On the Media — “The Aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s Murder. Plus, the Rise and Fall of CBS.”

Release Date: September 13, 2025
Hosts: Brooke Gladstone & Micah Loewinger
Produced by: WNYC Studios

Episode Overview

This episode tackles two searing, pivotal stories at the intersection of politics, media, and public discourse:

• Part I: The killing of Charlie Kirk, a major conservative activist, and the chaotic, politically charged aftermath in the media and political spheres.
• Part II: The dramatic transformation of CBS (“the Tiffany Network”) under new, right-leaning ownership, with a focus on the rise of media figure Bari Weiss and the acquisition of The Free Press.

The hosts probe media responsibility, free speech, the weaponization of political victimhood, and the broader fracturing of the American information landscape.

PART I: The Murder of Charlie Kirk & Its Media Fallout

[00:00–14:16]

The Event & First Reactions

• Charlie Kirk, prominent conservative activist, was shot and killed during a campus event at Utah Valley University.
  • Eyewitness confusion: Questions from the audience about mass shootings, then a gunshot from a nearby rooftop ([02:10-02:32]).
• Initial media coverage was fraught with errors and shifting narratives:
  • False reports that the shooter was in custody; later, authorities clarified this was not the case ([02:43-02:53]).
  • Early suspect descriptions and law enforcement leaks spread widely, uncritically repeated by outlets such as The Wall Street Journal ([03:30-03:52]).

“It was initially believed that the shooter was in custody. Officials now saying the suspect is not in custody. Yet another twist to this confusing afternoon.” — Peter Shamshiri [02:43]

• Law enforcement found a Mauser rifle and ammo engraved with anti-fascist slogans and memes; the early narrative about “transgender/antifa terrorism” was later debunked as the suspect turned out to be a young white man from a conservative Mormon family ([04:14-04:28]).

Political & Cultural Response

• Both left and right figures publicly mourned Kirk:

  • Vice President J.D. Vance: “When I became the VP nominee … Charlie was there for me.” [05:16]
  • News Nation’s Leland Vitter: Drew a parallel between Kirk and Martin Luther King, Jr. as “voices for the marginalized” ([05:34-05:54]).
  • Sen. Bernie Sanders: Stressed the importance of free, unfettered public discourse ([05:54-06:11]).

• Critics of media hagiography and contextualizing Kirk’s record:

  • Ezra Klein’s NYT op-ed praised Kirk’s political engagement, but hosts and guests sharply questioned this framing.

A Closer Look at Kirk’s Platform

• Audio montages illustrate Kirk’s inflammatory stances on race, gender, and guns ([06:58-08:00]).

“The Civil Rights act … created a beast. And that beast has now turned into an anti white weapon that is at the core of the Democrat project …” — Charlie Kirk (quoted) [06:58]

• The episode challenges the notion that honoring Kirk requires whitewashing or ignoring his rhetoric.

Weaponizing the Tragedy

• President Trump and allies swiftly blamed the left, stoked culture-war grievances, and hinted at retribution:

“For years those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals.”
— Trump (quoted by Peter Shamshiri) [08:25]

• Suggested national emergency powers and government crackdowns, especially on immigrants who cheered Kirk's death ([11:02]).
• GOP Rep. Derek Van Orden and others blamed the “free press” for “causing” the murder ([11:22-11:48]).
• Hosts call out these claims as part of a longstanding, factually unsupported narrative that left-wing violence predominates, when evidence shows far-right violence is more common ([11:48-12:59]).

Reflections and Warnings

• Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox pleaded for national reflection and de-escalation of hate, expressing profound worry about where the country stands ([13:07-13:39]).

“Is this what 250 years has wrought on us? ... That all of us will try to find a way to stop hating our fellow Americans.” — Gov. Cox [13:13]

• Meanwhile, right-wing figures like Fox’s Jesse Watters frame the moment as an intolerable turning point for political violence, echoing “civil war” language ([13:39-13:53]).

PART II: The Rightward Turn at CBS (“The Tiffany Network”)

[16:04–32:45]

Corporate Upheaval & the Political Recalibration of Mainstream Media

• Rupert Murdoch's succession and Lachlan’s consolidation of Fox and News Corp. frames the right’s enduring media dominance; traditional competitors (CNN, CBS) appear in decline ([16:07-16:42]).
• The growth of right-leaning podcasting (Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro) and social platforms underscores the changing landscape ([16:42-17:00]).

CBS: A Case Study in Rightward Drift

1. The Skydance/Paramount Merger

   • CBS’s parent Paramount needed the merger with Skydance (owned by David and Larry Ellison) for financial survival ([20:00-21:35]).
   • FCC Chair Brendan Carr, a Trump ally, wielded considerable influence in approving the deal, extracting concessions like installing an ombudsman to oversee CBS News for “fairness” ([22:00-22:53]).

2. Appointment of Kenneth Weinstein as "Ombudsman"

   • Weinstein, a vocal conservative and past Trump ambassador pick, has a record of right-leaning commentary, praise for Rupert Murdoch, and direct shots at CBS News itself ([23:25-25:15]).
   • Darcy stresses that Weinstein’s selection (as ombudsman tasked with “investigating” bias) is hardly neutral, belying the CEO’s claim to keep CBS apolitical ([26:16-27:10]).

3. Enter Bari Weiss & the Free Press

   • David Ellison is set to acquire Bari Weiss’s Free Press for over $100 million, planning to install Weiss in a leadership role at CBS News ([27:31-29:02]).
   • Staff reportedly in “apoplexy” over the prospect; layoffs expected soon ([29:02]).

“By acquiring the Free Press and later laying off CBS News staffers, they are in effect replacing CBS News staffers with overpaid opinion writers.” — Oliver Darcy [29:02]

• Underlying Motives: The Ellison family’s Trump support, ambitions for further media-tech acquisitions, and a desire to stay in Trump’s good graces are cited ([29:26-30:04]).

4. What Does This Mean for Journalism?
   • Tradition of CBS as a “liberal foil” to the right—is it dying? Darcy thinks so, citing 60 Minutes’ ratings dominance and CNN’s failure after similar right-wing pivots ([30:39-31:30]).
   • The broader concern: press freedom and a “shared reality” are at risk when the focus is on cultivating partisan audiences ([32:03-32:43]).

“It’s a really worrisome moment in American politics right now because how do you ultimately have a country when no one can agree on anything?” — Oliver Darcy [32:26]

PART III: Bari Weiss & The Free Press — Style, Substance, and Critique

[34:53–53:48]

Who Is Bari Weiss?

• Career history: From activism at Barnard College (Columbians for Academic Freedom, targeting anti-Zionist professors) to Tablet, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and then founding The Free Press ([37:26-38:47]).

• Signature rhetorical style explained by guest Peter Shamshiri:

  • Positions herself as a liberal breaking from “the excesses of the left,” using that identity to critique progressive movements harshly.
  • Criticized for cherry-picking, inflating “cancel culture” fears, and using rhetorical sleight-of-hand to position conservative arguments as “just asking questions” ([38:47-40:23], [44:31-45:40]).

“There is a thread that you’ll see running through her work, being relatively anti-Muslim and very concerned with Islamic terrorism.” — Peter Shamshiri [38:47]

The Free Press: Anti-Woke or Anti-Liberal Platform?

• Shamshiri and Loewinger dissect claims of “ideology-free” journalism, noting consistent anti-left, pro-Israel, and anti-DEI coverage ([44:31-46:59]).
• The “experts weigh in” debate format often muddies clear issues (e.g., “Is Trump breaking the law?”) without offering the reader genuine engagement with the facts ([45:40-46:29]).

The Free Press’s Business Model & Audience

• Financial windfall (over 1.5 million subscribers, $15m in venture capital) attributed to Bari Weiss’s ability to entice Silicon Valley investors, many ideologically motivated against DEI and leftism ([47:28-48:43]).
• Christopher Rufo’s hope that the Free Press will “flip” center-left readers into conservatism is discussed, with doubts as to whether the model works in a new Trump era ([48:43-49:27]).

Double-Edged Critique: Both Sides, But Always the Left’s Fault?

• The Free Press and “Honestly,” Bari Weiss’s podcast, sometimes criticize the woke right but usually frame the right’s troubles as reactive to the “woke left” ([49:27-51:01]).

“It’s a framework for continuing to blame the left for what’s happening on the right … They view everything that the right wing does as like the organic right … response to the left.” — Peter Shamshiri [50:42]

• Many legacy media outlets already offer left-criticizing “liberal” columns; Weiss’s innovation is in packaging this as a “media empire” ([52:50-53:44]).

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “Vice President Vance mourning the loss of... A friend... Charlie was there for me.”
  — Michael Ohinger [05:16]
• “The Civil Rights act ... created a beast... turned into an anti white weapon...”
  — Charlie Kirk (quoted) [06:58]
• “It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe.”
  — Charlie Kirk (quoted) [07:51]
• “Is this, is this it? Is this what 250 years has wrought on us?”
  — Gov. Spencer Cox [13:13]
• “By acquiring the Free Press and later laying off CBS News staffers, they are in effect replacing CBS News staffers with overpaid opinion writers.”
  — Oliver Darcy [29:02]
• “It’s a really worrisome moment… when no one can agree on anything.”
  — Oliver Darcy [32:26]
• “What’s remarkable about Bari Weiss is that she was able to take the style of column that everyone was writing and turn it into a media empire.”
  — Peter Shamshiri [53:23]

Segment Timestamps

• Intro & headlines: [00:00–01:57]
• Kirk shooting event/aftermath: [01:57–14:16]
• Murdoch succession/CBS corporate shifts: [16:04–19:51]
• Oliver Darcy interview (Paramount/CBS): [19:51–32:45]
• Bari Weiss/The Free Press profile & critique: [34:53–53:48]

Takeaways

• The episode uses Charlie Kirk’s murder to interrogate how American media, politicians, and partisans manipulate tragedy to reassert power, push narratives, and often double down on division.
• The “rightward turn” of legacy media like CBS is depicted as the product of both market logic and political intimidation, with newsrooms now answering to overtly partisan overseers or ideology-driven, deep-pocketed investors.
• The Free Press’s meteoric rise exemplifies the shifting boundaries: what once read as “anti-left liberalism” becomes a full-throated rightward turn in a climate where the old mainstream is dissolving.
• At every step, hosts and guests caution that the collapse of shared factual standards and the weaponization of media by powerful interests imperil press freedom and the already-fragile American consensus reality.

For listeners interested in the current and future media landscape, this episode is an essential close read—probing both the optics and the real consequences of power, narrative, and ideology in the news.