Revenge of the Cancelled
Bari Weiss Is Now Editor in Chief of CBS News
Back when schools were closed during COVID — the school closures lasted about a year and a half in New Jersey — I irritated people by saying that this was a bad idea. Because it was really destroying my kids, I went into mama bear mode. I complained everywhere — on Substack, on X, and on Facebook. I wrote letters to major newspapers. I got up at every school board meeting for that time and complained. I was a royal pain in the ass.
I wasn’t cancelled, because there was nothing to cancel me from. I didn’t have an important job at that time. I wasn’t a public figure. I was just a Substack writer who was easily ignored by both magazine editors and local leaders. Without anything to lose, I ranted to anybody who listened and made new friends.
About that same time, in 2020, Bari Weiss resigned from her position at the New York Times, citing bullying by colleagues and an “illiberal environment.” She had been hired to add a center-right perspective on the opinion page, which was not appreciated by the more left-wing staff.
In 2021, she started The Free Press along with her sister Suzy Weiss and her spouse, Nellie Bowles. I subscribed to the Free Press then. I liked it and still read all the free articles. Not every article is a homerun, but there’s always something interesting.
Bari has won, and won big. Since its founding, The Free Press has amassed 1.5 million readers and $15 million in annual subscriptions. Yesterday, Paramount acquired The Free Press for about $150 million and made her the new editor-in-chief of CBS News.
The best revenge is massive success. Good on her.
Apparently, some people aren’t so happy about this. The Washington Post interviewed staff at CBS, who are less than thrilled. Others are worried that this move was the result of pressure from the White House, which has been micromanaging late-night television.
I’m a free speech fanatic. I want late-night hosts to be loud and rude. I want South Park to mock princes and presidents. I want to complain about bad policies made by good people. I want to cheer good policies made by bad people. I want to read conservatives and liberals on my opinion pages. I want to listen to speeches by people that I don’t agree with. I want to be able to hone my own arguments by debating with people who are wrong.
As someone with some war scars (small ones) from a period of intolerance, I’m happy for Weiss. Hopefully, she’ll increase the number of voices in the media and maintain our American tradition of free speech. And, hopefully, she’ll do all that without overcorrecting and shutting down other voices of protest.
Links
An afternoon panel about disability policy from the New America Foundation: “Our nation is failing to meet the needs of the one in four Americans who are disabled. As the population of people with disabilities continues to grow, our existing framework of fragmented policies and systems is untenable, and we need better, evidence-based solutions.”
Watching: Only Murders in the Building, Lowdown, Black Rabbit
Travel: At the moment, we’re just living vicariously through our oldest kid, who is living in a hostel in Tauranga, New Zealand. Yesterday, he and a buddy hitchhiked to Rotorua to check out some hot springs. A nice mom with an autistic kid in the backseat picked them up.
I don't understand why you don't expect Weiss to exclude a wide variety of voices from anything she's in charge of--she's already shown a willingness to do that.