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we'll need more facts but if there is substance to this then the reaction from Bari Weiss (now cbs news editor-in-chief and a long-time public advocate of free speech) and team will be interesting.


It will not be interesting because she has never been an advocate of free speech.


Either the OP was being sarcastic or they’re unaware of the difference between free speech and Free Speech™


what i meant is this may be a good real world litmus test. i dont claim to know if there are differences or not between her word and actions - i have not followed her closely. but i always like 'tests' like this for heads of media orgs as free speech (Free Speech) imo needs to be the backbone of those orgs


She has always and consistently advocated for free speech when it was beneficial to her or her allies/benefactors


She has defended free speech disliked by both the left and the right on occasions.

She famously left the NY Times after defending the publication of a contrarian op-ed by (Republican) Sen. Tom Cotton.

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/06/nx-s1-5563786/bari-weiss-cbs-...

Although apparently not a fan of Jimmy Kimmel as a comedian, her Free Press objected to his suspension. "... the FCC’s coercion undermines our most fundamental values"

https://www.thefp.com/p/jawboning-and-jimmy-kimmel-free-spee...

And on the same topic, the FP editors wrote: "At last, something we can all agree on: Pam Bondi has no idea what she's talking about."

https://www.thefp.com/p/pam-bondi-vs-the-first-amendment-fre...

For president, she has voted for Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden.

It's fair to call her a centrist.


"Centrist" is an utterly meaningless term, as the only thing it implies is not one of the two major-partisan extremists. You can call me a centrist, with my views being anchored in a libertarian perspective. Back a few decades ago when the major parties' Venn diagrams overlapped a bit more, you could call people at the intersection of the parties' authoritarian policies centrists. And as for Bari Weiss, you can can call her centrist because she will do the bidding of her employer regardless of which Party's administration they are currently bribing.


> she will do the bidding of her employer regardless of which Party's administration they are currently bribing

That's not fair. She left the Wall Street Journal because they didn't want her to write anti-Trump op-eds.

https://reason.com/2018/01/28/bari-weiss-it-was-heartbreakin...


"Don't anthropomorphize the lawnmower" includes not anthropomorphizing its individual parts, like the blades. Even when those blades are swapped out for new ones, re-sharpened, and put onto a different lawnmower.

Trump, while an objectively horrible person who belongs in prison for many distinct types of crime, is primarily a minstrel for people to hate on. While he is (unfortunately) a good first-pass litmus test for an individual's politics/intelligence, criticizing him is not really the same as critiquing all of the entrenched interests that installed and continue to enable him.


Bari Weiss cut her teeth in college trying to get professors fired for criticizing Israel. She's hardly an advocate for free speech.


Maybe he was being sarcastic.


Bari Weiss is not a long-time anything, she ran a blog for a couple of years and has been appointed head of CBS to run it into the ground.


Will it? Weiss seems to understands her role here very well. Her competence at it is still in question but she is consistent. CBS is state media now, she'll say what she's expected to say.


So she'll allow criticism of Israel then?


> a long-time public advocate of free speech

What? I thought she was associated with & supported by Republicans.




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