Justin Baragona here. News broke just ahead of us going live that the WarnerMount merger has officially cleared its last legal hurdle, with the anticipated closing coming next week. Joining David Ellison as co-CEO of the new company is Ynoz Kreiz, an Israeli-born businessman who spent years in the Israeli military and recently left Mattel as chairman.

In tonight’s edition, we look at how the establishment – which was perfectly encapsulated by Saturday Night Live’s cold open – is still completely clueless about Zohran Mamdani’s digital media strategy and why he shares such a natural connection with New Yorkers. Plus, MAGA media is now pretending it didn’t declare victory during Eric Schmitt’s faceplant.

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Why Mamdani’s Media Strategy Is Working – and the Mainstream Press Doesn’t Get It

It may have been nothing more than a half-assed throwaway joke, but it’s definitely rubbed New Yorkers the wrong way – as well as Zohran Mamdani’s team. And for good reason.

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Justin Baragona here. In tonight’s edition, Donald Trump’s press ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico was challenged in court this afternoon, where the judge didn’t seem to buy the administration’s ad hoc “national security” justification for barring the outlets. With the court almost certainly set to order the White House to restore the outlets’ access on due process grounds, I look at how this authoritarian ban has actually been bad for right-wing media. Plus, despite a blockbuster interview, ‘60 Minutes’ continues to be Bari’d, and all the latest from the WarnerMount merger.

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Why Fox and Co. Need Trump’s Press Ban to End

When a Newsmax anchor admitted this week that Donald Trump’s press ban was “backfiring just a little bit,” many took it as the president finally being deprived of that sweet narcotic of television coverage, which is what he craves more than oxygen itself.

And while that is certainly true, what quickly became apparent is that Trump barring CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House was also hurting the MAGA media landscape to the point that they desperately needed this ban to be reversed in short order.

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Justin Baragona here. In tonight’s edition, current and former CBS News staffers tell me how they are worried that the ratings disaster at ‘60 Minutes’ is just the latest example of Bari Weiss killing the Tiffany Network. Plus, John Fetterman parties at the Murdochs, and Fox turns a blind eye to more Trump corruption.

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Making Chicken Salad Out of Chicken Shit

“WELCOME TO THE SPIN ZONE!!!”

This was the all-caps text I received from a CBS reporter last night, letting me know exactly what they thought of the network’s official press release about the debut of Bari Weiss’s revamped ‘60 Minutes,’ which pulled in the worst ratings for a season premiere this century.

“The show is dead. We’re just looking at some Frankenstein of bits sewn together of mismatched pieces,” a CBS News senior staffer told me, adding: “I think the season is in trouble.”

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According to Nielsen, the iconic newsmagazine – which was chaotically overhauled by Weiss this past spring – averaged 7.9 million total viewers and 1.6 million in the key 25-54 advertising demographic on Sunday, down drastically from last season’s premiere of 10.03 million viewers and 2.36 million in the demo. This marked a 21% drop in total viewership and a troubling 33% in the key demographic.

Indeed, the flacks at the Tiffany Network did their level best to make chicken salad out of chicken shit.

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Justin Baragona here, a few days early due to Zeteo’s upcoming coverage of the 25th anniversary of 9/11. In this special edition, we take an in-depth look at Brendan Carr, Trump’s chief “attack dog” in the president’s escalating war against the media. Plus, make sure to check out our supercut of cable news’ most deranged comments about Hasan Piker below.

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Brendan Carr, Trump’s Hypocritical Media ‘Attack Dog’

Leaning hard into the core libertarian ideals of personal liberty and press freedom, Brendan Carr – who now serves as Donald Trump’s chief censor – delivered the following quote less than three years ago: “Free speech is the counterweight – it is the check on government control. That is why censorship is the authoritarian’s dream.”

Contrast that with Trump’s threat a week ago to report NBC News anchor Kristen Welker to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – where Carr serves as chairman – for a “rebuke or punishment” because Welker had the audacity to say that Trump has had “some mixed results” with his primary candidate endorsements.

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Trump then expressed hope that Carr “will take this Threat to our Country very seriously,” following that up with another Truth Social post demanding sanctions against media outlets for reporting on polls that show his low approval rating. “FCC TO THE RESCUE!” Trump exclaimed.

“I think President Trump is over the target, and we’re looking at a lot of actions,” Carr told Fox News yesterday, claiming that “so many broadcasters right now, they want to break the deal that they cut with the American people.”

Since Trump appointed him as his chief media “attack dog” following the 2024 presidential election, Carr has pretty much done what the president has commanded in his multi-front war against the press. And, along the way, Carr has thrown away all his self-professed principles regarding free speech, instead revealing himself as a craven bootlicker who will wield the power of the state against the media to satisfy his authoritarian master.

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Justin Baragona here. In tonight’s edition, I spoke to Hasan Piker about the networks’ refusal to interview him despite obsessively talking about him nonstop, and he told me whose shows he’d love to go on – if they have the guts. Also, we got some more details about the latest self-made disaster at CBS News.

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Why Won’t the Networks Just Interview Piker?

If you’ve just casually tuned into cable news these past few weeks, chances are you were on the receiving end of a hyperbolic shoutfest aimed at convincing you that Hasan Piker, a leftist Twitch streamer who most Americans have never heard of, is the single biggest story in politics today.

Ever since Piker began stumping for Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed in the pivotal Michigan Senate race, the progressive influencer has been the focus of outsized coverage by both the mainstream and right-wing news networks. However, what had been a steady stream of faux outrage over Piker’s at-times provocative statements turned into a tsunami of ragebait once El-Sayed won the Democratic primary early last month.

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“I think it’s an unbelievable distraction, and I think it’s a disservice to the American public to focus on a Twitcher this much at a time of unprecedented crises in the country and all around the world is ridiculous,” Piker told me in an interview. “I think people are very frustrated by what’s going on, and they’re frustrated by their media not serving their needs and serving their interests.”

I decided to check just how much time Fox and other networks are spending talking about Piker. Here’s what I found:

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and the mainstream media at large. In tonight’s edition, we take a look at what sources describe as the “crazy” and “biased” way CNN star Dana Bash has covered Israel and Gaza in recent years. Additionally, Karen Attiah speaks to Zeteo after Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post suffered a humiliating defeat when an arbitrator ordered her reinstatement after she was fired for comments in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death.

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Dana Bash Bashes Dems on Israel

“I don’t know how anyone can watch Dana Bash on Bill Maher and still pretend she is an objective journalist,” political strategist Adam Parkhomenko reacted to Bash’s recent appearance on ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ on HBO.

During that appearance, the veteran CNN anchor – who hosts ‘Inside Politics’ and co-anchors ‘State of the Union’ – seemed to find common ground with the caustic comedian’s more extreme and inflammatory views on Palestine, Israel, and domestic politics.

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Throughout the panel sit-down, Bash nodded along while Maher – who has become increasingly outspoken in his support for Israel – ranted that “Democrats are cowards” for backing pro-Palestinian causes while insisting the party is bigoted towards those of the Jewish faith.

“Well, in the Democratic Party, as long as that faith isn’t Jewish, you’re good, “ Maher, after Bash said James Talarico wears his “faith on his sleeve,” reacted. “Well, you said it,” she responded with a smile. (Currently, there are 31 Jewish Democrats in Congress – counting Bernie Sanders – versus just four on the Republican side.)

And when the sardonic comic sneered that Gaza “is not” a genocide and “doesn’t come close,” adding that many Democrats have only signed onto that because “they’re big on buzzwords and lawn signs,” Bash offered up this extra observation: “And likes on their social media.”

The Bill Maher appearance is the latest in a long list of not-at-all-objective comments from Bash.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we talk to journalism ethics experts on whether it is “fair game” for reporters to dig into the nature of Natalie Harp’s relationship with Donald Trump, and how newsrooms should navigate this story. Also, Disney is getting lauded for punching back against the Trump administration, but didn’t they help jumpstart his war against the media in the first place?

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Who’s Afraid of Natalie Harp?

“Okay, back to the midterms because the Natalie stuff, I think, is strange. So I’m going to leave it there.”

That was what MS NOW’s Katy Tur said to the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman on Tuesday afternoon following a several-minute conversation about Natalie Harp, the close aide to Donald Trump who has suddenly been thrust into the news cycle after Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) name-checked her during a Sunday campaign speech.

Tur’s pivot came after Haberman, whose best-selling book Regime Change (co-authored with Times colleague Jonathan Swan) prominently features Harp, said the 35-year-old staffer had “clearly taken devotion to [Trump] to a very different level” while referencing the “deeply personal letters” Harp had left the president.

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Haberman pointed out that those letters, which saw Harp telling Trump he is “all that matters to” her, left the Secret Service “alarmed,” something Swan also revealed to Mehdi in an interview last month.

Still, it was Tur’s reaction to Haberman and desire to move on to another subject that got me thinking, particularly since the story being “strange” is precisely why people want to know more about it.

How should mainstream media newsrooms navigate this particular story, considering the innuendo tied to it? Is it fair game to go through the door that Ossoff seemingly opened and dig into the nature of Harp’s relationship with Trump? And what are the media and journalistic ethics involved here?

To answer some of these questions, I reached out to Eric Deggans, Knight Professor of Journalism and Media Ethics at Washington and Lee University and NPR critic-at-large, and Subbu Vincent, director of Journalism and Media Ethics at Santa Clara University.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we look at why a former spokesman for Jill Biden is publicly endorsing a Trump-backed Republican for Senate, and why it may not be all that surprising. Also, if you thought Fox was bad with the anti-Muslim hate, you ain’t seen nothing yet, while it looks like Bari Weiss’s right-wing blog is doing the bidding of one of its investors.

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Why Is This Ex-Biden Spox Choosing Mike Rogers Over Abdul El-Sayed?

Days after declaring his support for Michigan’s Trump-endorsed GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers, claiming he couldn’t defend Abdul El-Sayed’s “cowardly” stance on 9/11, Michael LaRosa, a one-time press secretary for former First Lady Jill Biden, doubled down during an appearance on MAGA sycophant Laura Ingraham’s Fox show.

And he made sure to add a dash of Islamophobia too.

Pointing out that he’d already signed a petition calling for New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to be banned from the 9/11 commemoration next month, LaRosa demanded that El-Sayed fly to the Big Apple and personally address every single person who lost a family member in the 2001 World Trade Center attack.

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“He should look them in the eye and tell them that there is no justification for what happened,” LaRosa groused. “I would like him to wipe the grin off his face when he is talking about it, too!”

LaRosa was linking El-Sayed to comments made seven years ago by influential leftist streamer Hasan Piker, who has been campaigning for El-Sayed. Though Piker took those remarks back, saying he “obviously” didn’t mean America deserved 9/11, it hasn’t mattered to El-Sayed opponents who have found their new bogeyman. (Notably, Rogers falsely claimed that El-Sayed “believes that America deserved 9/11” shortly after El-Sayed secured the Dem nomination.)

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we break down everything that’s wrong with David Ellison’s recent woe-is-me New York Times op-ed about the WarnerMount merger. Plus, ‘60 Minutes’ continues to be a disaster, and MAGA media had a racist, Islamophobic meltdown over Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan.

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Debunking Ellison’s ‘Desperate’ Ploy to ‘Change the Narrative’

“Horseshit.”

That’s what a CNN on-air personality succinctly told me about Paramount CEO David Ellison’s recent New York Times op-ed, which argued that his critics were wrong about his politics and that he’d be a good steward of CNN.

The essay, which a CBS News senior staffer described to Zeteo as “very ill-advised,” came across to several CBS and CNN insiders as a “desperate” ploy to “change the narrative” around the suddenly in-doubt $111 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.

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While CBS and CNN sources I spoke to mocked Ellison’s column for reading as if it were written by a team of lawyers and PR flacks (Breaker’s Lachlan Cartwright revealed investment banker Blair Effron spearheaded the effort), it’s clear the 43-year-old wants to be seen as a misunderstood victim unfairly painted as a right-wing partisan.

But have his views and actions been misconstrued? Have his critics really been unfair to him? Well, I decided to do a bit of “fisking” of Ellison’s op-ed – and it’s clear: his argument doesn’t add up. Let’s take a look:

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we look at how the Murdoch media empire is leaning harder into Islamophobia as it ramps up its fearmongering about Zohran Mamdani. Plus, CBS News staff isn’t sold on Bari Weiss’s newest ‘60 Minutes’ hires, and the network’s ratings under Weiss keep sinking lower and lower.

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‘Incredibly Islamophobic Image’

Since even before he became New York mayor last year, the right-wing infotainment complex – and, particularly, the media outlets owned by Rupert Murdoch – has obsessively attacked Zohran Mamdani, painting the democratic socialist as a dangerous “antisemite” who will destroy the city with his “communist” policies while calling for him to be denaturalized and deported.

And while there’s always been a consistent undercurrent of Islamophobia flowing through this unending and deranged demonization of Mamdani, the last week has brought forth a more overt stream of anti-Muslim hate that has blared on the front pages of Murdoch’s papers and the screens of cable news.

(Scroll down for a supercut of the absolute worst on-air commentary – it is a must-watch.)

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we look at the controversial past of Bari Weiss’s latest hire – and what it says about the type of staff she’s looking to build at CBS News. Additionally, why is the White House Correspondents’ Association hosting the greatest threat to press freedom in America? Also, CNNers are feeling cautiously optimistic following the latest WarnerMount merger developments.

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‘An Absolutely Uninspired Choice’

Shortly after CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss announced that she had hired Mike Pesca – the host of the long-running daily news podcast ‘The Gist’ – to be the network’s editorial director of podcasts, one of Pesca’s former colleagues chimed in with a biting observation.

“‘What experience qualifies you for this job?’ ‘Well at Slate I died on the hill of being able to say n—,’” The Ringer’s Joel Anderson tweeted on Friday. “‘Say no more. Your offer is on the way.’”

Indeed, Pesca and ‘The Gist’ were suspended indefinitely by Slate in February 2021 after he argued with his fellow colleagues that white people should be allowed to say the n-word in certain situations. He would ultimately part ways with Slate in September of that year while also purchasing the podcast – which he would continue to host until he ditched it to work for Weiss.

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“I’m not surprised,” one CBS News insider told Zeteo about Weiss’s embrace of Pesca to lead the network’s budding podcast division.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we discuss how Lindsey Graham’s passing exposed just how useless the Sunday shows really are; if the broadcast networks will do Donald Trump’s bidding and air his election denial address; and what the California attorney general thinks about the damage Bari Weiss has done to CBS. Also, we give you another look inside the Trump-Fox Feedback Loop!

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The Sunday Shows Are Broken

I can think of no more fitting tribute to Lindsey Graham, a man who spent his life opportunistically chasing access and proximity to power while shamelessly preening for the television cameras, than the embarrassing display put on by the political mainstream media in covering his death.

This was best typified by the Sunday shows. Namely, CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ and NBC News’s ‘Meet the Press,’ which saw both programs’ anchors get pathetically rolled in order to say they scored an interview with the president.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we reveal just how often a certain MAGA-loving Democrat has been popping up on Trump’s favorite cable network, Bari Weiss’s latest bit of meddling at ‘60 Minutes,’ and the TDS that’s sweeping MAGA world.

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Fox’s Fetterman Obsession

In the run-up to the 2022 midterms and with control of the Senate hanging in the balance, Fox’s primetime lineup went all-in against the opponent of Sean Hannity’s hand-picked GOP candidate in Pennsylvania, portraying the Democratic challenger as a “giant walking vegetable” who “can barely utter a sentence.”

Besides peppering its airwaves with smears about John Fetterman’s then-recent stroke leaving him an “incompetent husk,” the network’s right-wing stars also fearmongered about the Senate hopeful’s policies, labeling him as “pro-murderer” and suggesting he wanted to “legalize all drugs.”

Flash forward to the present, and the same person who Hannity and the rest of the Fox crew obsessively warned its viewers about has now become one of the MAGA network’s favorite guests.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, does Zohran Mamdani need to take the threat of “Barstool conservatism” seriously ahead of his next mayoral election? Also, Anderson Cooper just can’t seem to get away from Bari Weiss, and NPR really steps in it over a botched Supreme Court story.

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‘El Presidente’ for NYC Mayor?

Amid the current political freakout (from MAGA and establishment Democrats) over Zohran Mamdani’s role as kingmaker as anti-war progressives and democratic socialists rack up primary victories, the New York City mayor suddenly found himself a potential new challenger for 2029.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we look at how Trump’s ‘Fox News Cabinet’ is bent out of shape over the president “capitulating” to Iran and turning its back on Israel. Plus, is Tony Dokoupil trying to rehab his image by distancing himself from Bari Weiss? Also, what does the CBS News ombudsman actually DO at the network?

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Turning on Trump?

Donald Trump’s ‘Fox News Cabinet,’ which gleefully pushed the administration to join Israel in launching its doomed and illegal war against Iran, is now beside itself that the president is desperately backing out of the fight by signing a “weak” peace agreement that reveals without a shred of doubt that the United States lost.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In today’s edition, we dig into Bari Weiss’s latest big hire at CBS News – and the allegations of Islamophobia that have followed him throughout his UK broadcasting and political career. Also, is woke algae ruining Trump’s big, beautiful reflecting pool? And how are the MAGA hawks at Fox dealing with Trump’s supposed Iran peace deal?

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Bari’s Latest Hire Is on Brand

“No, don’t try that one on me!” Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips dismissively sneered at UK Green Party leader Zack Polanski last month during an extremely contentious interview.

That contemptuous response came after Polanski, the only Jewish party leader in the UK, as well as the only leader who is outspoken against the genocide in Gaza, wondered why his “Jewish identity [was] being erased from this conversation” as Phillips continuously twisted the left-wing politician’s previous remarks about the threat of antisemitism in the UK.

Polanski noted that many Jews – such as himself – do not feel that pro-Palestinian rallies should be perceived as unsafe hate marches, while acknowledging that attacks on Jewish sites and people in Britain are on the rise. But Phillips chose to ignore and even belittle Polanski’s personal experiences and feelings on the matter. Even when the progressive leader brought up his own recent brushes with antisemitism.

Five weeks after Phillips “monstered” Polanski on air, as Zeteo’s own Owen Jones observed in a recent column in The Guardian, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss announced that the longtime British broadcaster and political figure had been hired as her network’s senior global affairs correspondent.

“Trevor Phillips cuts through the noise. His decades-long career is a masterclass in seeing beyond groupthink and pursuing the truth,” Weiss said in a statement about his hiring, noting that his reporting will appear on all of CBS News’s programming. “Trevor’s deep knowledge of geopolitics and history will be an incredible asset at CBS News, where he’ll quickly become an indispensable voice for audiences across all platforms.”

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Following the five-alarm fire she set at the network in recent weeks with her “Black Thursday” firings at ‘60 Minutes,’ which has sparked growing murmurs that Weiss could be demoted ahead of the CNN-CBS News merger, one wonders why her next big move was to hire a 72-year-old opinion host unfamiliar to American viewers. (At the very least, it doesn’t seem like this will move the needle with younger audiences, which Weiss’s digital-first strategy was supposed to appeal to.)

“I guess I’d be looking at what correspondent work he had done before. He is a presenter. That’s different,” one former CBS foreign bureau staffer told me.

Of course, with Weiss – a former New York Times opinion columnist and founder of the anti-woke blog The Free Press – seeing herself as a heterodox thought leader, it doesn’t take much digging to see exactly why Phillips appeals to her.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we bring you a scoop about a story that Cecila Vega was working on for ‘60 Minutes’ when she was fired. Plus: David Ellison and Co. try to put out Bari Weiss’s fires, who is (or isn’t) watching Stephen Colbert’s replacement, and Fox soothes Trump’s fragile ego after the Madison Square Garden boos.

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Why Was Cecilia Vega Fired?

One of the stories that Cecilia Vega had lined up for the upcoming season of ‘60 Minutes’ when she was unceremoniously fired by Bari Weiss, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter, was a profile on Francesca Albanese – the UN special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In today’s special edition, we dive into the five-alarm fire that is the current state of ‘60 Minutes’ and CBS News after Scott Pelley was ousted for dressing down Bari Weiss’s handpicked executive producer of the show while accusing her of “murdering” the network. Strap in for a slew of exclusive details and insights about this latest Bari trainwreck…

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The Scott Pelley Fallout

“I’m not answering that question.”

That’s what Scott Pelley says Bari Weiss told him during Tuesday night’s acrimonious meeting, which saw the veteran correspondent get summarily fired, when he pressed her on why she had terminated the senior staff of ‘60 Minutes.’

The ousting of Pelley from ‘60 Minutes,’ as insiders tell me, appears to serve as the depressing climax of Bari Weiss’s reign of terror over CBS News, which has seen the “anti-woke crusader” and her “band of moronic misfits” run roughshod over the Tiffany Network in her attempt to bend the news organization to its knees.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, we reveal how Stephen Colbert made Bari Weiss furious on his way out the door, CBS News ghosts one of its top reporters, and The Free Press is offering its readers branded trips with their favorite writers. Also, if a right-wing podcast launches and no one listens, does it even exist? And whatever happened to that rescheduled WHCD? Let’s hop in…

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Bari Can’t Take a Joke

CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss was “incandescent” with rage over Stephen Colbert’s recent mockery of her and Tony Dokoupil, prompting the network’s leadership to direct ‘CBS Mornings’ to ignore the final episode of ‘The Late Show,’ sources told Zeteo.

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Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, speculation that Bari Weiss’s role will be scaled back has reached a fever pitch. So, who could lead a combined CNN-CBS if not Bari? Also, Fox’s coverage of the San Diego mosque shooting sparks internal criticism, and Jeff Bezos has thoughts on ‘Melania.’

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Is Weiss About to be Bari-ed?

In just seven short months at the helm of CBS News, Bari Weiss is already hearing the rumors rumbling in the background that she could see her role significantly scaled back just as Paramount is readying itself to add CNN to the mix.

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