David Ellison’s $150M Bet on Bari Weiss and a New-Look CBS News

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by Semafor cofounder Ben Smith to discuss what to expect from CBS News in the David Ellison and Bari Weiss era. Ellison, the new owner of Paramount, has tasked 41-year-old Weiss to run its news division and also acquired her company The Free Press for $150 million. Matt and Ben talk about why David Ellison brought Weiss in, how she could influence CBS News, and what power a broadcast news brand even has in 2025 (03:32). Matt finishes the show with an opening weekend box office prediction for ‘Tron: Ares’ (25:54). For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Email us your thoughts! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thetown@spotify.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Ben Smith Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When you hear the word Seattle Supersonics, what comes to mind?
0:05.0	Maybe it's Sean Kemp, The Rain Man, or Gary Payton, the glove,
0:09.0	or maybe an image of a tall and skinny 19-year-old rookie, Kevin Duran.
0:14.0	For fans in Seattle, it's something else.
0:16.0	It's tragedy, it's theft, an iconic team with an incredible fan base that packed its
0:22.1	bags and shipped off for Oklahoma City.
0:24.8	From Spotify and the Ringer, I'm Jordan Ritter-Con, and in my podcast, Sonic Boom, I talk
0:30.2	to players, politicians, owners, and fans about how Seattle lost the Sonics.
0:36.3	You can listen to it on the Book of Basketball feed, on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.
0:44.5	It is Tuesday, October 7th.
0:47.1	There's been a lot of early winners in the takeover of Paramount by the Ellison family.
0:52.1	The UFC and South Park both got new TV deals with billions of dollars.
0:56.1	On the film side, Will Smith got a big deal, as did legendary pictures, the Dune and Godzilla
1:00.6	producer.
1:01.3	They'll release new movies through Paramount.
1:03.4	But none of them reaches the level of good fortune as Barry Weiss, new editor-in-chief
1:08.9	of CBS News.
1:10.1	If you're not familiar with Weiss, she is not a television news executive or producer.
1:15.1	She's never actually made a minute of TV news, despite now leading maybe the best brand in TV news,
1:20.7	home of 60 Minutes, the highest-rated news program in the country.
1:24.2	No, Weiss is a former opinion editor and writer at the New York Times who quit in
1:28.4	2021 over what she called an overly woke newsroom and harassment from colleagues. She started a
	...

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