John Oliver complains about Bari Weiss takeover at CBS, claims her past work is 'irresponsible,' 'deeply misleading'

John Oliver took aim at Bari Weiss and her new role as CBS News editor-in-chief during Sunday’s Last Week Tonight. Last week, CBS parent company Paramount, now merged with David Ellison’s Skydance, announced it had acquired Weiss’s media startup, The Free Press, and named her to lead the CBS newsroom.

“She’s been given editorial control of a massive news organization even though she’s never run a TV network, has no experience directing television coverage and, as one ‘60 Minutes’ producer pointed out, is not even a reporter,” Oliver said. “That is true. She didn’t come up through the news side of a newspaper but through the opinion pages, which are a very different thing.”

Oliver complained about Weiss’ outlet, The Free Press, saying that it has the consistent theme of “the left has gone too far.” He said the outlet frequently publishes stories confirming that idea, whether on “Israel, campus politics, DEI or police reform.”

“I’m not saying the left never goes too far or that it’s immune from criticism at all,” he added. “But it can sometimes feel like The Free Press’ conclusions can get out ahead of its evidence, which brings us to the fact that some of its pieces can be pretty poorly fact-checked, and in ways that feel important.”

Oliver acknowledged that his own show, which blends commentary and comedy, is also opinion heavy. But he said he wouldn’t want someone from any “pure opinion outlet” running a national news operation.

“I wouldn’t want anyone who led a pure opinion outlet, not even one that I happened to agree with, to suddenly be running CBS News,” he said, according to Variety. “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 then linked the move to a trend of wealthy people buying up major media outlets to reshape them.

“It is not just about Bari Weiss being at CBS,” Oliver said. “It’s about the fact that CBS is now under the control of someone who thinks that she, and her editorial sensibility, makes her a good fit for the job. And who, incidentally, is reportedly preparing a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, home of CNN and — uh oh — HBO.”

He continued, “It’s easy to think, ‘Well, thank goodness there are other outlets that aren’t under some billionaire’s influence.’ And that is true, because there is always another. Until there suddenly isn’t.”

Oliver said he doesn’t know what will happen next but urged viewers to watch for signs of change inside CBS.

“It’s possible she could completely reshape CBS News,” he said. “While I’m sure many of CBS’ good journalists will continue to do good 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 — it’s worth asking yourself why that might be.”