Bari Weiss Has Been Neutered

There have been more than a few headlines and subheads this week that have described Bari Weiss as “rebellious” or a “rebel journalist.” Weiss did, indeed, leave the New York Times several years ago to start The Free Press, an online newsletter devoted to chronicling the illiberal excesses of the left and defending the atrocities Israel has perpetrated on the Palestinians.

Some people are freaking out that David Ellison bought The Free Press for $150 million and will install Weiss as the Editor in Chief of CBS News. Frankly, I’m not one of them. While a great number of journalists have left legacy media in the last year to strike out on their own with fewer constraints, Bari Weiss is doing the opposite. The anti-establishment opinion writer is selling out to the establishment, and there is nothing less “rebellious” than becoming part of a legacy media channel that caters to the oldest demographic.

When is the last time anyone here watched CBS News? I genuinely don’t even know who the CBS News anchor is anymore, nor, I suspect, does anyone under 60. And yes, 60 Minutes still commands decent ratings (largely thanks to its NFL lead-in during the fall), but the average age of a 60 Minutes viewer is over 65. If Bari Weiss were trying to make herself less relevant, she could hardly have picked a better path than selling out to the billionaire owner of a legacy network that only just recently shattered its reputation by capitulating to this Administration.

Nothing says “free press” like becoming a cog in the wheel of the oligarchy, and an article on The Free Press today — touting AI actress Tilly Norwood as “My Favorite Actress” — only cements the fact that this “rebellious” “firebrand” has sold out to Big Tech. And CBS News is only going to sand her edges.

Legacy media’s cultural primacy is gone. Influence now flows through independent creators, niche communities, and viral networks, which is where Weiss built her rebellious reputation. Now she’s joining a news outfit owned by the richest family in the world and will reportedly answer directly to David Ellison. That’s not a feather in her cap. That’s a sign of her future irrelevance, and a reminder that when so-called rebels seek legitimacy through institutions that no longer have it, they end up neutering the very thing that once made them matter.