Almost 25 years ago, as an undergraduate student, I studied English and Professional Communications — the closest my small, private, Catholic college came to a journalism major. When I worked for the student paper, my journalism professor emphasized ethics and integrity, even at our inconsequential publication.
She went so far as to argue, much to my surprise, that journalists should abstain from voting. Yes, she'd argue they'd be well within their rights to do so, but it was a matter of professional integrity to keep their work and politics separate. Would that we had more journalists and journalism professors who held to her beliefs. Perhaps today's journalists wouldn't be the stenographers and propagandists for the DNC that they are.
Looking back on that now, she was a rare duck, and I sometimes wonder if I should reach out to her to ask what her views are on the current state of journalism. Perhaps I don't want to know the answer. It's been more than two decades, and people change.
But I would love to hear her take on Bari Weiss, who is committing flagrant acts of journalism over at CBS, much to the dismay and downright irritation of the other members of her profession. Weiss, hardly a conservative, worked for The New York Times. She left because the publication couldn't tolerate running a dissenting op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton. It was the right call, but I notice that no one hailed her bravery when she resigned. They saved that for the Jennifer Rubins of the world, when Rubin and her ilk left places like The Washington Post because they wouldn't endorse Kamala Harris, or any political candidate, last year.
After leaving The New York TImes, Weiss built The Free Press from the ground up and on the principles of "honesty, doggedness, and fierce independence." For her hard work, CBS and Paramount bought The Free Press and gave Weiss a much-deserved editorial role at CBS.
The past few days have also proven that Weiss is a much-needed presence at CBS.
Earlier this week, Weiss spiked a story about CECOT, the El Salvadorian prison where the Trump administration is sending some illegal immigrants. She wrote a memo explaining what she'd like staff to do before running the story. Her requests were simple.
"If we're going to run another story about a topic that has by now been much-covered we need to advance it," her memo read. 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."
Weiss also noted the story did not "present the administration's argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT" and asked, "Isn't there much more to ask in light of the torture that we are revealing?" She pushed to get principals like Stephen Miller and Tom Homan on the record. She urged a deeper dive into what CBS knows about the Venezuelans, too. Notably, she pointed out the semantic game: "The data we present paints an incongruent picture," Weiss wrote. 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."
All of these things are more than reasonable requests. But the reaction of CBS staff shows they're not used to having an editor who does her job. Correspondent and producer Sharyn Alfonsi accused Weiss of pulling the story because of "political reasons." Alfonis claims 60 Minutes tried to speak to Stephen Miller, who (along with other Trump officials) refused to talk to the network.
Turns out that was a lie, too. Axios reported that the White House, State Department, and Department of Homeland Security all provided on-record comments to CBS, and not one of those comments made it into the 60 Minutes segment that was eventually leaked to Canadian networks.
This wasn't Alfonsi's first brush with problematic reporting, either. She was the reporter who ran a misleading piece on Ron DeSantis during COVID, alleging wrongdoing when DeSantis paired up with Publix to offer the COVID vaccine.
But the most offensive meltdown of all comes from Peter Rothpletz. In a none-too-subtle piece titled "Bury Weiss" (seems a bit threatening, no?), Rothpletz calls Weiss "the faux-free speech warrior, faux-queer rights advocate, and arguably faux-journalist."
“Over the last 48 hours, the faux-free speech warrior, faux-queer rights advocate, and arguably faux-journalist “editor-in-chief” of CBS News decided to drop the mask; she opted to go full fash, as the kids say.” - @PeterTwinklage for First Draft: https://t.co/Q9tdDGGNBl
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) December 23, 2025
I liken this to a child who has spent his whole life being indulged and spoiled. Raised by parents who didn't know how to say "No," the first time that spoiled brat is denied what he wants, he throws a tantrum. He doesn't know how to function in a world where he doesn't get his way.
Journalists, for far too long, have gotten away with not only injecting their politics into every noun, verb, and adjective of their "news" stories, but they also never offer pushback against Democrats — hence why I call them stenographers — and they gladly parrot DNC talking points like the propagandists they are. Now that someone is asking them to do the most basic, fundamental duties of their job, they're appalled that they can't continue their incestuous relationship with the Democratic Party.
Now Bari Weiss is trying to save her industry from self-destruction, and she's being attacked for it. Weiss, for her part, is unfazed:
My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices — happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.
Many years ago, President Trump called the media the enemy of the people, and he was right.
But they're also the enemy of actual journalists like Bari Weiss.