Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly went off this week on CBS and Bari Weiss this week, saying they “just cannot seem to help themselves making deceptive edits” after they spliced an interview with Pete Hegseth to misrepresent his comments and run cover for the foreign state of Israel.
“They do not give a sh*t about misleading you over at CBS, the old CBS, or the new CBS, which has a brand new agenda,” Kelly said, accusing CBS of “trying to shove Israel into the debate” by completely changing the framing of a question in post-interview edits.
CBS and its parent company, Paramount, were previously forced to pay millions of dollars to President Trump and agreed to change their editorial policy in a settlement with President Trump following the infamous edited “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris in 2024.
Last year, the network and its parent company were acquired by Skydance Media, led by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Larry Ellison. Skydance is now one of the world’s largest and most powerful media conglomerates, controlling CNN, CBS, HBO, MTV, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Showtime, TNT, TBS, Adult Swim, and more, following the acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery after Netflix pulled out of a bidding war with Paramount Skydance. Netflix notably pulled out, allowing Skydance to proceed with the deal, after Attorney General Pam Bondi opened an antitrust inquiry into Warner’s already agreed-upon deal with Netflix.
Under Ellison and Skydance, the Free Press co-founder Bari Weiss now serves as CBS’s new editor in chief.
So, naturally, with Trump allies taking over the media landscape, you’d expect the media to be fairer and more honest, but it appears that’s not the case.
In a recent interview with Hegseth, CBS used tactics similar to those previously used with Kamala Harris. They altered the question posed to Hegseth, making it appear that he was defending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s prosecution of the war in Iran, which Hegseth has admitted isn’t always in alignment with US objectives.
“Do you want to address that criticism?” host Major Garrett asks Hegseth after a narrator says, “Some normally enthusiastic supporters of the President have criticized him, suggesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled the US into a war that, to their minds, did not put American interests first.”
Then, as if Hegseth was defending Netanyahu and Israel, in response to arguments that Israel pulled the US into the war, the clip then shows Hegseth telling Garrett, “All I know is, I’m in the room every day, and I see how President Trump operates and what he’s putting first, and it’s America, Americans, and American interests.”