Hey, you're listening to the On the Media Midweek podcast. I'm Michael O'anger. This year,

former New York Times opinion editor, Barry Weiss, became the editor-in-chief of CBS News. The network's new

owner, Paramount Skydance, also acquired Weiss's online publication, the free press, for an estimated

$150 million. And unconventionally for a news executive, Weiss appeared in front

of the camera in December when she hosted a town hall with Erica Kirk. I want to thank Erica Kirk so

much for joining me tonight. And I also want to thank our audience for participating in this town hall.

CBS News is going to have many more conversations like this in the weeks and months ahead.

So stay tuned. More town halls, more debates, more talking about the things that matter.

I'm Barry Weiss here in New York. Good night. Back in September, I spoke

with Peter Shamshiri, co-host of the podcast If Books Could Kill, who's been tracking Barry Weiss's

rapid rise. The story starts in 2004 when Weiss was still an undergraduate at Columbia University.

That year, she helped start a campus group called Columbians for academic freedom

and got herself ensnared in a controversy involving a group of professors

teaching Middle Eastern and Arab studies.

Most notably, Joseph Mossad, a vocal anti-Zionist. There was one incident where a student asked Joseph Mossad, a vocal anti-Zionist.

There was one incident where a student asked Joseph Mossad whether it was true that Israel gave advance notice to Palestinians in potential danger from incoming air strikes.

Massad apparently lashed out and basically said, if you're going to defend Israel, get

out of my class.

Unclear whether that happened.

There were investigations that led nowhere.

It's very, very wise, in that the group that she was part of is branded as one promoting

academic freedom, but the entire mission appears to be to get academics disciplined for their views,

...