Key Points
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Rosie O’Donnell slammed CBS News head Bari Weiss amid the latter’s controversial leadership.
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O’Donnell said that “history will record all of their names, what they did, and who they stood next to.”
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Weiss has come under fire from multiple former employees and the general public, particularly amid the revamp of CBS’ beloved 60 Minutes program.
Hollywood icon Rosie O’Donnell has taken stock of — and shots at — the television landscape before making her temporary return to the talk show format as fill-in host ofJimmy Kimmel Live.
The 64-year-old Emmy-winning former Rosie O’Donnell Show host and ex-View moderator said in a new interview that she’s concerned by the state of American news, particularly amid controversial journalist Bari Weiss’ takeover of CBS News and the looming threat of a pending takeover involving Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison and Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns news network CNN).
“It would be like Fox taking over all news channels. Imagine if Fox was not one outlier and Fox was the mainstay? That’s what’s happening with Hollywood now and the Ellisons, and it’s tragic,” O’Donnell told Variety.
The outlet noted that O’Donnell brought up recent, reported internal turmoil at CBS’ classic, long-running newsmagazine program 60 Minutes as a point of concern for the pending takeover.
“Look at what’s happened to CBS News and 60 Minutes, which was the gold star of their entire network, and they blew it up,” O’Donnell stated. “This Bari Weiss person, I don’t know how she can live with herself. There are people who are sidling up to him and history will record all of their names, what they did, and who they stood next to.”
She continued, “If you’re in a room with 10 Nazis at a table and you’re the only one who’s not, there’s a pretty good chance you’re a Nazi.”
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for Weiss at Paramount for comment on O’Donnell’s interview.
Weiss’ leadership at CBS has drawn widespread criticism over her lack of broadcast experience despite being tasked with heading a major, TV-focused news organization, amass staff exodus at 60 Minutes, and Weiss’ appointment of polarizing journalist Tony Dokoupil to the lead anchor position on the storied CBS Evening News program.
While O’Donnell herself hasn’t for years hosted a television show in a permanent capacity, she’ll guest-host Jimmy Kimmel Live! throughout the week.
O’Donnell has been open in recent weeks about her potential return to television in a more permanent capacity.
She recently shot down speculation that she’s eyeing a full-time takeover of Kimmel’s show behind his back, but did note that she’s currently discussing ways to come back to television in a more significant way, 11 years after she departed her second go-round on The View in 2015.
“It would look a lot like my old show, to tell you the truth. I think America wants nostalgia. I think what they don’t want is celebrity culture. I think celebrity culture is dead in America,” O’Donnell told the Tanglepodcast.
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“There was a time where, if you could get a big star on your show, the numbers went through the roof. Well, that was before the internet — really, it was before you could literally write a DM to me and I’ll respond,” the star continued. “But, I think the time for celebrity culture has died down. We’ve been in the land of gross excess in this country or a long time, and I’d like to do mostly human interest stories, tell good news, have fun and games with people like we used to, get to have Broadway on — and if a celebrity wants to come on and chat, that’s fantastic, but it wouldn’t be because they had a movie to promote.”
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