Bari Weiss has made a lot of bad decisions since being put in charge of the news division at CBS. One of her most amusing was promoting Tony “Two-Cuts” Dokoupil to be the head newscaster for the evening news. It seems the primary motivation for promoting him was his love of Israel and Judaism — he earned his nickname because he was so devoted to his version of Judaism that, despite already being circumcised, he got a second circumcision because his rabbi said the first one wasn’t good enough.
That’s one of the defining characteristics of the Weiss regime: a fervent dedication to Zionism and Israel that she’s using to shape the news program.
Dokoupil is no Walter Cronkite, the anchorman I grew up listening to in the 60s and 70s. That era is definitely over now, and Weiss is accelerating its decline. The facts and figures are in, and CBS is in trouble.
CBS Evening News has struggled to gain a foothold since relaunching with new anchor Tony Dokoupil in January.
Ahead of the end of the first quarter later this week, the news program is on track for its lowest-rated first quarter this century, across both total viewers and the crucial 25-54 demographic, Status reports, citing preliminary Nielsen ratings. The program is currently averaging 4.3 million viewers; in the 25-54 demographic, ratings are down by 18 percent at just 541,000 viewers.
To make matters worse, the network’s morning show—of which Dokoupil, 45, used to be co-host—is also failing to attract viewers, with CBS Mornings experiencing its lowest-rated quarter on record, averaging 1.8 million total viewers, down from 13 percent in the same quarter last year.
The disastrous ratings are a blow to Weiss, 41, who was installed as editor-in-chief after billionaire nepo baby and Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison acquired her outlet, The Free Press, for $150 million in October. She had no experience in broadcast journalism and reports directly to Ellison.
You should never put billionaires in charge of anything — they’re all incompetent. Disastrous ratings don’t actually matter to Weiss. She got her $150 million. The network can go into a death spiral, but she got hers.
“It’s pretty terrible. Once you’re under 4 million, you’ve got to be worried that you’re in a death spiral,” another CBS insider said. “If they can’t retain an audience in the middle of a war, God help you when the war ends.”
Other industry insiders concurred, with a TV news veteran telling Status on Saturday, “The first rule of television medicine is do no harm—and Bari has done so much harm.”
Go anti-woke, go broke, but they’ll never figure that out because once you’re rich enough, consequences don’t matter anymore.
I tend to be excessively self-deprecating, but over and over I am sure that I could do a far better job than Bari Weiss, etc. These people generally have horrible values, but they are even less competent (while hilariously extolling the ‘virtues’ of self-reliance, merit, and thrift).
David Ellison is worse than an incompetent billionaire, he’s the scion of an incompetent billionaire. Daddy at least had the ability to exploit technology and markets to amass the billions, but Sonny didn’t have to bother with even that.
So it seems, but if we could only ask the Capets…
“averaging 1.8 million total viewers, down from 13 percent in the same quarter last year.” Is that English?
I don’t think they care if they run their Mainstream Medias into the ground.
In fact, that might be the plan.
The Ellison’s are trying to turn CBS into Fox NoNews.
Why bother making another clone of Fox NoNews. One is enough.
Elon Musk wrecked Twitter.
He doesn’t care. It is one of the few social media sites that won’t ban him for being a white racist nazi.
Bezos destroyed the Washington Post.
He doesn’t care either.
I get most of my news these days from independent up and coming media companies.
There are many of them and they are often on Bluesky.
I just skip over CBS, X, Fox NoNews, and the Washington Post.
How…how EXACTLY does one get a SECOND circumcision…?
…you know what, on second thought, don’t tell me because I DON’T WANT TO FUCKING KNOW…!!
I think Weiss is doing exactly as planned.
1. Zionism based propaganda is the goal
2. Destroying the profitability and viewership takes out an independent voice and makes it easier to change it into a propaganda arm.
Twitter used to be a method for groups to organize resistance to authoritarian control. The investors that helped Elon take down Twitter were rich folks from the middle East. They are happy with the outcome.