John Oliver Targets Nepo-Billionaire’s Media Ambitions, Including HBO
The host of “Last Week Tonight” delved into a situation he candidly described as “not ideal.” John Oliver raised concerns about billionaire David Ellison’s decision to appoint Bari Weiss as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News.
Oliver dedicated a significant portion of his monologue on “Last Week Tonight” to scrutinizing Weiss’s career, from her tenure as an opinion writer at The New York Times to her role as founding editor of The Free Press, which Ellison recently acquired for $150 million.
While he poked fun at Weiss’s characterization of her 2020 departure from The Times as a “Jerry Maguire moment heard ’round the world,” Oliver’s criticism grew more severe when addressing two Free Press stories that, in his view, failed to meet journalistic standards.
The late-night comedian highlighted a recent story from this year falsely claiming that malnourished children in Gaza did not die from starvation, and a 2023 piece by an alleged whistleblower working with trans families in Missouri, whose assertions were entirely refuted by the families involved.
Oliver stated, “The truth is, we wouldn’t even have done this story were it not for the fact that Bari Weiss has just been named editor-in-chief of CBS News. And that feels different. Because there are many opinion-heavy outlets out there, from left to right, and with low to high editorial standards. This show is, among other things, an opinion outlet. And while our staff works incredibly hard to research stories before we write something and vigorously check our facts afterwards, we’re also not the news.”
He articulated his aversion to any “pure opinion outlet” overseeing CBS News, even if their viewpoints aligned with his own. “But it is especially alarming to have someone doing it who has spent years putting out work that—in my opinion—is at best, irresponsible, and at worst, deeply misleading,” he asserted.
Perhaps more troubling for Oliver is Ellison, who assumed the role of chairman and CEO of the newly formed Paramount Skydance in August and reportedly has set his sights on Warner Bros. Discovery—the parent company of Oliver’s prestigious cable network and streaming platform.
As Oliver elaborated, “And look, it is not just about Bari Weiss being at CBS. It is about the fact that CBS is now under the control of someone who thinks that she and her editorial sensibility make her a good fit for the job, and who, incidentally, is now preparing a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, home of CNN and, uh-oh, HBO. Which isn’t ideal. Although, I’ve got to say, if what he likes about Bari is that she forces him to have hard conversations that get a bit uncomfortable, maybe he’ll like this?!”
Oliver characterized Ellison as “the latest in a string of billionaires who have taken over our journalistic institutions, from The Washington Post to the L.A. Times, and started making worrying changes. Whatever complaints I might’ve had with their coverage before—and I have had plenty—my solution would never have been this. Because when these takeovers get announced, it’s easy to think, ‘well, thank goodness there are other outlets that are under some billionaire’s influence.’ And that is true. Because there is always another one, until there suddenly isn’t.”
He acknowledged the unpredictability of Weiss’s potential success or failure at CBS News.
“It is worth keeping an eye out for subtle changes there, because while I’m sure many of CBS News’ good journalists will continue to do great work, if you start seeing people resigning or getting fired, or you start seeing stories that seem off in some way, especially if it involves the left going too far on a topic Bari Weiss cares about,” he advised. “It’s worth asking yourself why that might be. Because unfortunately, the much bigger answer might be that a billionaire has chosen to inject contrarian, right-leaning opinion journalism into an American icon.”