Israel to Bari Weiss: 'Thank You'

The CBS News editor-in-chief let Netanyahu choose who would interview him. Plus, the pro-Israel pressure campaign against the New York Times’s Nick Kristof falls flat.

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s ‘Ragebait.’

Justin Baragona here, bringing you the latest media dispatches from the right-wing industrial outrage complex and Bari World. In tonight’s edition, Bari Weiss defers to Bibi and allows him to choose who interviews him, major changes are coming to CBS’s storied newsmagazine ‘60 Minutes,’ and the New York Times actually stands up to a pro-Israel pressure campaign.

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Major Problems for ‘60 Minutes’

Screenshot via YouTube/@60minutes

“Thank you, Bari Weiss.”

That was the message delivered by Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, following CBS News’s mostly deferential interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Oren was positively thrilled that the network, which is led by the self-avowed “Zionist fanatic” Weiss, appropriated Israeli talking points throughout the interview.

Meanwhile, we have since learned that Major Garrett – the veteran reporter who was tapped to conduct the exclusive sitdown – was Netanyahu’s preferred choice, and drew the assignment after a “negotiation” between Weiss and the prime minister.

As for Garrett, this was the second time in the past couple of months that the CBS News editor-in-chief chose him to handle a high-profile interview that would air on ‘60 Minutes,’ even though Garrett isn’t a correspondent for the iconic newsmagazine.

The decision to fly Garrett, the network’s chief Washington correspondent, to Israel late last week to sit down with Netanyahu is not sitting well with the staff of the Sunday night program.