The Jimmy Dore Show

Episode: "Israel TOADY Bari Weiss Paid $200 Million To Run CBS News!"

Date: September 10, 2025
Host: Jimmy Dore
Frequent Guest/Impressionist: Alec Baldwin (voiced by Mike McRae)
Main Theme:
A satirical, scathing investigation into recent corporate media developments—most notably, the Skydance/Paramount takeover and the appointment of pro-Israel journalist Bari Weiss to lead CBS News. Dore connects this to broader trends of ideological capture, media manipulation, and political influence from pro-Israel billionaires. The episode also calls out other progressive media figures (notably David Pakman) as compromised or controlled opposition.

Episode Overview

Jimmy Dore opens with satirical banter, then pivots to his central thesis: the CBS News and Paramount acquisition is effectively a pro-Israel, ideological takeover, with Bari Weiss—whom he labels an unquestioning "toady" for Israeli interests—being gifted a wildly disproportionate media role. Through clips, analysis, and biting humor, Dore connects this deal to a decades-long story of media manipulation, billionaire backing, and censorship (particularly around Palestine/Israel).

Along the way, the episode skewers establishment figures, critiques other progressive outlets, and unveils what Dore casts as elaborate media and political grifts.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Satirical Baldwin/Dancing with the Stars Banter

(00:48–06:00)

• Begins with "Alec Baldwin" (Mike McRae) talking about his wife's fictitious and controversial appearance on Dancing with the Stars, functioning as a humorous cold open and not central to the episode's main content.
• Tone: Self-deprecating, irreverent, and laced with sardonic commentary about celebrity, delusion, and financial desperation.
• Notable Moment:
  • Baldwin: "She has no idea that she looks like a Libizon or stallion trying to avoid a mouse on a treadmill. She thinks she's Ginger fucking Rogers." (03:08)

2. The Bari Weiss/CBS News Takeover

(06:13–18:45; revisited throughout)

The Deal

• Premise: Skydance Media (run by David Ellison, son of billionaire Larry Ellison) acquires Paramount and CBS; Bari Weiss, a pro-Israel journalist, is reportedly being paid $100–$200 million to helm CBS News.
• Jimmy Dore’s Framing:
  • “Israel has just taken over CBS News." (06:20)
  • “You think I'm kidding? Here’s Glenn Greenwald, Larry Ellison's son... bought Paramount and CBS... and will now give Bari Weiss 100 to $200 million... to put her in charge of CBS’s news editorial direction." (06:20)
• Centrally cited players: David & Larry Ellison, Shari Redstone, Bari Weiss, Glenn Greenwald.

The Bari Weiss Critique

• Points out Bari Weiss’s public confusion regarding the word "toady" (with “Joe Rogan” clip), arguing that Weiss simply parrots pro-Israel talking points without genuine understanding.
  • Clip repeatedly cited:
    • Weiss: “She’s an Assad toady… What does that mean? I think that I used that word correctly.” (08:01)
    • Dore: “She has no idea what it means. You know why? Because… she was told to say these smears…” (08:19)
• Dore and guest further cite her history of defending Israel, oppressing dissenting narratives, and running a "blog"—The Free Press—with low engagement numbers, making the $200m figure inexplicable without considering ideological motives.

The Business Logic

• The $200 million purchase of Bari Weiss's "Free Press" Substack is derided as a naked ideological play:
  • James Lee (clip): “CBS News, the house that Cronkite built… is about to drop $200M on Bari Weiss's substack blog.” (10:15)
  • “It’s not a newsroom… it’s just Bari Weiss’s glorified blog.” (11:14)
  • Financials mocked:
    • “Maybe around $15 million a year in revenue… but $200 million? That is 10 to 15 times revenue. An insane multiple that makes absolutely no sense unless you’re after something more than subscribers.” (12:34)

Who Benefits and Why

• Explores the backgrounds of the Ellison family as major funders of the Israeli Defense Forces, and ties CBS’s new leadership directly to pro-Israel agendas.
  • Alec Baldwin: “Larry [Ellison] isn’t just another Silicon Valley billionaire. He’s also one of the largest private donors to the IDF.” (14:04)
  • Dore frames this as an issue of US media becoming de facto foreign state propaganda.

Editorial Interference & The Redstone Story

• Details how Shari Redstone, former owner of Paramount, sold the company partly out of a desire to foster pro-Israel coverage and clamp down on what she viewed as "anti-Israel bias” at CBS (citing a 60 Minutes segment on Gaza that drew backlash).
  • “Redstone wasn’t alone in her concerns. Days after the segment aired, George Cheeks… shared Redstone’s dismay… and soon appointed veteran producer Susan Zinsky as executive director to review 60 Minutes segments, stripping the show of its traditional independence.” (41:09)

Change in CBS News Direction

• Discusses the elimination of DEI initiatives and expected resignations at CBS due to ideological overhaul under the new leadership.
• Ties this crackdown to broader trends of "illiberalism" under the pretext of fighting antisemitism.

3. Wider Critique: US Media and Political Capture

(Throughout — e.g., 15:13, 27:01, 50:45)

• Dore draws a through-line from this CBS incident to systemic corruption:
  • "Not only running the White House, the State Department, our foreign policy, our whole government is being run by blackmailed pedos. They run everything." (26:59)
  • “You can't get a contract for the state unless you agree to support Israel. You can't go against, you can't boycott them or you're going to be thrown in jail.” (27:01)
  • Compares this system to authoritarian models: "It's so China." (27:01)

4. Attacks on ‘Controlled Opposition’ Influencers (David Pakman, etc.)

(44:01–59:41)

• Takes aim at David Pakman as an example of fake opposition and Democratic Party psyop:

  • Calls Pakman: “a transparent garbage person. He's a Zionist to the hilt. He certainly has an APAC handler..." (44:01)

• Cites a Taylor Lorenz article revealing left-wing YouTubers like Pakman taking money from Democratic “dark money” groups, with strings attached (not covering topics like Gaza).

  • “They were being offered eight grand a month to take part in a secretive program aimed at bolstering Democratic messaging on the internet…” (46:23)

• Mocks Pakman for feigning ignorance about AIPAC:

  • “It's A-pack or I-pack. I don't even know how it's pronounced.” (48:25)
  • Contradicted with a clip of Pakman pronouncing it correctly earlier (48:57)
  • Dore: "So a guy who’s pretending to not know how to pronounce the word AIPAC is telling you to trust him. ... He doesn’t have any integrity. Now his producer’s coming out saying ... he's got blood on his hands." (52:39–53:09)

• Producer Testimony:

  • Former Pakman producer claims editorial suppression on Gaza is deliberate, discussed among creators at a White House meeting.
  • “...they talked amongst themselves and came to the conclusion that the topic is too divisive, it might drag down their channels...it’s better if they just don’t talk about it at all.” (53:09)
  • Producer: “I sort of feel like I have blood on my hands…” (54:34)

• Data Mining Allegation:

  • Producer asserts Pakman’s petitions were just schemes to collect audience data for profit.
  • “We are harvesting emails under a different pretense and then using those emails potentially for profit.” (57:19)

5. Broader Corporate Power: Gates, Fauci, and the Vaccine Grift

(29:20–43:45)

• Takes aim at Bill Gates's influence over public health, accusing him of controlling WHO, profiting off forced vaccine programs in Africa, and skirting safety/testing standards.
• Features extended clip of RFK Jr. making these allegations about Gates’s “scam.”
• Dore critiques Gates's involvement with the Common Core education initiative and broader trend of unqualified billionaires dictating policy.
  • “He's a guy who takes other people's work and claims it as his own. He's a monopolist.” (33:41)
  • Alec Baldwin: “His other investments are in tobacco companies...Coca Cola...oil companies...so he's not a guy who cares about climate or public health. He's a guy who cares about control.” (39:36)
• Accuses Gates and Fauci of running profit-motivated schemes in African health and using PR to mask harms.

6. Satire, Closer, and Call to Action

• Returns to theme: only real, independent voices challenge the system; establishment media, even under “independent” branding, is just camouflage for power.
• Sign-off satirically urges listeners to “not freak out” about the scope of corruption detailed in the episode.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Bari Weiss/CBS:

  • "So now a sycophant, a toady, if you will, to Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel is now running CBS News." (06:20 – Jimmy Dore)
  • "When I think about who should be in charge of my major multibillion dollar news network, my instant go-to is a gadfly who beclowned herself on the Joe Rogan show because she doesn't know anything that wasn't fed to her by her handlers." (09:50 – Dore)

• On Legacy Media’s Shift:

  • Baldwin: "Legacy media trying to compete with the independents. But let's be real. This isn't about subscribers or revenue. It's about one thing, ideology. One in particular, Zionism." (10:51)
  • “Don't look at this as Paramount buying the Free Press. Look at it as Israel buying CBS News.” (15:36 – Baldwin)

• On Pakman & Controlled Media:

  • "So the funny part about that is that David Pakman should have been saying that into a mirror, because that's exactly what David Pakman is, always has been." (45:16 – Jimmy Dore)
  • "It’s A-pack or I-pack. I don’t even know how it’s pronounced." (48:25 – David Pakman, mocked by Dore)
  • "His producer's like, I can't live with myself to work for this guy. He's got blood on his hands." (52:39 – Jimmy Dore)

• On Gates and Public Health:

  • "Whenever you hear innovation, it means billions of dollars into the pockets of oligarchs like Bill Gates and everyone else gets fucked." (32:13 – Jimmy Dore)
  • "So do you see how that works? … Bill Gates has this perfect scheme scam going. It's a scam. And he does it through Dr. Fauci. And they have these financial relationships..." (38:10 – Jimmy Dore)

• Satirical Sign-off:

  • "You be the best you can be and I'll keep being me. Freak out." (59:41 – Jimmy Dore)
  • Baldwin: "Don't freak out." (59:43)

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | Summary | |------------|----------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:48–06:00| Baldwin/Dancing with the Stars Satire | Humorous opening—celebrity parody, not main episode focus. | | 06:13–18:45| CBS/Weiss Takeover | Main thesis on CBS/Paramount, Bari Weiss, Israeli influence, media sellouts. | | 29:20–43:45| Bill Gates, Fauci & The Vaccine Grift | Exposé of Gates's involvement in WHO, vaccine agendas, African programs. | | 44:01–59:41| David Pakman & "Controlled Opposition" | Critique of Pakman, expose on data-farming, Democratic astroturfing, Gaza. |

Episode Tone & Style

• Language: Profane, conversational, conspiratorial, sardonic.
• Tone: Outraged, comedic, skeptical, at times mocking.
• Method: Rapid-fire clips, impersonations, and direct-to-audience rants interwoven for both impact and satire.

Summary for Non-Listeners

This episode provides Jimmy Dore’s provocative, satirical breakdown of what he sees as a landmark media coup: the installation of Bari Weiss (a high-profile, pro-Israel voice) at the helm of CBS News via a bizarrely large payment. Dore and his guests depict this not as a business venture, but as ideological capture by pro-Israel billionaires underpinning the US media and policymaking establishment. Along the way, the episode systematically mocks the idea of “independent” or liberal media, calling out alleged grift and orchestrated censorship—particularly of the Palestinian plight—in both legacy and digital spaces. Supporting his thesis with cited stories, character sketches, and direct clips, Dore portrays most of US media as a managed spectacle serving power, not truth.