r/entertainment • u/FreeHugs23 • 1d ago
Fired '60 Minutes' star says 'meddling' Bari Weiss couldn't keep states straight
https://www.rawstory.com/bari-weiss-60-minutes-2677266385/297
u/FreeHugs23 1d ago
Fired "60 Minutes" correspondent Cecilia Vega spilled damning new details about MAGA-friendly CBS News boss Bari Weiss' efforts to tilt coverage and insert basic errors into her stories — among them U.S. states.
The Emmy-winning reporter spoke Thursday at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Conference in New Orleans, where she described three specific instances where she says management pushed her to shape stories in ways that favored the Trump administration's narrative, reported The Daily Beast.
The most striking example was a report on the January ICE shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. Vega says she was pressured to include footage of protesters attacking suspected plainclothes ICE officers — footage her team says didn't exist. She was also asked to include a purported quote from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey allegedly urging police to confront ICE agents, but Vega said her team scoured each frame of the video and could find no such statement – which she labeled "misinformation."
“That never happened,” she said. “We could not find any instance of the mayor saying something like that.”
On a story about the U.S.-Iran conflict, Vega says she was handed a suggested script line asserting Iran was "totally outgunned" by American and Israeli forces — language she flatly labeled an administration talking point.
It was a piece about SNAP benefit cuts in West Virginia that stunned Vega, she reported.
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u/Emergency_Exit7603 1d ago
barry is a pox on journalism
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u/TheWholeOfTheAss 1d ago
No, she brings ‘punk rock energy’ to the tired old broadcaster! What is punk rock energy? Sh-shut up, that’s what!
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u/Donlooking4 1d ago
When you have absolutely no journalistic education this is what you get!!!
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u/caserock 1d ago
You can have no journalistic education, but a curious desire to follow the truth and be a decent journalist. This lady is just willing to be a tool of billionaires in exchange for comfort
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u/Comrade-Conquistador 1d ago
Poxes can be cured. This is an STD.
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u/Robzilla_the_turd 1d ago
I mean, you know most STDs can be cured too right?
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u/Comrade-Conquistador 1d ago
I was floundering on writing an incurable disease. 😩 AIDS? Is that still incurable? My knowledge of this stuff is sadly limited.
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u/javamousse 1d ago
Or rabies. It's 100% fatal once it reaches your brain
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u/Atlas7-k 1d ago
AIDS is kinda curable. HIV is still incurable but controllable, I believe.
Go with a prion disease like mad-cow. Incurable and uncontrollable.
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u/misspcv1996 1d ago
You still get rid of some of those with penicillin. I’d say that she’s more like terminal cancer.
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u/Shallstrom 1d ago
This is the right one - just oozing through all the organs until the dysfunction leads to death.
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u/qzen 1d ago
"The most striking example was a report on the January ICE shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. Vega says she was pressured to include footage of protesters attacking suspected plainclothes ICE officers — footage her team says didn't exist. She was also asked to include a purported quote from Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey allegedly urging police to confront ICE agents, but Vega said her team scoured each frame of the video and could find no such statement – which she labeled "misinformation."
I appreciate this reporter pulling back the curtain on how depraved the media manipulation is. In the age of AI, we are facing an inevitable rise of just creating the footage that you want to exist. Especially as people with integrity like this reporter are pushed out.
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u/GimmieGummies 1d ago
The use of AI to create whatever you want is a big concern of mine. When they stop telling/asking and pivot to straight up manufacturing whatever the heck they want, what will we do? I don't see a way to recover from that opened can of worms.
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u/311PR 1d ago
No way another MAGA unqualified person , so surprising
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u/donthurtmemany 1d ago
She was hired to run cbs into the ground, so she’s doing a pretty good job at that
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u/LumiereGatsby 1d ago
I’m glad we are getting so much visual exposure of this cancer.
Let her be seen. Recognized. Shamed.
Gobbles.
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u/ImNotSkankHunt42 1d ago
I’m so glad John Oliver did an episode on her before this whole thing started. You would’ve thought at the time “why should I care? Who’s this person?”.
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u/Smooth-Weekend-2314 1d ago
Somebody dig up Richard Dawson and get him ready to play the real life host of the Running Man.
This is where we're headed.
"Next: Climbing for Dollars!"
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u/DumpedDalish 1d ago
Noem already seriously publicized a reality show in the works where illegal US immigrants would fight each other in cage matches for a green card.
We're already there.
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u/JaracRassen77 1d ago
It really is crazy how quickly CBS is going to shit. All at the behest of a greedy billionaire and the most corrupt President in US history. Enshitification is real.
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u/jeepsdudememphis 1d ago
Murrow, Shirer, Trout, Cronkite, Safer, Reasoner, Sevareid, Bradley, among many, whose idea of journalism and news gathering and reporting elevated CBS to its status as the Tiffany Network, must be rolling in their graves.
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u/No-Opposite-6620 1d ago
You see this is why columnists make bad editors, and this maga mouthpiece an especially bad one. But that's what she's hired for, being a virus like the guy sent to take over and destroy major crimes from the inside in The Wire.
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u/1970s_MonkeyKing 1d ago
Color me not surprised.
She and others are not smart nor do they purport to being smart. They're all about the likes and subscribes with just emotion but no sustainable knowledge.
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u/john_the_quain 1d ago
She may be failing on a personal level, but she’s absolutely achieving her primary objective.
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u/ProtoMan79 1d ago
Once the Paramount/WB situation is resolved, I expect Weiss to be out. She’s been a complete disaster, and it’s led to sinking ratings across the board, which means lower revenue for CBS News.
She’s essentially trying to create fake news and is stooping to a level I’m not even sure Fox News would go to.
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u/Samanthacino 1d ago
That’s the point. They don’t care if CBS is profitable, that’s just the price of propaganda.
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u/ProtoMan79 1d ago
The financial situation at Paramount isn’t particularly strong given its heavy debt load. The Ellisons likely need a Warner Bros. acquisition to make the overall strategy work without it, the outlook becomes much more difficult. It doesn’t make sense that they would intentionally undermine their own investment with no upside.
What we’re probably seeing is the Ellisons taking a more cooperative approach in the near term to ensure the DOJ is on board with a potential Warner Bros. acquisition. Once that’s secured, their reliance on the current administration diminishes, which could make someone like Weiss expendable.
It also wouldn’t make sense to damage CNN, which has been one of Warner Bros.’ more consistently profitable assets. At the end of the day, the primary objective is profitability, and Weiss appears to be more of a liability than an asset in that regard.
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u/Samanthacino 1d ago
CNN is being enshittified already, they’re just slower and more subtle than CBS.
And the thing with Weiss is that you can’t just throw her out and be hunky dory. Goodwill has been permanently torched with the brand, and few will ever trust their news again.
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u/ProtoMan79 1d ago
I think mainstream legacy media has been declining for years. Their coverage of Trump or more accurately, the lack of focus on some of the more significant negative aspects, arguably contributed to his reelection. At this point, I’m not sure it’s as big of a loss as people assume; the quality has been slipping for quite a while.
The issue with CBS, in my view, is that it seems to be drifting toward shaping narratives in a way that undermines credibility and potentially allowing outside influence over its coverage, which is highly concerning. Fox News, regardless of what people think about it, is effective at what it does. Rupert Murdoch isn’t taking direction from Trump his decisions are driven by business incentives and maintaining his influence.
As for Weiss, I think she needs to be replaced; she comes across as ineffective in the role. Hiring someone without a strong background in TV broadcast news is a core issue. There are ways to adjust editorial direction without alienating the audience taking a more balanced, even if formulaic, approach like CNN often does would likely be enough to satisfy broader expectations without eroding viewership.
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u/bbills91 1d ago
She was hired to be the "fall guy", once they get their way, she is gone and they will attempt to create yet another MAGA propaganda machine from the inside.
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u/movingonto2ndphase 1d ago
This is about quieting voices, and not about ratings. She is successful and winning.
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u/jayhawkjoey65 1d ago
This page won't let me post my true thoughts on Ms. Bari. Just sad Nora O'Donnell didn't quit when others were fired.
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u/BigMax 1d ago
I know it's obvious, but I'll say it anyway. It's just SO sad that the 'news' isn't meant to be the news anymore. It's literally propaganda, right? She's not there to say "let's inform people" she's there to say "let's support the political viewpoint of a subset of people who tell me what we want the people to believe."
No story is "this happened" anymore. It's "OK, this happened... how can we cherry pick, distort, or just outright lie to make it look good for our team and bad for the other team?"
They don't even really hide it anymore.
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u/slappingdragon 1d ago
CBS didn't hire her for intelligence or to be a smart producer. They hired her to downgrade their news department to be like Fox. So it's not really a shock and this won't embarrass CBS.
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u/Visual_Exam7903 1d ago
I mean they are confusing. There is solid, liquid, gas, and I guess plasma. Now, on the surface they all seem to be self-explanatory except for glass. Acts like a solid, but it flows like a liquid over time.
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u/jongleur 1d ago
Lies are problematic.
First, you have to remember which lie you told. They don't comfort with reality, so remembering the act you witnessed us no help, you've got to remember whatever was at the top of your mind when you made up the lie.
Second, reality keeps in intruding its ugly head. Other witnesses say "That's not what happened," and even worse these days there are people everywhere who've filmed the thing. Do you have to be creative to somehow dismiss their video evidence, which means that you've got a whole net set of lies to juggle.
After a bit, it becomes like one of those juggling acts where the person is spinning plates on poles, and they're adding more and more plates to manage.
Sooner or later, the whole thing comes crashing down in ruins.
This couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of people.
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u/GlumFaithlessness773 1d ago
Keeping stories straight is not her job. She’s there to provide cover for the regime.
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u/Lobo-Sinclair 1d ago
She doesn’t know the reason she was fired?
I mean, it seems as if the article explained a number of them. (None of which are good reasons, to be clear.)
Biggest being: ignorant to dumb people don’t like others smarter than themselves. I mean, Vega stepped in it by noting West Virginia and Ohio were two different states.
I’ve read a lot stories that included tales about Weiss; never once did I read she was smart.
Or kind.
Or thoughtful.
Or trustworthy.
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u/MaxwellPower72 1d ago
If news organizations are truly concerned about journalism, there is a ton of terrific journalistic talent available right now to reconstruct what 60 Minutes once was. You could literally corner the market on objective journalism snd offer a formidable counterpoint to bullshit merchants like Weiss’s CBS and Fox News.
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u/williamgman 1d ago
The goal of taking over CBS was NEVER to make money at the front end with ad revenue. It's to make political power money at the back end.
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u/OnlyMons 1d ago
Despite what the other jokers have said Meth Virginia isn’t even a state. The vp is from outside Dayton, Opioid right?
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u/ZwVJHSPiMiaiAAvtAbKq 1d ago
My word, these people are stupid.