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By Marni Rose McFall
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CBS has released a teaser for an upcoming town hall, hosted by the network's new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, and featuring Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk.
The tone of the trailer—released nearly three months to the date after Charlie Kirk's assassination—has been criticized by some online, with journalist Juliet Jeske saying in a post on X, "It sounds like the narrator is happy Kirk died. The music. Everything about this ad just seems inappropriate." Another X user wrote, "The fox newsification [sic] of CBS news [sic] is almost complete."
Newsweek has contacted Turning Point USA and CBS News via email for comment.
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Why It Matters
Erika Kirk was chosen to lead Turning Point USA following the death of her husband and is now the organization’s CEO.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10 at the age of 31 while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University. The high-profile conservative activist was the co-founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, a conservative youth movement, and was a staunch ally of President Donald Trump.
Erika Kirk has begun to take on a more public role since her husband’s death and promised to honor him by continuing his work.
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What To Know
CBS News officially announced the town hall on December 9, and a post on X about the event read, “A single bullet took Charlie Kirk’s life — leaving Erika Kirk a widow and the leader of one of the most powerful conservative groups in the country. Three months after her husband’s assassination, Erika Kirk will join CBS News for a town hall on faith, grief, and political violence in America.”
The event, which will be pre-taped at a New York studio, will see Erika Kirk take questions from evangelicals, religious and political leaders. The town hall will be the first on-camera appearance for Weiss, who was announced as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News in October this year, after parent company Paramount announced that it was acquiring The Free Press, which Weiss founded.
Paramount was acquired by Skydance Media in August, making Skydance founder David Ellison the CEO of Paramount. David Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, the second richest man in the world and a Trump ally, who helped fund the acquisition.
Weiss' appointment has been seen by some as an effort to bring political balance to the outlet, and seen by others as being indicative of a shift to the right.
Before founding The Free Press, Weiss was an opinion writer and editor at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. She left the Times in 2020, saying she had been “bullied” by liberal colleagues for her more conservative views. She is critical of legacy media and “woke” politics.
Her appointment signals a departure for the outlet, which has traditionally skewed left. That Erika Kirk, a conservative, is being interviewed has also ruffled feathers online.
One post, from the account @Mollyploofkins on X viewed over 170,000 times, reads “Why is CBS News doing a town hall with Erika Kirk?”, while the social media account for the outlet The Tennessee Holler wrote on X “cbs is fox now.”
Erika Kirk has recently done multiple interviews with conservative commentators including Megyn Kelly and last week closed out the New York Times’ DealBook summit.
What People Are Saying
The account @CantEverDie, in a post in on X viewed over 480,000 times: “the ellisons did a very swift job buying CBS and installing bari weiss as it’s head. they completely ruined a news network that was generally better than most of the rest out there and immediately converted it into fox news 2.”
The account @cryptodaaddy, in a post on X viewed over 20,000 times: “this is a tragic story with many layers, let's hope the town hall brings some light to the issues at hand.”
The account @Wilson_Valdez, in a post on X viewed over 10,000 times: “The Bari Weiss era of CBS News is here and what Bari Weiss has decided The People want is more Bari Weiss.”
What Happens Next
The town hall will air on December 13 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS News. The conversation is slated to focus on grief, faith and politics.
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