problems that still do pervade, especially intergenerationally poor pockets of black America. The problem in those places is not white supremacy, but neo-racism has so convinced enough people that white supremacy is the problem, that all the efforts have been directed essentially at the sort of anti-racist, DEI programs that do nothing to address the root cause of the problem. The root cause of the problem with intergenerational poverty, both black, white, Hispanic, and so forth, is that we have to do a much better job helping people between the ages of 0 and 18, at the pre-K age, and at the K-12 level. Things like race-based affirmative action at the college level, corporate DEI programs, they don&#8217;t even touch the source of the issue. And yet those have been the focus because neo-racism has misdiagnosed the problem.
JOHN: What are some of the policies or approaches or even philosophies that would be helpful for addressing those ages 0 to 18?
COLEMAN: I think the most important study that I know of that points the direction of where we ought to go is by the economist Roland Fryer at Harvard. He did a study where he was able to essentially take over 11 or 12 of the lowest performing public schools in Houston. He fired half the teachers, fired almost all the principals, and extended the school day. He looked at how the best Charter Schools in New York City operated and he imported those protocols into the public schools. And he was able to raise test scores, all kinds of good results, which are extremely rare to see in public school research. I think that kind of thing is really the direction we have to be moving toward. Unfortunately, in any normal scenario, all of his interventions are impossible due to unions and so forth. I think that&#8217;s really the direction we have to go in.
JOHN: What role do elite American institutions play in perpetuating racism? You have a lot of experience in them, so do I. How can they be transformed into allies in the fight against these issues, this neo-racism?
COLEMAN: Well, unfortunately, elite institutions are the places where neo-racism has taken its firmest and deepest root. So, I&#8217;m talking about elite universities, Ivy League universities, corporations, museums, all these kinds of elite spaces – journalism and media, where it has become normal  to essentially judge people based on the color of their skin. It has become unacceptable to question someone&#8217;s allegation of racism. And so it, it&#8217;s become very normal for there to be false examples of racism. It&#8217;s become difficult to speak or disagree about topics related to race for fear of one&#8217;s career, fear of getting fired, fear of getting canceled. And there has to be a critical mass of people in these institutions who say, “enough.”
JOHN: Are there alternatives now? Or do you see them in the works — these institutions or education models that are providing some hope in terms of really addressing the issues that will actually elevate people who are in poverty status?.
COLEMAN: So, at the K-12 level, you&#8217;ve seen certain charter schools that are extremely successful with precisely the kids that the system has generally given up on. Not to say all charter schools are successful, some are terrible, but the ones that are good are really good and they are better than public schools at dealing with kids that come from disadvantaged backgrounds, single parent homes, and so forth. Someone like Ian Rowe is a great resource on that issue, he runs charter schools in New York. At the college level, you have the University of Austin in Texas, which has tried to pioneer a different approach, a less ideological approach, or rather a classical liberal approach, really. An approach that values free speech and viewpoint diversity, which at this point, most of the elite colleges and universities have abandoned as an ideal – choosing instead social justice, anti-racism, anti-colonialism as their highest ideals. And, yeah, so I think those two educational models at the K through 12 level and at the college level point a direction forward. In terms of media, I write for the Free Press, which Barry Weiss started as an alternative media source, giving people really rigorous journalism, long-form journalism, investigative journalism, the stuff you can only do if you&#8217;re like a legitimate, resourced, journalism outlet – but without the woke bias, without the liberal slant that has been endemic in most journalistic institutions.
JOHN: Well, we’re certainly sympathetic to that view here – trying to provide an alternative to this liberal slant in the media is part of the reason we created this show. Coleman, thank you so much for joining us today.
COLEMAN: Thanks so much.
JOHN: That was Coleman Hughes, author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/End-Race-Politics-Arguments-Colorblind/dp/0593332458/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9._h60-qX0FVqYwEkR4727shgT8ZTliBnE-akfWHgvqRM-GrYX2xXpdDyMeBS7txWqiCrkMs40YZDOJq0H8XhQYnFpof7UfQ576iR67iozqBCKO6S_uwsf1Y_NUYhlYq0PvT1R_AJ3jFj2pKZLBtNVN_Db5KHpDQmXLpTySrfa63P672QGuKZz_0gqqqxK0WSQzJKHz8MFi_kNzmIB8C1sGgAzfFGU3mxOgyyV2l0BZCE.qFFTfmVuiIXitZcyJyxXMn-a3F612ji872fykwxuH14&amp;qid=1714698506&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America</a>” – and this has been a Sunday // Extra edition of Morning Wire.
***

Menu