On Wednesday evening, Puck's lead news media reporter, Dylan Byers, opened his twice-weekly column in stark terms. Under the headline "The People Against Bari Weiss," Byers declared that the industry is intoxicated and drunk with "dark bloodlust" for imperiled CBS News chief Bari Weiss, the anti-"woke" Free Press opinionator who has suffered a string of embarrassing failures since David Ellison tapped her to lead the news network last October.
In her short tenure, Weiss has repositioned the outlet as more friendly toward Donald Trump and the MAGA movement he leads, repelling viewers in the process. Under her watch, both the venerable "CBS Evening News" and "CBS Mornings" have suffered steep ratings declines. In fact, in recent months, both programs have seen their viewership fall to their lowest levels of the 21st century.
Weiss’ latest achievement this week was to drag "60 Minutes" into the same pit, delivering its worst-rated season debut of the 21st century. The storied newsmagazine premiered to a weak 7.94 million viewers, down 21% year-over-year and a staggering 33% in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic. Weiss had, of course, radically overhauled the show over the summer, firing top staffers and correspondents—all with the implicit promise that she would not merely match the previous team's performance, but outdo it.
Ultimately, Weiss failed in that endeavor with the season opener, and the ensuing news coverage was universally tough and critical, as one would expect. But there was one corner of the media universe in which Weiss—yet again—found an extraordinarily sympathetic ear: Puck…
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