CBS Owner Paramount Pushed Pro-Israel Panels While Squashing One on Gaza
Read Justin Baragona’s latest scoop from Paramount land. Plus, the NYT gets caught sanewashing Trump again, and you won't believe how CBS News is spinning Tony Dokoupil's rating flop.
Good evening, and welcome to this week’s ‘Ragebait’!
Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest dispatches from Bari World and the right-wing industrial outrage complex. In tonight’s edition, I’ve got a scoop on Paramount axing a panel discussion about Gaza from the perspective of Arab Americans. Plus, we look at how the New York Times is “sanewashing” the president’s unhinged ramblings – again; and the ridiculous spin that CBS News is giving Tony Dokoupil’s ratings crash.
Let’s jump in.
Paramount Canceled Arab-American Gaza Panel at the Last Minute
CBS owner Paramount squashed an internal panel discussion on the Arab-American experience amid the Gaza war that featured designer and prominent pro-Palestine activist Alana Hadid – all while holding multiple pro-Israel sessions, Ragebait has learned.
Among the three separate sessions Paramount held at its annual global Inclusion Week in October 2024 that focused on antisemitism was an in-depth panel by Israeli-flag-waving CBS reporter Jonah Kaplan and featuring pro-Israel self-proclaimed “MAGA lefty” provocateur Batya Ungar-Sargon.
This all occurred just two weeks after Paramount’s owner rallied to the defense of Tony Dokoupil for outrageously painting Ta-Nehisi Coates as a terror-sympathizing extremist over the celebrated author’s sympathetic stance towards Palestine.
Based on my conversations with five former and current Paramount employees, as well as a review of communications and documents that I obtained, I’ve learned that the company’s Office of Global Inclusion (OGI) – which has since been disbanded as part of Paramount’s anti-DEI pledge to the Trump administration – nixed the Arab-American discussion on Gaza less than two days before it was scheduled to take place.