"On Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that Qatar — the generous folks who gave Donald Trump a shiny new Air Force One — would be getting a military facility… in Idaho.
Hegseth said he is “proud that today we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force Facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho.”
“The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15’s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability.”
Variations: How would this play on Fox News if Kamala Harris has given a foreign air force a facility in the United States after accepting a lavish gift from them?"
This is actually from Charlie Sykes, but I truly have to wonder what the MAGAts think of this, presumably their echo chambers tell them about it.
Personally - I plan to stop watching CBS. It has been my favorite. Larry Ellison kisses up to Trump and we can expect support for all the insurrectionists, all the bribes, all the pardons, fixing the new air force one, the stupid move of Space Command, the BBB, the destruction of democracy, etc.
And 60 minutes will be laughable with no content of substance.
CBS would be smart to go the other way - 75% of the people are vs Trump, MAGA wants pedophiles out of office (many in politics), 70% want democracy instead of a king. DUDE LISTEN TO THE MARKET
Bari Weiss was not pushed out of the NYTimes for her views (they have a few similar thinking people on staff), she was just an .asshole people didn’t like being around. She always thinks she’s the smartest person in the room.
I've been at the B long enough to remember when JVL had a weekly feature called the Newsletter of Newsletters, if I remember correctly, in which he'd briefly review and recommend other newsletter publications to his readers. And my inbox became something of a mess because of that.
Also, if I remember correctly (and I'll admit my memory isn't what it once was, so I may be wrong), in one of those editions he praised Bari Weiss and her newly launched enterprise, calling her his "spirit animal", and thus the mess in my inbox came to include a subscription to the Free Press.
Which then ended a couple of years and change later, after I'd watched Weiss et al become basically a right wing culture war platoon practicing a dab or two of actually decent journalism on the side, and I'd tired of watching Weiss tote around that giant NYT chip on her shoulder, proclaiming herself to be an independent centrist or common sense liberal or some such, made homeless by the progressives and liberals themselves, as well as an outsider maverick battling the entrenched insiders and fighting the good fight of integrity and honesty in nonpartisan journalism and reporting.
Please.
I didn't have a problem so much with what Weiss was (and still is) as I did (and still do) with her dishonesty about it.
Anyway, when it comes to this whole Weiss / CBS thing, it would be laughable if it weren't so sad to watch a storied news business once revered for its people and integrity turning itself into a *balanced* Trump-compliant enterprise, thereby balancing the books on the side of continuing profits as opposed to the pursuit of facts and whatever unvarnished truth they reveal.
Wait... What was that noise?
Oh, never mind.
It was just Edward R. Murrow, Wiliam S. Paley, Nancy Dickerson, Don Hewitt, Morely Safer, Mike Wallace, and some guy named Walter all rolling over in their graves at once.
Maybe I'm a bad fit for this era, but I do not want "balanced" news, as if there is some sort of quota system. I want accurate news, with depth and substance and appropriate fact-based analysis. If the coverage slants in one direction or the other due to actual circumstances, so be it. That's the world we live in, not necessarily the world that we want for it to be. It serves no good purpose to give pro-MAGA forces equal time for burning down the house because ... because ... just because. I'd rather hear more about how to save the house, for both ourselves and future owners, and do home improvements when and where they are needed.
Unless you're a DIY kind of guy, good luck with any home improvements there, D, what with the building trades shrinking by the day due to the presence of soooo many dangerous criminals who must be deported now long having disguised themselves within their ranks, but at long last are now finally being found out and sent packin'.
But hey... Maybe Tim Taylor and Al Borland will come out of retirement to help take up some of the slack, while Heidi pointedly asks, "Does everybody know what time it is?"
I'm about as incompetent with power tools as Tim Taylor was. Fortunately I have a neighbor who knows his stuff, and for occasional food and beer bribes I've pretty much got every eventuality within reason covered, and without having to buy the tools.
In other words you know the steps to take to bring the project, from start to finish, to completion. Then you get the qualified person to carry out the project. One successful project done. On to the next one! “Balance” obviously has nothing to do with home repair, just accuracy.
I can make my way around a tool or two when necessary (was a Journeyman Toolmaker and Machinist for nearly 50 years). But I wish I had a neighbor like that, since these days I'd much rather drink a beer and watch *them* use the tools. :-)
Honestly, if I'm an elected Dem who wants to raise my profile, I ask to be interviewed live on CBS directly by Bari Weiss. Not by a more experienced CBS interviewer. Not tape delayed. Live. If she refuses, make a stink about it. "Bari Weiss invited me on but then refused to interview me live by herself."
Pete, Gavin, or JB should do this. My gut tells me she's kind of an ignoramus who only has one schtick and she's sticking to it. Time to prove it.
Cathy’s takedown is a masterpiece. At best, Weiss turns CBS News into the WSJ after the Murdoch takeover. But I am not sanguine given unlike a newspaper with room for good investigative reporting but a bonkers of an editorial board, TV news has limited time with its audience. Therefore, I expect mostly quackery from the network.
I've been getting the Free Press, unasked for; and evidently, I will need to subscribe toke receiving it. I won't. The bothsidsing that happens there infuriates me. I tried to unsubscribe but couldn't, so I guess I'll just have to wait until they stop sending their missives to me.
The fact that she allowed herself to benefit from Ellison’s and Paramount’s bribing the Trump regime, makes her inherently unfit to be a journalist. Kudos to Jim Swift for his full disclosures about being a fan and for his change of heart. That’s what separates the MAGA crazies from conservatives who are actual conservatives and brought us the Bulwark on Day 1
The wealthy buying and stiffing through media consolidation.
We can talk about the left v the the right all day, but there is also the wealthy v everyone else problem that has contributed to the shared grievances of the right and the left.
“Weiss, in her own message to her new CBS News colleagues, said that she wants to help the network news division focus on journalism that holds both political parties “to equal scrutiny,” and that “embraces a wide spectrum of views and voices.” At the Free Press, which she says “will remain independent” within Paramount, she wrote an editorial reiterating these themes.”
Okay, let’s cut the crap (full disclosure, I’m Jewish)! Weiss is getting the outlandish buyout and her new SWEET gig for two reasons, and two reasons only; and neither has to do with journalistic excellence!
1. Her unwavering support and commitment to Israel, with impunity. There is no crime Netanyahu and his right-wing fascist cohorts couldn’t commit, that Weiss and her free press couldn’t justify by twisting and contorting the truth into a priceless Picasso!
2. Weiss and the Free Press’s undying fealty to Trump; in which any criticism of Trump is so undeniably tepid, that it leaves one wondering whether the criticism was an actual criticism at all.
Bottom line, both Larry and David Ellison are diehard Trump and Israel supporters, as are most of the top Trump billionaire advocates. Weiss’s publication is just the natural progression of a few billionaires controlling the dissemination of information into the future.
And with Ellison’s control over TikTok, CBS, CNN, and several other media outlets, combined with Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezo’s and Murdock’s control over most of the other social and corporate media platforms; we are seeing a consolidation of the industry into the hands of an elite few, as well as a paradigm shift in which information will be closely monitored and disseminated to the public at large. IMHO…:)
As someone who’s mostly a BlueNoMatterWho Dem voter, I’d argue Bari Weiss makes perfect sense if you see her as a single-issue Israel voter.
With single-issue voters I don’t think that it’s that nothing else matters, but instead it’s the other issues have to take a step back.
I didn’t use to think the Dem Party was totally lost to Israel. Instead I thought because Bibi went all-in with the GOP during the Obama years the anti-Israel sentiment was driven by THAT more so than Dem voters being actually against the continued existence of Israel as the Jewish homeland.
After October 7th, seeing what I saw on my Instagram feed (from so many people I know in real life) this changed. Listening to Pod Save America and NPR in the months since has only strengthened my new view.
Now I am far more sympathetic and understanding to the point of view the Democratic Party may not be for supporters of the continued existence of Israel as the Jewish homeland.
For me (an atheist Lutheran) while I support the continued existence of Israel as the Jewish homeland, it’s nowhere near a major issue for me. I didn’t even know I am technically what we’d call a “Zionist” before this year. So I’m sticking with Team Blue, but I get where people like Bari might not.
That’s an interesting path. My father and grandmother, though Christian were very pro-Israel. In my 20’s I started reading the likes of Benny Morris and Tom Segev from the New Historians which caused me to rethink what I had been believed and been told about Israel. I believe Israel has a right to exist, but I cannot support the government or policies as a liberal for ideological reasons. I wouldn’t support Orban’s Hungary, or Putin’s Russia or any other right wing government and the same goes for Israel. For me it’s not a question of whether the country has a right to exist, but does it reflect values that I support and believe in.
For me, my family is Norwegian. I’ve spent a good deal of time in UK as well. So I’m well aware of how ethnonationalistic America isn’t (or at least my very proudly libbed-out and woke bubble isn’t) and yet everywhere from France to Japan kinda sorta is, so that might inform some of my Zionistic point of view.
Back in high school, ethnocentric was a word my favorite social studies teacher wrote in big letters on the white board on the first day of class. That informs a lot of my point of view as well. This is to say, I’d like to think I wouldn’t support Orban, Putin, Bibi or many others, but I’m not so confident I wouldn’t. If I were born, raised and live in that context I could see myself having all kinds of problematic beliefs.
Yes of course our backgrounds influence who we are. But here you are supporting those who are opposed to Trump and the people like him. I’d say something turned out right.
I get your point and agree to an extent; however, most democrats believe in the state of Israel, not the far leftist crap. That said, the loudest voice in the room is the one that gets amplified, and heard; unfortunately!
When it comes to Barri, you’re right. However, in this case it’s Ellison that wants someone loyal to Israel and to Trump to run his media empire. Let’s not forget, to get the Paramount deal, they agreed to install an ombudsman to strictly control the content being produced.
She lost me when TFP celebrated Charlie Kirk- the junior Trump pedaling the white man’s bigotry and other products of his insidious ignorance. ( note Trump’s cowardly ,vicious attacks on black women?)
Can’t wait until Weiss checks in with CBS’ HR department which displayed their true colors with their gross mistreatment of Catherine Herridge
How can anyone celebrate a guy who believes in White Replacement Theory, and when Pelosi’s husband was bludgeoned with a hammer, asked his podcast listeners, “which Patriot will bail the man out of jail?”
Kirk is no MLK Jr.; he’s just another false prophet/charlatan peddling his own brand of White Christian “worldview” trash! IMHO…:)
Oh they did a number of pro-Charlie pieces including Jewish ones who eulogized how Charlie made them appreciate their Jewish faith. They had one, as well, on how Erika Kirk’s initial response and steely resolve represented the spirit of our best stories — I’m paraphrasing from memory, but the line stuck with me. I’ve never subscribed, but casually look at what they put up and sometimes read the free articles. I am always dismayed at how poorly fact checked their pieces are. Initially I thought this was just poor editing and maybe a resource allocation issue as fact checking requires money and time. Now I have come to believe it is a feature rather than a bug.
Some Bari Weiss dish to start your morning . . .
Just received an email from Pravda, I mean Bari Weiss Inc. headquarters. Seems she is coming to Chicago to moderate a gun control debate next month.
Terrific! Obviously an important topic and would be cool to watch if Bari can control a discussion and be fair to both sides.
Then you get to the fine print.
On the Pro-Gun side: Dana Loesch. Understandable; she is practically Ms. NRA.
on the Gun Control side . . . It hurts to even type the name . . . "constitutional scholar" Alan Dershowitz <sigh>
You know, if she really wanted to play fair with this issue, maybe don't hire a representative for one side with so much baggage. Just a thought.
THE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM IS CORPORATE NEWS WILL SHOW NOTHING THAT RISKS CORPORATE PROFITS.
"On Friday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that Qatar — the generous folks who gave Donald Trump a shiny new Air Force One — would be getting a military facility… in Idaho.
Hegseth said he is “proud that today we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force Facility at the Mountain Home Air Base in Idaho.”
“The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15’s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability.”
Variations: How would this play on Fox News if Kamala Harris has given a foreign air force a facility in the United States after accepting a lavish gift from them?"
This is actually from Charlie Sykes, but I truly have to wonder what the MAGAts think of this, presumably their echo chambers tell them about it.
Hegseth REALLY likes to talk about lethality. He's another sick, sick man.
More like a sick, sick 15 year old who hasn’t quite figured out puberty. He sounds more like a silly child than a man.
Personally - I plan to stop watching CBS. It has been my favorite. Larry Ellison kisses up to Trump and we can expect support for all the insurrectionists, all the bribes, all the pardons, fixing the new air force one, the stupid move of Space Command, the BBB, the destruction of democracy, etc.
And 60 minutes will be laughable with no content of substance.
CBS would be smart to go the other way - 75% of the people are vs Trump, MAGA wants pedophiles out of office (many in politics), 70% want democracy instead of a king. DUDE LISTEN TO THE MARKET
Bari Weiss was not pushed out of the NYTimes for her views (they have a few similar thinking people on staff), she was just an .asshole people didn’t like being around. She always thinks she’s the smartest person in the room.
I've been at the B long enough to remember when JVL had a weekly feature called the Newsletter of Newsletters, if I remember correctly, in which he'd briefly review and recommend other newsletter publications to his readers. And my inbox became something of a mess because of that.
Also, if I remember correctly (and I'll admit my memory isn't what it once was, so I may be wrong), in one of those editions he praised Bari Weiss and her newly launched enterprise, calling her his "spirit animal", and thus the mess in my inbox came to include a subscription to the Free Press.
Which then ended a couple of years and change later, after I'd watched Weiss et al become basically a right wing culture war platoon practicing a dab or two of actually decent journalism on the side, and I'd tired of watching Weiss tote around that giant NYT chip on her shoulder, proclaiming herself to be an independent centrist or common sense liberal or some such, made homeless by the progressives and liberals themselves, as well as an outsider maverick battling the entrenched insiders and fighting the good fight of integrity and honesty in nonpartisan journalism and reporting.
Please.
I didn't have a problem so much with what Weiss was (and still is) as I did (and still do) with her dishonesty about it.
Anyway, when it comes to this whole Weiss / CBS thing, it would be laughable if it weren't so sad to watch a storied news business once revered for its people and integrity turning itself into a *balanced* Trump-compliant enterprise, thereby balancing the books on the side of continuing profits as opposed to the pursuit of facts and whatever unvarnished truth they reveal.
Wait... What was that noise?
Oh, never mind.
It was just Edward R. Murrow, Wiliam S. Paley, Nancy Dickerson, Don Hewitt, Morely Safer, Mike Wallace, and some guy named Walter all rolling over in their graves at once.
Maybe I'm a bad fit for this era, but I do not want "balanced" news, as if there is some sort of quota system. I want accurate news, with depth and substance and appropriate fact-based analysis. If the coverage slants in one direction or the other due to actual circumstances, so be it. That's the world we live in, not necessarily the world that we want for it to be. It serves no good purpose to give pro-MAGA forces equal time for burning down the house because ... because ... just because. I'd rather hear more about how to save the house, for both ourselves and future owners, and do home improvements when and where they are needed.
Unless you're a DIY kind of guy, good luck with any home improvements there, D, what with the building trades shrinking by the day due to the presence of soooo many dangerous criminals who must be deported now long having disguised themselves within their ranks, but at long last are now finally being found out and sent packin'.
But hey... Maybe Tim Taylor and Al Borland will come out of retirement to help take up some of the slack, while Heidi pointedly asks, "Does everybody know what time it is?"
I'm about as incompetent with power tools as Tim Taylor was. Fortunately I have a neighbor who knows his stuff, and for occasional food and beer bribes I've pretty much got every eventuality within reason covered, and without having to buy the tools.
In other words you know the steps to take to bring the project, from start to finish, to completion. Then you get the qualified person to carry out the project. One successful project done. On to the next one! “Balance” obviously has nothing to do with home repair, just accuracy.
I can make my way around a tool or two when necessary (was a Journeyman Toolmaker and Machinist for nearly 50 years). But I wish I had a neighbor like that, since these days I'd much rather drink a beer and watch *them* use the tools. :-)
Tired: Dems should be willing to go on Fox News
Wired: Dems should be willing to go on CBS.
Honestly, if I'm an elected Dem who wants to raise my profile, I ask to be interviewed live on CBS directly by Bari Weiss. Not by a more experienced CBS interviewer. Not tape delayed. Live. If she refuses, make a stink about it. "Bari Weiss invited me on but then refused to interview me live by herself."
Pete, Gavin, or JB should do this. My gut tells me she's kind of an ignoramus who only has one schtick and she's sticking to it. Time to prove it.
Cathy’s takedown is a masterpiece. At best, Weiss turns CBS News into the WSJ after the Murdoch takeover. But I am not sanguine given unlike a newspaper with room for good investigative reporting but a bonkers of an editorial board, TV news has limited time with its audience. Therefore, I expect mostly quackery from the network.
I've been getting the Free Press, unasked for; and evidently, I will need to subscribe toke receiving it. I won't. The bothsidsing that happens there infuriates me. I tried to unsubscribe but couldn't, so I guess I'll just have to wait until they stop sending their missives to me.
How are they sending it? Via emails from substack? If so, scroll to the bottom of the email and click unsubscribe.
Yes, I did that; and the "unsubscribe" took me to another screen with no option to unsubscribe. I'll try again, though.
I recently unsubscribed. Keep trying. It will work.
The fact that she allowed herself to benefit from Ellison’s and Paramount’s bribing the Trump regime, makes her inherently unfit to be a journalist. Kudos to Jim Swift for his full disclosures about being a fan and for his change of heart. That’s what separates the MAGA crazies from conservatives who are actual conservatives and brought us the Bulwark on Day 1
Watch very carefully what Weiss does to CBS News. If she starts slanting it to Trump be ready to boycott the advisers.
It's going to happen. No need to wonder.
The wealthy buying and stiffing through media consolidation.
We can talk about the left v the the right all day, but there is also the wealthy v everyone else problem that has contributed to the shared grievances of the right and the left.
“Weiss, in her own message to her new CBS News colleagues, said that she wants to help the network news division focus on journalism that holds both political parties “to equal scrutiny,” and that “embraces a wide spectrum of views and voices.” At the Free Press, which she says “will remain independent” within Paramount, she wrote an editorial reiterating these themes.”
Okay, let’s cut the crap (full disclosure, I’m Jewish)! Weiss is getting the outlandish buyout and her new SWEET gig for two reasons, and two reasons only; and neither has to do with journalistic excellence!
1. Her unwavering support and commitment to Israel, with impunity. There is no crime Netanyahu and his right-wing fascist cohorts couldn’t commit, that Weiss and her free press couldn’t justify by twisting and contorting the truth into a priceless Picasso!
2. Weiss and the Free Press’s undying fealty to Trump; in which any criticism of Trump is so undeniably tepid, that it leaves one wondering whether the criticism was an actual criticism at all.
Bottom line, both Larry and David Ellison are diehard Trump and Israel supporters, as are most of the top Trump billionaire advocates. Weiss’s publication is just the natural progression of a few billionaires controlling the dissemination of information into the future.
And with Ellison’s control over TikTok, CBS, CNN, and several other media outlets, combined with Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezo’s and Murdock’s control over most of the other social and corporate media platforms; we are seeing a consolidation of the industry into the hands of an elite few, as well as a paradigm shift in which information will be closely monitored and disseminated to the public at large. IMHO…:)
As someone who’s mostly a BlueNoMatterWho Dem voter, I’d argue Bari Weiss makes perfect sense if you see her as a single-issue Israel voter.
With single-issue voters I don’t think that it’s that nothing else matters, but instead it’s the other issues have to take a step back.
I didn’t use to think the Dem Party was totally lost to Israel. Instead I thought because Bibi went all-in with the GOP during the Obama years the anti-Israel sentiment was driven by THAT more so than Dem voters being actually against the continued existence of Israel as the Jewish homeland.
After October 7th, seeing what I saw on my Instagram feed (from so many people I know in real life) this changed. Listening to Pod Save America and NPR in the months since has only strengthened my new view.
Now I am far more sympathetic and understanding to the point of view the Democratic Party may not be for supporters of the continued existence of Israel as the Jewish homeland.
For me (an atheist Lutheran) while I support the continued existence of Israel as the Jewish homeland, it’s nowhere near a major issue for me. I didn’t even know I am technically what we’d call a “Zionist” before this year. So I’m sticking with Team Blue, but I get where people like Bari might not.
That’s an interesting path. My father and grandmother, though Christian were very pro-Israel. In my 20’s I started reading the likes of Benny Morris and Tom Segev from the New Historians which caused me to rethink what I had been believed and been told about Israel. I believe Israel has a right to exist, but I cannot support the government or policies as a liberal for ideological reasons. I wouldn’t support Orban’s Hungary, or Putin’s Russia or any other right wing government and the same goes for Israel. For me it’s not a question of whether the country has a right to exist, but does it reflect values that I support and believe in.
For me, my family is Norwegian. I’ve spent a good deal of time in UK as well. So I’m well aware of how ethnonationalistic America isn’t (or at least my very proudly libbed-out and woke bubble isn’t) and yet everywhere from France to Japan kinda sorta is, so that might inform some of my Zionistic point of view.
Back in high school, ethnocentric was a word my favorite social studies teacher wrote in big letters on the white board on the first day of class. That informs a lot of my point of view as well. This is to say, I’d like to think I wouldn’t support Orban, Putin, Bibi or many others, but I’m not so confident I wouldn’t. If I were born, raised and live in that context I could see myself having all kinds of problematic beliefs.
Yes of course our backgrounds influence who we are. But here you are supporting those who are opposed to Trump and the people like him. I’d say something turned out right.
I get your point and agree to an extent; however, most democrats believe in the state of Israel, not the far leftist crap. That said, the loudest voice in the room is the one that gets amplified, and heard; unfortunately!
When it comes to Barri, you’re right. However, in this case it’s Ellison that wants someone loyal to Israel and to Trump to run his media empire. Let’s not forget, to get the Paramount deal, they agreed to install an ombudsman to strictly control the content being produced.
She lost me when TFP celebrated Charlie Kirk- the junior Trump pedaling the white man’s bigotry and other products of his insidious ignorance. ( note Trump’s cowardly ,vicious attacks on black women?)
Can’t wait until Weiss checks in with CBS’ HR department which displayed their true colors with their gross mistreatment of Catherine Herridge
How can anyone celebrate a guy who believes in White Replacement Theory, and when Pelosi’s husband was bludgeoned with a hammer, asked his podcast listeners, “which Patriot will bail the man out of jail?”
Kirk is no MLK Jr.; he’s just another false prophet/charlatan peddling his own brand of White Christian “worldview” trash! IMHO…:)
Oh they did a number of pro-Charlie pieces including Jewish ones who eulogized how Charlie made them appreciate their Jewish faith. They had one, as well, on how Erika Kirk’s initial response and steely resolve represented the spirit of our best stories — I’m paraphrasing from memory, but the line stuck with me. I’ve never subscribed, but casually look at what they put up and sometimes read the free articles. I am always dismayed at how poorly fact checked their pieces are. Initially I thought this was just poor editing and maybe a resource allocation issue as fact checking requires money and time. Now I have come to believe it is a feature rather than a bug.
Agreed, I never subscribed either, but scanned the newsletter occasionally just to see what nonsense they were peddling…:)