Ocasio-Cortez Critiques CBS News and Bari Weiss
On Tuesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York launched a scathing critique of Bari Weiss, the Editor-in-Chief at CBS News. During an appearance on a show hosted by former CNN anchor Don Lemon, she accused CBS executives of “killing” a segment from “60 Minutes” that focused on a high-security prison in El Salvador, which had originally aired in January.
Ocasio-Cortez expressed her views about the media landscape, asserting that networks like CBS, CNN, and others employ some of the country’s most talented journalists. Yet, she criticized Weiss specifically, calling her presence a reflection of an “oligarchic ownership structure” within the media. “We saw what happened in that ’60 Minutes’ production. Bari Weiss killed it. She’s not there because she’s a good journalist,” Ocasio-Cortez claimed. “She’s there to cater to billionaires and promote their censorship agendas.”
The segment in question had been delayed until late December before its release on January 18. According to Fox News Digital, Weiss found the interview compelling but believed it did not progress the story and thus chose to postpone it.
Neither CBS News nor Ocasio-Cortez’s office provided comments when approached for clarification.
Ocasio-Cortez’s criticism extended beyond CBS to include the Washington Post, which is owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos. “These companies are not just huge; they often report to a single billionaire with a political agenda,” she stated. She suggested Bezos acquired the Post not out of love for journalism but to control dissenting voices. “It’s not a coincidence that he took over the opinion section and coverage of the upcoming 2024 election,” she added.
The Washington Post has been under Bezos’s ownership since 2013 and announced in 2024 that it would refrain from endorsing political candidates in future elections. In her remarks, Ocasio-Cortez noted a similar pattern of behavior with the media’s editorial board declining to endorse any presidential candidate for 2024.
In early 2025, Bezos outlined changes to the Post’s opinion section, emphasizing a commitment to supporting “freedom and free markets,” and indicating that opposing views would be left to others.
Continuing her indictment of CBS, Ocasio-Cortez cited the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” attributing it to a larger trend of consolidating power. “You have Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk starting to dictate content. It’s not a coincidence that major critics, like Stephen Colbert, get deplatformed,” she claimed.
