In his podcast Power Lines posted on Friday, Status founder, former CNN media reporter, and far-left defender Oliver Darcy and sidekick Jon Passantino descended into some cartoonish smears of Bari Weiss taking over as CBS News editor-in-chief, casting doubt on The Free Press’s success and arguing they have not seen any evidence to support Weiss’s claim the far-left hates America.
Passantino went first with the no evidence claim, reading Weiss’s announcement last week in a condescending tone:
Like a jealous middle schooler, Passantino scoffed Weiss fired off this letter from her “tiny Substack with a few dozen staffers” and believes she can now run “one of the oldest, one of the most established, one of the biggest news organizations in the country by going after the far left and far right.”
Even though Darcy and Passantino would, if they had the chance to run a TV network, make the Jeff Zucker days running CNN seem sleep-inducing, Darcy bashed Paramount SkyDance boss David Ellison for having “put in a very polarizing figure as head of CBS News” despite having “said repeatedly he did not want to politicize the company.”
Darcy then obviously agreed with Passantino, explaining his argument for why, if anyone in our current political climate were to be accused of hating America, it should be President Trump (click “expand”):
That’s a really remarkable statement to make that — first of all, she offers no detail. So who is she talking about when she says the far left hates America? Um, is it Ilhan Omar? Is it AOC? Is it Zoran Mandami? I mean, who is — who is the far left that hates America? Those are, that’s a pretty striking statement for the head of a newsroom to make. And — and, you know, even, even as Donald Trump assaults our bedrock principles of things like free speech as he warps the concept of equal justice under the law by having the DOJ and FBI target his political opponents as he sends in the military into American cities and neighborhoods that — that do not want it. The local representatives are rejecting that kind of force. No one says that he hates America and you can certainly, I think, make a much better case, given all he’s doing that he has a disdain for American values and still, I’ve never heard any major newsroom leader, even the most aggressive, you know, newsrooms don’t say that Donald Trump hates America. And so, for Bari Weiss to casually kind of just be like, oh, yeah, the far left hates America. I don’t know. That’s a pretty — I would love to know more about that, Bari. Who are you referring to? Who are you referring to? That’s a really remarkable statement. And for David Ellison, who says he doesn’t want to politicize this company, that’s — that sure sounds like you’re politicizing the newsroom right off the bat. But I think that’s par for the course, right, Jon?
Darcy continued to dither away and dismiss the idea of viewing Americans on both sides as good and decent when those who support Trumpism should be clapped out of polite society:
Passantino wasn’t done fomenting Weiss hate, whining Weiss has, “in many ways stak[ed] out positions that align with Donald Trump and — and Republicans by going after supposed, you know, enemies or positions on the left...inflaming or hyperventilating about an issue...coming from...the farthest fringe...by just basically making a mountain out of a molehill[.]”
Darcy pulled on this thread, bellyaching that Weiss and her team at The Free Press have, while not being part of MAGA media” chosen to affirm certain beliefs of those pesky right-wingers:
Incapable of anything but dripping condescension, Passantino dismissed Weiss’s writing bona fides and leadership as having been contained to “an opinion site” since The Free Press is “not a journalistic enterprise” where “you go to get reporting and news.”
The Free Press would obviously disagree, most likely pointing to investigations such as here and here on the photos from Gaza claiming to show starving children.
Following a Passantino diss of Weiss for “paint[ing] herself as a victim” at The New York Times, the two argued The Free Press has not been all that popular with their numbers artificially inflated by “wealthy white men who feel like they’re oppressed a reason to feel like they’re oppressed,” so “they fund her” (click “expand”):
DARCY: Yeah, I mean, I take issue a little bit with this as well, Jon. There’s this idea that this is like an organically created website that’s just killing it and The reality is that we don’t really know what the books are. I’d be very curious if it’s actually making money or if it’s still losing money, but this is a well-funded outlet by very wealthy people. This is not some organic news organization that took off the ground, that didn’t have any capital that found an audience and has been really killing it like that. This is something that has been funded by very wealthy people who Bari speaks to because she gives, frankly, wealthy white men who feel like they’re oppressed a reason to feel like they’re oppressed, and they fund her outlet. And so, this idea that she’s — I mean — I get — I mean, I don’t think starting any business or building any business is easy. Obviously, I respect the entrepreneurial spirit that anyone has to go and do that. But at the same time, I think there’s been false picture in the press that this thing is, she’s super digital savvy and that she’s built a business that’s making a bunch of money and reaching a bunch of people. She’s taking — she’s taken millions of dollars from other people who are funding this thing. And so, we should be clear about that as well. I, I don’t know how organic this thing is. It certainly seems very much like astroturf, you know, influence-buying to me.
PASSANTINO: — yeah. So, this week at Status, we — we talked to a number of reporters or staffers who had worked with her in the past at The Free Press, and a lot of them had some interesting words to say about her management style, the style of the workplace at The Free Press, and um some of them who we spoke to did not have great words to say about how that had been going. They described a chaotic, very rushed, very last minute, you know, push to, to get, you know, stories across the finish line or, you know, I maybe ideas on the page, and you know, some of them described a — a pretty — let’s say, you know, uncomfortable or difficult workplace environment. And — and this is for an organization of a few dozen people at this point, and I think that — that does raise real questions as to now what her management ability is going to be like with both high powered talent and a staff who is not necessarily going to be thrilled to welcome her. They’re not intentionally joining this conservative anti-woke outlet, and so, you know what? I’m one of the faithful. I am so thrilled to be here. I can cast aside that this is a startup and that things are gonna be a little challenging, you know, a little hairy at times. I’m all in. Instead, it’s, she’s coming into an established news organization like CBS and — and they’re looking at her and they’re gonna say, what? And now, you know — now, you want me to do what? I’m really curious how — how — how she functions as a manager now and — and — and now — how these, how these very skeptical talent, uh, are going to contend with her.
The dissension came next when they debated whether Weiss would have any real power inside CBS and how she’ll react to the first time Trump expresses disgust with something CBS aired. In Darcy’s case, he came down on the side of not only predicting Weiss will have real power, but she would relish any chance to argue the network’s not beholden to him.
For Passantino’s part, he said the Ellisons would be uncomfortable with such a scuffle and Weiss will be no more than a figure head.
Passantino also laughably said he hopes 60 Minutes would still “provide a really strong lens on the administration’s activities” and maintain “a really independent spirit”...which would in of itself be a contradiction.
Both Darcy and Passantino cut their teeth in conservative media to have only turned their backs on the industry. Now, they act like we’re dangerous baboons, so they clearly have some things to work through.
To see the relevant transcript from the October 10 podcast, click here.