Zoren: Elated to see Bari Weiss elevated at CBS News

Bari Weiss has been appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News, and I, for one, am elated.

Even more than I was when Weiss’ new post was announced on Monday now that one-time “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather has expressed his disdain and at least one union is telling members not to cooperate with Weiss regarding a questionnaire about their daily routines.

I applaud Weiss attaining a leadership role at CBS because I admire what she built, with her partner, Nellie Bowles, and others at The Free Press, which she founded in 2021.

As a lifelong news junkie who searches for both the least biased and most grounded sources of news, TheFree Press, to which I subscribe, has been a haven of objectivity and reason in a journalistic world that has been corroded by partisanship and kneejerk reaction that borders on propaganda whether it comes from the left-leaning MSNBC, soon to change its name to MS NOW, or the right-leaning Fox News Channel.

No national television news outlet, whether on legacy networks, on cable, or streaming is today a reliable source for anything but breaking news about disasters or mishaps.

Even then, once the initial reporters get past the headlines, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, or you name it, can’t get past their penchants for spinning stories, showing their bias, and trying to lead viewers toward an attitude toward the news rather than providing factual, objectively stated information that allows audiences to make up their own minds.

For years, it has been my editorial stance as a columnist and commentator that there is no news on television — even local news has become too bland to watch except for the weather and sports scores — only diatribe, innuendo, and arguments among alleged pundits that all amounts to gossip and serves no one except those a particular news organization seems institutionally expected to favor.

Weiss is the exact person who might be expected to change all that.

Even at CBS, once the gold standard of broadcast journalism, which in recent years has descended in quality, esteem and credibility with the others of its ilk.

The first time I heard of or, more accurately, paid attention to Bari Weiss is when she resigned her post as a reporter and commentator at The New York Times because she was, as I read the story at the time, constantly badgered or shunned by colleagues because she would not conform to the prevailing orthodoxy governing what a Times reporter was supposed to think and spout.

Weiss was the maverick and rebel in the Times’ hallowed corridors. She was castigated, feared, and admonished because she didn’t tow a line others decided was the only one that could be towed.

This, at least, was my impression, is reading about Weiss and her departure from West 43rd Street.

The next time I encountered her, again incidentally as part of a story, was as I continued to scour websites, newspapers, magazines, etc. to find sources I believed I could trust, sources that either reported objectively or provided plausible reasons and attributions for opinions, insights and points of view.

National network and cable news shows did not qualify.

Local news is too dull and non-committal to take seriously. Dinosaurs like The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post showed their stripes regarding allegiance to a progressive point of view that leaked past editorial pages to general news sections.

No one and nothing was credible. There was no Walter Cronkite, Ted Koppel, David Brinkley, or Edward R. Murrow to engender trust or authority.

Tell me, honestly, whether anybody reading this believes there is an anchor of quality, let alone probity, presiding over a national newscast.

I don’t.

So I searched. The British magazine, The Economist, and the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal, were the closest I came to staying in touch.

The British commentator, Douglas Murray, was the only one on TV whose arguments I found cogent and well-stated, even when I didn’t completely agree on them.

I don’t need agreement, only civil, intelligent discussion that may at time show bias and singular point of view.

Then came the 2020 presidential election. I wanted to follow polls and study them without commentary. I lit upon Real Clear Politics.

There I could compare polling data from various sources and see how my preferred candidates were doing, a dismaying exercise, I can tell you.

Real Clear Politics also offered a digest of articles from various publications throughout the world, including on a few occasions, the Delaware County Daily Times, though never by me.

I saw a news world develop. Articles covered a broad base. I could read progressive and conservative points of view.

I could weed out commentators who would spout the predictable on either side. I could judge the nature of specific publications and see if they were congenitally prejudiced on open to broad and opposing points of view.

I found Bari Weiss. I found The Free Press. I found Substack. Through each of them, I found a world of varied, well-stated opinion, some coinciding with mine, some diametrically opposed, but often enlightening and worth the read.

I felt informed. I felt I could trust this information or use it as a springboard for further research on my own.

I felt part of a broad, intelligent discussion that could shape my attitudes, already forged by my horror of anything that resembles the French Revolution, that smacks of one group of adherents believing they alone know where elephants lie down, and a disdain for any doctrine beyond approaching matters with an aim towards getting a practical job done.

Bari Weiss, her sister, Suzy Weiss, her partner, Nellie Bowles, all of whom showed their bias here and there attracted me. So did a slew of other writers I found on Real Clear Politics but mainly in The Free Press and Substacks Bari Weiss presided over.

In conversation, “Bari Weiss” became my answer when people asked who I trusted, who I thought presented new with perspective and the idea to give the reader the chance to accept, digest, pick apart, and glean something from the news.

I was reinforced in my admiration when a British company, taking upon itself to tag news sources that, from its point of view, peddled “misinformation,” meaning those that didn’t march in lockstep to the narratives, attitudes, and “facts” it advanced, listed several of my favorite publications and sources as culprits.

Talk about deriding the first amendment!

So, Bari Weiss became the name of my hero.

I think she can only do good, even if all she gets to do is state her standards and try to get a stubborn and entrenched cow like CBS News to adhere to them.

She already faces controversy. Dan Rather, an early purveyor or news delivered with subtext, has dubbed Weiss’ ascendency as “a dark day in the halls of CBS News.”

Bah! Humbug!

The Writers Guild of America has told members it can ignore Weiss’s Elon Musk-like request to tell her how they spend their workday.

People will question the motives of Paramount, and its owners, Skydance, in bringing Weiss aboard. They will especially be cheeky about the estimated $150 million Paramount spend to acquire The Free Press as one if its holdings.

In the opposite way, fans of The Free Press will be looking to see if, and how, being part of Paramount’s fold affects The Free Press.

I am curious about how Weiss will interact with Tom Cibrowski, who has a higher title as president of CBS News, or George Cheeks, Paramount’s chief of TV media.

Critics may scoff at the fortune Weiss received in the sale of The Free Press. Others may wonder how she may affect CBS’ signature news programs such as “CBS Sunday Morning” and “60 Minutes.”

Whatever ensues, the hiring of Bari Weiss, and the 10 precepts of journalism she sent CBS staffers in a company memo, are encouraging moves in a good direction.

All hail Paramount CEO David Ellison for putting this ball in play. I can’t wait to see all that happens because of it.

Darius de Haas coming to Rittenhouse Grill

Many have heard singer Darius de Haas dubbing the mellow tones of superstar Shy Baldwin on Prime’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

Yes, actor Leroy McClain plays the Baldwin you see, the one Midge Maisel opens for on the concert circuit, but Darius de Haas is the one you hear.

I’ve been lucky. I’ve gotten to see de Haas in shows on Broadway, at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, and at New Hope’s Bucks County Playhouse, where he was aces in a production of “Ain’t Misbehavin’. ”

De Haas will be in full view next Monday, Oct. 20, when he brings his cabaret act to Randy Swartz and Garth Weldon’s Rittenhouse Grill.

Also on display will be the full range of his talent as he forgoes Shy’s repertoire to sing tunes he chooses.

Howard Eskin podcast

More to come, but it is not surprising, since I predicted it, that veteran sportscaster Howard Eskin has emerged on his own podcast, which is gaining a following and can be seen on YouTube, with live broadcasts 8 a.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Celebrate Phillies good times

No joy in Mudville.

Wah! Wah!

As a Phillies fan, I too was disappointed when the Fightins lost the divisional round of the MLB playoffs to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I too went hoarse yelling to the TV screen for Orion Kerkering to “Throw to first. First!! Look at what J.T. is telling you.”

With all that, I love the Phillies, including the 2025 Phillies, and instead of sulking until the first pitch in March, I thank and applaud the players and their manager, Rob Thomson, for an exciting, entertaining year.

So what if it didn’t have the outcome so many of us would have loved?

Sure, the World Series is the objective, and our guys had the potential to get there, but only two teams can make the World Series, and only one team can win.

In a day before playoffs, the Series would have been between the Toronto Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers, no further play needed.

The Phillies got to give us four more games, and though their bats were still for three of them, their pitching was in general terrific, they had a chance in all four games, and hope was rife until that fatal throw home.

In the long run, a team that wins 87 games one year and miraculously makes a World Series, and wins more than 90 games the next three — 96 in 2025 — is a success.

I know. I listen to sports radio. “World Series or bust!” “Super Bowl or bust!

Good sentiments. But I can’t subscribe to them. They lack perspective.

The Phillies have played in eight World Series throughout a 140-season history. This year, like 2010 and 2011, was a heartbreaker.

But think of the fun it was to watch the Phillies throughout the season. Think of how lovable they are as a team. Think of the joy they provided.

Sports talk hosts have to drum up conversation and controversy. I don’t doubt the stances they take, but some are to goad callers to take a certain point of view.

Callers, in turn, think they’ll sound smart if they repeat what they hear from the knowing.

But calls to disband a team, to worry about money that is never, never, never yours — and none of your business — and dismiss a manager who might become the most winning in franchise history is the stuff of emotion and not common sense.

It’s fan frenzy, controversy for controversy’s sake. Emotion, not rational thinking.

Now the Eagles! That’s a team to be concerned about, their winning record or not.

My point is relax, say thank you to a great baseball club, hope for some adjustments, and look forward to 2026, another year with potential and maybe the addition of homegrown talent such as Justin Crawford, Aiden Miller and Andrew Painter.

Sure, I’ve been bemoaning Kerkering’s throw to first, questioning why Jesus Luzardo was taken out, and why Bryson Stott was asked to bunt in Game 2, but so what?

It’s too easy for Philadelphians to micro-criticize the Phillies. We watch or follow most games. You don’t think on the way to fewer wins than the Philadelphia had, fans in L.A., San Diego, Chicago and other contending cities didn’t do the same fretting, carping, complaining and analyzing?

Of course they did.

While acknowledging some situations have to be addressed, I call for not precipitous or dramatic action. I’ll let the Phillies manage the Phillies and hope for the same fun in 2026 the team has provided for most of this century.

One more thing. My second favorite team in the world — after the Phillies — is the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I won’t join along with any grudging disdain towards them, fashionable though it might be among sports radio callers now that they eliminated the Phillies.

I hope they massacre the Brewers and any World Series opponent.

Overall message: Don’t conform. Be you. Think what you think.

And enjoy good baseball, World Series or not.

People who watched and admired Ernie Banks did!

Thank you, Phillies. You remain loved. You too, Orion.