The Free Press vs. The Free Press

There has been a tremendous amount of coverage and conversation about CBS bringing on the MAGA-curious, “anti-wokeness,” DEI critic, and founder of The Free Press, Bari Weiss, as its editor-in-chief. All the analysis and reporting that I’ve seen has focused on what this means for the integrity of CBS.

I have bad news for those who still believe CBS is the network of Walter Cronkite and that possessed the journalistic rigor that launched 60 Minutes; the ship carrying CBS’s integrity, along with $16 million of Paramount (CBS’s parent company) money, set sail for Donald Trump’s authoritarian yacht slip when they caved to his meritless lawsuit. Whatever Bari Weiss does as editor-in-chief to cozy up to the Trump Administration won’t be charting a new course for the once venerable news network. Excellent pieces have been written on the deterioration of the CBS news division and the rise of Weiss as its head. My concern is less about what Weiss’ new relationship with CBS means for the network and more what it means for independent media.

Nothing is more representative of the 21st-century crisis in journalism than the ubiquity of the uber-rich owning or at the helm of some of America’s (previously) most respected news operations. The heavy-handed ownership of The Washington Post by Jeff Bezos and The Los Angeles Times by Patrick Soon-Shiong are only two examples of publications whose editorial independence is regularly and legitimately in question. David Ellison, the billionaire baby of Larry Ellison, sits atop the newly merged Paramount Skydance (an $8 billion deal) and reportedly has his eye on Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN. What could possibly go wrong?

But it’s Ellison’s measly $150 million media acquisition that is most concerning for the burgeoning independent news media space. Not only did Ellison acquire Bari Weiss, but he also purchased her five-year-old right-leaning news publication, The Free Press. The publication resides on the Substack platform (as does Lincoln Square), though you’d hardly know by looking for the tell-tale Substack layout. The Free Press was founded as a by-the-bootstraps endeavor. A significant early assist came from Marc Andreessen’s Andreessen Horowitz investment fund, which was also an early investor in Substack and a recent Series C investor in the platform to the tune of $100 million. Weiss has announced that, in addition to her new position at CBS, she will stay in her post at The Free Press. Interesting.

As media consolidation continues and trust in our institutions, including the free press (not to be confused with The Free Press) continues to deteriorate, it is disheartening to see a publication that grew in part due to its perceived independence be happily gobbled up by one of the largest media companies on the planet. If an independent media company’s end goal is to be acquired by a media behemoth, how independent can it be in its growth stage? A decade ago, I would have argued that it was entirely possible, but today? When we see one platform after another “enshittify” as coined by Cory Doctorow, and networks like CBS and ABC bending the knee to the most corrupt presidential administration in American history, examples of true media independence are fewer than essential to a healthy, robust democracy.

We, the American people and consumers, are not without power to change that. The question is: Do we have the will to do it?

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