Bari Weiss’s CBS Ratings Disaster Reveals Ideological Mismatch
Bari Weiss’s heavily promoted Saturday town hall with Erika Kirk drew only 1.9 million viewers, representing an 11% decline compared to the year-to-date average for that time slot and a 41% decline in the key 25-54 demographic Mediaite. The dismal performance raises serious questions about whether the self-described “politically homeless” pundit possesses the ideological foundation necessary to lead a major broadcast news network that once defined journalistic integrity through figures like Walter Cronkite.
The Capitalist Media Consolidation Problem
Weiss’s appointment came after Paramount Skydance purchased The Free Press for a reported $150 million Encyclopedia Britannica, a transaction that exemplifies how billionaire ownership transforms journalism into ideological commodity production. The deal was brokered by the Ellison family, with Larry Ellison being both a staunch Trump supporter and fervent pro-Israel advocate. This merger represents the consolidation of media power into fewer hands—a classic Marxist critique of how capital concentrates and uses cultural institutions to manufacture consent for ruling class interests.
The fact that the merger required Trump administration approval and involved promises to embrace “diversity of political and ideological viewpoints” Democracy Now! suggests this appointment serves partisan political purposes rather than journalistic integrity. From a materialist perspective, Weiss’s role is not to deliver news but to legitimize right-wing perspectives within mainstream institutions.
Anti-Woke Conservatism Masquerading as Centrism
Weiss’s publication The Free Press obsesses over left-wing students and professors at elite colleges, diversity initiatives, pro-Palestinian activism, and “cancel culture”—all framed under the umbrella of opposing “wokeness” The New Republic. This ideological fixation reveals someone fundamentally opposed to the liberatory politics that feminism, anti-racism, and decolonization represent.
Her self-presentation as a “radical centrist” collapses under scrutiny. Analysis of The Free Press’ political coverage in the six months leading up to the 2024 election found 70 articles supportive of Trump or critical of Democrats, compared to just 14 supportive of Democrats or critical of Trump The UnPopulist. This 5-to-1 ratio exposes the performative nature of her claimed neutrality.
Zionism and the Palestinian Question
From both Islamic and anti-colonial perspectives, Weiss’s ideological rigidity on Israel-Palestine issues makes her fundamentally unfit to lead objective journalism. She has a 20-year history of suppressing speech championing Palestinian rights, dating back to her campaign at Columbia University against Arab and Muslim professors she viewed as too critical of Israel Democracy Now!.
Her writings conflate opposition to Israeli state policies with antisemitism and dismiss Jewish critics of Zionism as akin to “apologists for Gulags and mass-starvation” The Current. This McCarthyite approach to political discourse reveals someone incapable of engaging with the material reality of occupation, apartheid, and colonialism that Palestinian Muslims and Christians experience daily.
Gender and Intersectionality Rejection
Weiss condemned the concept of intersectionality as a “caste system” and published pieces critical of the Me Too movement, including defending Aziz Ansari against allegations of sexual misconduct Wikipedia. Her feminism, such as it exists, is the bourgeois liberal feminism that prioritizes individual choice while dismissing structural analysis of intersecting oppressions as theorized by Kimberlé Crenshaw.
While Weiss supports abortion rights and same-sex marriage (being married to a woman herself), she remains critical of diversity and inclusion initiatives Encyclopedia Britannica. This selective progressivism serves capital by fragmenting solidarity movements—accepting identity politics only when they don’t challenge economic hierarchies or imperial projects.
The Ratings Verdict
The town hall’s failure carries symbolic weight. Erika Kirk’s appearance drew 3.3 million viewers when she guest-hosted on Fox News’ The Five, nearly double the CBS viewership Mediaite. This suggests that even conservative audiences recognize that Weiss’s brand of “intellectual dark web” politics lacks authentic connection to their concerns.
Following the ratings disaster, Weiss postponed her planned internal town hall to CBS News staffers about the network’s future direction Status, suggesting internal resistance and recognition that her vision lacks support.
Conclusion: Ideologically Disqualified
From feminist, Islamic, and Marxist analytical frameworks, Weiss fails the ideological fitness test for leading CBS News. Her career demonstrates contempt for intersectional analysis, consistent suppression of Palestinian narratives, and service to capitalist consolidation of media power. She represents what Stuart Hall called “authoritarian populism”—using the language of free speech and anti-elitism while actually reinforcing structures of domination.
As Syracuse journalism professor Aileen Gallagher noted, CBS previously had no agenda, but installing someone with such clear ideological commitments inevitably means “the audience has no other option than to think that the news they’re getting from CBS is politicized now” Fortune.
The ratings collapse of her debut town hall may be the market’s verdict on what happens when billionaires purchase journalism to advance ideological projects rather than serve the public interest.
