If Bari sells The Free Press to CBS, I’ll end my paid subscription to her site. Sasha, if you did the same, I’d end my paid support of you also. I’m done giving any support whatsoever to these legacy media propaganda engines. They are no friend to America, Americans or the truth.
I would posit that Bari had solid financial backing before she submitted her resignation to the NYT. I think that both she and Nelly are very talented people (I was an early paid subscriber), but after a couple years some thing seemed a little off about the way TFP operated, the stealth censorship, the very liberal staff-hires, and certain positions that were taken. Does anyone know who the initial TFP financial backers were? And why CBS, of all places?
Israel notifies civilians to leave before it attacks an area. Israel like any other nation has the right to fight its enemies. If Israel was targeting civilians, they would flee to Egypt. But they do not.
I don’t know if Bari is committed to genocide in Gaza. I don’t think anyone is, actually. But the two parties seem to be locked into a death dance. That I don’t see ending until and unless there is an economic awakening in Gaza / West Bank. I’m of the opinion that 10/7 occurred (in part) because Iran mullah’s saw peace/normalized relations on-the-come w/ Saudis + Israel agreement in summer 2023 to co-develop w/ PA, Hamas and Egypt - the very $ lucrative Gaza Marine natural gas field. That offshore field has remained untapped for 25 years, due to Israel fear proceeds would be used for terror. I agree the Bibi maintains power while there is conflict, and loses it if peace returns.
This is the only key phrase: "... genocide includes any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group:"
There must be intent to destroy a group. The Arabs (which includes the so-called Palestinians) are 410 million strong. If Israel is committing genocide, then what are its plans to kill the other 410 million Arabs? How will Israel do that? The population of Palestinians increases by 86,000 every year. Even if you agree with terrorist Hamas, the number of deaths does not put a dent in the Palestinian population.
Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, born on 21 October 1949, Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the relevant conduct.
Arrest warrant issued on 21 November 2024
Accused LastName
Netanyahu
Accused FirstName
Benjamin
Charges
Allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.”
I have ended paid subscriptions for people who accept advertising because I figure they don't need the money. I guess I kind of agree with you. I'd probably end my paid sub after that because they wouldn't need the money or maybe they would do the honorable thing and end all paid subs.
Sasha, would you consider writing a summation type of article about the Twitter Files? (If you haven't already). I asked my liberal sister recently if she was familiar with the Twitter Files, and she said she had heard of them but knew nothing. I asked another liberal, a friend, the same question. His response, no, maybe he'll look into them. I even asked the publisher of our local newspaper, and he had it wrong. I'm guessing the reason for this ignorance is that they get their news from legacy media. I did ask my sister and she said she watches NBC news. I'm flabbergasted. Thanks, Jim P.
The thing some are missing is that you need a backer to start a Substack. Whether she had a backer or not, Bari knew the news business when she left NYT and took a chance. We have a profit and loss system. She could have lost, but she worked hard and did well. Supposed the tables were turned, suppose those who criticized her had been fired. My guess is that nearly all who criticized her would have been crybabies.
Sasha you were forced to take a chance. Thank goodness you chose to give it a shot!
The “Honorable Thing?” As any real Samurai will tell you, “the Honorable Thing,” when faced with certain death, is to chose death. Otherwise you are a coward and destined to live the remainder of your life as a coward. 😈
Yet another one into "cancel culture" who can't wear his big boy pants when consuming content.
Do you really think CBS is "ethical journalism"?
Have you watched 60 Minutes lately, or CBS Sunday Morning where the host is constantly pushing a Democrat Party narrative against Republicans and never holding Democrats to account for their blunders?
You're like a Bull Conner type threatening the black school kid that if he crosses the street to the white side, you'll cancel him forever.
I ended my subscription to the Free Press shortly after I started it. It was more of the same legacy media propaganda. Weiss’ agenda is always self serving and it doesn’t resonate with me. This Warren Smith break down of a Weiss - Rogan interview pretty much confirmed what I already felt about Weiss. This may end up as another financial blunder for legacy media.
Sasha stay authentic. There’s no secret to the big pay day. You just sell your soul to the highest bidders. You started writing about Hollywood and movies when acting and movies were compelling. There was a time when it was pure art at its highest form. Keep your writing like that and you”ll be fine. Believe it or not you’re a much better writer than Weiss.
She’s a true Patriot. Served in the military, served in state and federal government. She’s a strong intelligent free thinking woman. No one’s mouthpiece. Peace seeker. 👊🏻
Wait for it. I can hear the footsteps and then the keyboard. Neutered trolls are about to comment. 😂
Thanks for the Rogan/Weiss reminder of what a snobby, entitled little b*tch Weiss can be. Tulsi runs circles around her; her bravery of standing up to her prior party, never backing down even when she got hit with the wrath of Hillary. Crossing over to continue to serve her country under Trump. She’s one of his smartest picks.
I agree. There can be no greater servant to the people and enemy of the state than a veteran who was attacked by the state. I support her 100% since the 2020 primary where she outed Harris for her egregious record.
Thank you for posting the Weiss-Rogan interview clip. What a revelation! I think I've been taken in by Bari Weiss's slick, professional style and fluency. I do think she's a great interviewer -- she asks substantive questions and lets her guests answer them--but after seeing this clip I'll have to fact-check her so called "factual" claims.
That clip was when Bari was younger, and still @ the NYT. That said, she’s never walked it back or apologized for the Tulsi remarks which were and remain (IMO), neocon over-the-top.
Besides the remarks, it illustrates something about her character that many people are guilty of. She’s adamant she’s right and won’t entertain anything to the contrary. I can’t respect that in a “journalist”. It shows a lack of humility and honesty.
'Ivy league Lavender Miffed' is not gonna be the pay off Paramount thinks it will be, in any way, shape or form. But the business deal Weiss made is brilliant.
Tulsi is NOT several levels above Bari. IMHO. Tulsi is a good mouthpiece, when she is not tripping over her own tongue, and is an attractive figurehead, but she’s never written anything of substance, and does not seem to be particularly quick on her feet in an unscripted situation. But hey, to each their own.
Oh, and you've read EVERYTHING she's written? Never mind....someone with TDS and probably voted for a prostitute wouldn't know substance if he carjacked you.
Way to go full on idiot! I love Tulsi. I think she’s doing a great job. I am an intelligent conservative, not a knee jerk conservative like you apparently are. So take your STUPID condescending comments somewhere else, or just shove them up your ass.
You made a comparison I disagree with it doesn’t mean I don’t like her, this means I think they’re very different people with very different attributes. Probably just shouldn’t have engaged, not really important.
Weiss, her wife N Bowles, and most of the FP are nothing but manipulative shrews. Full stop. Weiss et al are wayyyy too far up their own arses. The Gavin Newsomes of 'journalism'....
I don't mind the varied opinions but they refuse to cover top stories. Or they give them a few paragraphs. It's less what they write and more what they don't.
I agree. The Free Press did not cover the Russiagate situation or the corruption of the Bidens until Joe Biden was out of the election. That was - for many- the last straw of the free press. We needed a place where everyone - no matter who - could go to to learn one truth (regardless of which side it helped or hurt). They would not print things which could hurt the chances of the Biden reelection. As you say - that made me wonder what other truths was I missing. I stopped subscribing at that point
You mean 1. stories Everyone else is covering? OR 2. Stories You consider Top Stories?
3. Berg’s Eighteenth Law of Media Latency: Nothing the media writes/says about any emotionally charged event – a mass shooting, a police shooting, anything – should be taken seriously for 48 hours after the original incident. It will largely be rubbish, as media outlets vie to “scoop” each other even on incorrect facts.
Stories affecting all Americans. Biden infirmity. Russia gate. Covid errors. I don’t expect coverage immediately but I do expect coverage at some time.
They have raced to the bottom in terms of journalistic integrity.
They have abandoned any pretense of fair, accurate and unbiased reporting which is the North Star of the 4th Estate.
IF she can do what she's done to the NYT by slapping away 20% of their subscribers who want real journalism...to CBS...then the nation will be better for it.
You people live in a bubble.
You need to cross the Hudson River to see how the other 95% of America lives, thinks and engages in open, honest dialogue with each other.
Sasha gets that. Bari gets that.
Most of you are still stuck on stupid....stuck paying the Sulzberger's to get access to fake conservatives David French, David Brooks and Bret Stephens....whose only thing in common is a lack of understanding what MAGA is...and why at this point in our nation's history, it's our only saving grace.
Of course Pravda is going to fight this change. It threatens people's livelihoods and their widely held belief system that is rooted on "the elites get to decide and minions in fly over country can shut up while eating their sardines and Braun Schweiger sandwiches for lunch.
CBS was incredibly biased since I was a little kid. My late dad always complained about it. 60 minutes always did biased, selectively edited, hit jobs. It is their business model.
I must be the exception to your generalization, and I wonder how many other readers here are also exceptions. I don't read or view French, Brooks (no idea who he even is) or Stephens. I don't know or care who Sulzberger is. "Stuck on stupid" for supposedly paying for access to someone I don't know? Sure...
International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), passed a resolution stating that Israel's actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.”
Hi Steven, I did look them up and they seem legit to me. I seem to be caught in this argument between “that’s just your biased opinion” and then when I reference independent informed sources get “that’s just their expert biased opinion”. The counter arguments all seem to resolve to any criticism of Israel is solely anti-Semitic and by extension Israel is holier than God since they are incapable of sin or mistake. Here’s a list of board members and for sure I can’t validate its authenticity or accuracy. Thanks for the reminder though, Steven. I truly wish we didn’t have to argue this topic at all as I find it heartbreaking and feel like Sasha must have when she left her tribe and alienated old friends.
Israel Jews committed genocide in Gaza in 2025 and it has been well and truthfully documented and is part of their history now. Let’s agree to disagree and you should stop your ad hominem attacks on me and the other military veterans you disagree with here. It’s uncalled for.
I would imagine most German Nazis did not step foot in concentration camps, making it difficult for them to commit genocide there. See how that works? Lol.
No, I don't. The Holocaust was an explicit, systematic attempt at extermination vs. the Israeli-Palestinian conflict involving military operations against Hamas leadership (whose mandate is rejecting the legitimacy of the Israeli state), which is legally and ethically distinct from genocide.
It's estimated that the Gaza conflict has resulted in the deaths of 2.7% of the Gaza population, while the Holocaust killed 6 million Jews representing almost two-thirds (63%) of the global Jewish population at the time.
If "history" is still quibbling about the Armenians and the Turks, scooter, then I wouldn't bet the house that your hyperbolic descriptions of the Israel/Hamas conflict will fare any better for qualifying as "genocide".
You seem to place an inordinate amount of stock in the consensus of people who hate Israel as much as you do. They're not any more convincing than you are, and the authority they assumed on the subject is entirely self-awarded.
You're right about one thing, though, in a backhanded kind of way. Many people do think the world, and the Middle East in particular, will only benefit when nobody alive can call themselves a Palestinian anymore.
And there you have it folks; the Zionist prayer; “Many people do think the world, and the Middle East in particular, will only benefit when nobody alive can call themselves a Palestinian anymore.
Those people are correct.”
Clearly Matthew J Florio firmly believes in the genocide of Palestinians. And he’s representatives of most Jews. “..when nobody alive can call themselves a Palestinian anymore”; let that sink in folks. That’s the guy on your team.
Destroying the poisonous dream of "Palestine" doesn't necessarily involve killing the dreamers unless they actively choose to stay in dreamland while its being bulldozed.
As far as "teams", didja see the Holocaust denier who popped up to support you, scooter? Is there room for him among the murderers and rapists you're cheering for?
I don't support Hamas but I certainly understand them. The Palestinians have been getting screwed since WW1. I wonder if most of the Jewish population support what's going on in Gazza or is it mostly the Zionists.
If Israel were truly a genocidal people why didn’t they respond to October 7 by immediately and repeatedly carpetbombing Gaza intending to kill as many Palestinians as possible and keep killing them until no more terrorists remained alive? Israel had the means and an indisputable casus belli to end the threat from Hamas permanent; Israel did not make the convenient choice of genocide and instead risked the lives of its ground forces who volunteered to substitute their own lives in Gaza for risk-free carpet bombing — or maybe you and all others blinded by antisemitism missed that news.
Israeli Jews did commit genocide against Christian and Palestinians in Gaza in 2025; it’s well documented and part of history now. Never forget or deny the Holocaust of Gaza.
Hi Jen, I am also outraged by the genocide that Israeli Jews have committed against Christians and Palestinians in Gaza. Both Holocausts were and are tragic and should upset everyone. Now let’s stop the current one and get full and prompt reparations from Israel to Gazans on the same order as Germany paid.
There are no two Holocausts. Your attempt at conflation is amazing. Let me know when Palestinians are rounded up and forced into concentration camps, truly starved and tortured, stuffed into ovens, gassed and then cremated. And don't bother with some sort of platitude that "Gaza is a concentration camp". Your refusal to hold to account the barbarianism of radical Islamic terrorism as the perpetrators of a decades long genocide against its own people, under the guise of religion, is why I find it difficult to believe you or anyone else who says this actually have true concern for Palestinians. Of course, Hamas is what they want. I'm sure there is a minority that doesn't want any of it but to speak out would, more than likely, result in death. Maybe you didn't understand the "death to America and Israel" chant that has been relentlessly repeated and acted upon for decades. These inculcated people cheered for 911. War is unfortunate and people suffer. Best to not start a conflict in first place.
I often wonder why the people who think casualities of war is a genocide and say absolutely nothing about an actual genocide happening in the Sudan. If Israel were committing an actual genocide for 2 years, Gaza would have about 50,000 people left at most. You have had that word shoved down your throat by the media and online comments sections right out of the Covid playbook with various terms. When you all start protesting Sudan in a meaningful way I may take you more. seriously. And no, I am not a Zionist shill. I look at things from above the noise. This war would have ended long ago if Hamas gave up the hostages. But, they REALLY love that body count as it gets more people to hate Israel. They are playing you and your like minded people like fiddles and using the civilians of Gaza as their fuel.
I was a very early subscriber to the formerly Free Press. But they kept adding more and more refugees from the alphabets and leftist screeds and those voices predominated. Nellie lost her humor on her Friday posts. The FFP became alphabet lite. The final straw was their oppressive moderators whom I suspect were newbie J school graduates from places like Columbia. There’s where the offended twitter scolds went.
Yep, I was right there with you. My last straw was the moderation of the comments section and especially of those of us who had been long time commenters.
I write the same comments on the Minnesota Star Tribune site and 95% of my posts are deleted...and my account has been put in 24 hour timeouts more than Carter has pills.
You tell me which one is biased and trying to control the narrative?
I was an early supporter as well. My hunch is that they started banning longtime commenters and deleting comments around the same time they started courting outside investors. They wanted the site to appear more "acceptable" to coastal, urban investors.
They only ever deleted comments from one side and around that same time, we started seeing a lot more sycophantic comments that never quite felt genuine. They wanted to "clean up" the comment section so as not to scare off the NYT crowd or force them to see any alternate viewpoints.
Good point. They never banned that horrible troll who used to change his name T1000 or quarto or something like that. Kevin Durant took the brunt that’s for sure.
Just about three years ago, I was proud to say that I was a very early subscriber and supporter of Bari Weiss and the Free Press, from back when it was still Common Sense. It was refreshing and I was hopeful, seeing a leftist “get it”, and to fearlessly expose the excesses of woke. But right about that time was when things started to show themselves through the glittery fog, and especially as she added new personnel, like Oliver Wiseman, it became clear that the Free Press was really NYTlite with a veneer of covering both sides (very selectively, of course), and still possessing healthy doses of Hillary love, TDS, and especially to this over educated country boy, a massive case of coastal elitism that really came through loud and clear in almost everything they did, even when I did find it amusing and correct.
Now I’m proud to say that I was also early to see the light on that, and early to cancel my paid subscription, before she even reached 100,000 mark. There were also quite a few dissenters who bailed around the same time, and some good sub stacks have spun off from that movement as well. It did not dent TFP’s continued growth and success, and I never had any illusions that it would, but I could no longer be a part of the charade.
Sasha, your writing has been a true and continued breath of fresh air since I’ve discovered it, as has your genuine full journey from the dark side, and your courage to risk it all and pay the price for speaking the truth.
I’m sorry I have been lax prior to this in full support, but I’m becoming a paying subscriber today. Please keep up what you are doing for a long time!
I was also an early supporter of Common Sense. I suspect if Bari takes over CBS News it will be more of the same. The veneer of "balance" but really only the same coastal, urban viewpoints every other corporate news source already presents, just in a slightly more presentable package for middle America.
Well, first, I never said anything about being a God, I said a breath of fresh air. Geez.
As is every former lefty, who finally gets it. I never quite had that feeling that Bari Weiss completely did, and it became clear that she hadn’t and still hasn’t.
Anyway, to your main point, I get your point, though at the same time I really don’t look at it in terms of who should get more applause, I look at it in terms of what is it going to take to win against this totalitarian leftist monster. Of course it feels good to know you never fell for that crap, but if nobody from the left ever saw through it and turned away from the left, we would never move anywhere, and honestly would probably go down that road further. We need more and more people on the left to wake up to the reality of what it is, and so I do applaud those who really do, as I applaud those who have seen it from the start. The one place where I would differentiate is does someone truly get it, whether they saw the truth from the start, or came to it late. On the other hand, if you have fakers or half-ways who talk out of both sides of their mouth, (though still one side a lot more), like Bari Weiss, or Malcolm Gladwell with his recent total weak ass bullshit admission that he should’ve spoke out about trans stuff earlier, screw them. Those are definitely not worthy of any applause.
It got to point that anytime Oily Wiseman wrote a piece, I would simply delete it. I haven’t seen him on TFP in quite a while and hope he went back to the UK.
Not fair. Sasha is a good writer, not a God. There is no getting in front or behind in this battle. We are all in front. I give her credit for stepping back and analyzing her beliefs and changing her mind and putting her herself and her career on the line for it. Her opinions are at least equal to those who supposedly always knew the truth. There are just as many sheep on the right as the left. Trump is not a god either!
I am no academic, as you claim to be, but I have to wonder what sort of academic turns to Substack for research? I read several Substack writers for entertainment, for reading pleasure, and to stay informed. While I am not an impressive academic, such as yourself, aren’t there more noteworthy places to do research, such as university libraries, or archives? You say you’re “ an expert in the field.” What field? You never say. Moreover, Sasha wrote an entertainment column for decades. I never heard of her until recently, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t write about totalitarianism previously. What kind of research do you hope to obtain from a former entertainment writer?
Behold “A,” the mighty anthropologist, conducting field studies on Sasha Stone readers as though they are Amazonian savages, akin to discovering a new species of insect that requires dissection and analysis.
Sadly, I do not share your intellectual prowess, as I left school at 16. You have me at a disadvantage.
If you’re this critical of Sasha and her writing, why are you here? You’re not going to convince me not to read her Substack. If you’re surrounded by such geniuses, why not stick with them and their writings and leave Sasha to us great unwashed?
You have a funny way of giving a leg up. You think very highly of yourself. Chip in........you've got to be kidding!!!! You can stay or go......I don't give a ****!
Well A, the most powerful Christian pastor I ever had, was a former atheist. Something about his darkness to light journey illuminated his ability to deliver Scripture. Sasha has a similar talent that comes from the lived experience.
The Free Press started out well then tripped over their rhetoric and now is irrelevant. Every opinion, every statement is all tilted in one direction and I stopped paying months ago, sad.
Are we to judge by your screen name that you're a heavily compliant Progressive Democrat and you don't need nobody telling you things different than you already know?
No. Small l libertarian. The blue part of my screen name refers to my loyalty to a hockey team and I am quite open to other viewpoints politically. I am about as far away from a progressive D as one could be. I am very disappointed in TFP as it seems to have become a one trick pony on certain issues.
Sasha, you are the best. This piece was so touching and illustrated the gap between where we’d like things to be, with free speech and open discussion about real facts, and reality. The woke mobs of the hive mind attempt to cancel whoever stands in their way and dares tell the truth if that conflicts with their demonstrably wrong narrative. Echos of the French Revolition ring loudly online.
The tide may be turning, slowly, after years of insanity. How far will things go? The News has always been the bastion of the left. But team truth now has points inthe board. You’ve seen this story from the start. And you are still writing. Thank you.
I think Bari started out with good intentions and got lost along the way. Her writers at the Free Press wrote about 'the other side' in a characiture -istic sort of way. Over time, there was less and less nuance and the tone took on a New York Times -lite affect. Oliver Wiseman took his name seriously instead of his responsibility humbly. Her wife, like others, always has a slightly snarky tone to her writing born of a life living in a pseudo cocoon of coastal coolness. And her interviewing techniques are never dispassionate and balanced. I like Douglas Murray, but she practically drools on him when interviewing about Israel. CBS is not taking a principled leap, they are putting their toes in lukewarm water at best.
Liberals and Progressives frame all of their morality through the lens of Ending Oppression and Fairness.
Nothing else matters. You don't clap for people singing the National Anthem, you don't attend 4th of July parades, you hate Christmas because it's not inclusive; you hate Thanksgiving because we're on stolen land; you think our government should provide all the resources for the tens of millions of economic refugees who've been treated unfairly in life in their home country; and you love Islam/Socialism/Communism because it promised to "end oppression and create total and complete equity."
Just watched the X link. Bari looked bad when she couldn’t define the insult used. I read some of her posts soon after NYT resignation, but was soon turned off by her overly liberal views. I don’t care what she does with the offer from CBS. I don’t follow her now and definitely don’t watch CBS horrid news.
That incident reminded of mean middle school girls, and I stopped my subscription. But I started thinking about how we all fail at some point in our lives and how often women are ostracized for a single bad moment, while men can mess up over and over again without being burned at the stake. I resubscribed and I'll wait and see what changes happen.
Men & women who live by lies pay a price. Operation Mocking Bird has been exposed. Her oily, coy propaganda/ deception may have won her a job in Fake News Operations, but my moto is Live Not By Lies. When I discover a liar, I'm done w them, male or female.
Another home run dear Sasha! It especially resonates with me as my own trajectory tracks very close to yours as a lifetime democrat who started to see the light in 2016 but voted for Her anyway....then could not endure what They put Him through....only to come to 2020 and not vote for Him again because "what good would it do in Massachusetts?" AND it would give me plausible deniability to my friends -- all of whom were leftoids. I had been making the case for Trump to them throughout his first term but it fell of deaf ears -- not even deaf, for the deaf can through miracles be made to hear, these ears were DEAD, and no amount of cogent reasoning could persuade them even the slightest bit.
I heard of someone named Bari Weiss, but wasn't sure who "he" was, even though I am a lifetime NY Times reader, though by Biden's term I was consulting it largley to see how the "enemy" was trying to frame the narrative, not for news or opinion -- I was getting those from Twitter and podcasts faster and better.
When I discovered who Ms. Weiss was I was delighted and when her resignation letter appeared it was a moment of great joy, as I know personally a Times WH correspondent and wanted to wave this under his nose. Nothing doing....he'd have none of it. This was "small potatoes" (another misjusdment). Then, when Bari set up her new ventures I was hooked and often re-tweeted her or posted her pieces on my FB thread.
But now that she has reached mega-stardom I fear this latest victory may be a poisoned chalice -- a kind of last chance at failure through success offered by one's enemies. They can't beat her but they can induce her to join them and by degrees slowly bring her into line. I say give it a try and make a good faith effort to change the culture there -- after all this is what they are hiring her to do. CBS used to be the mainstream and as American as apple pie. And if it fails, if they try to block her, thwart her, she'll write another resignation letter that will be remembered in history as a landmark in America's struggle to free itself from the tentacles of the Left's unearned dominance in American life.
Better to have these problems of success than to still be looking up the long steep climb toward it, as Trump did for the entire Biden years in office. I say to Bari what Trump said to us: FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
Some if Us strongly suspect that the Big Bucks re-entry was the goal from the git-go. I also found Ms Weiss' journey utterly compelling. At first. But the vibe sifted inexorably toward Popular Kidism. No sale.
She has a platform that is well received by people who are looking for authentic journalism.
These are the same people (like me) who are paying Sasha, Michael Schellenberg, Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald and others my cash to get access to their content.
My eyeballs no longer visit the NYT or WSJ. My subscriptions no longer go to Establishment media.. primarily because the difference between Jimmy Kimmel, Steve Colbert and Margaret Brennan on CBS is indistinguishable.
To Sasha's point...we don't need journalists telling us what to think.
We need them to put words into stories that get us to think for ourselves.
We the People can do the rest.
And to those who create platforms that inform and inspire free thinking ideas....they should be rewarded with a larger platform that allows them to reach tens of millions instead of hundreds of thousands.
This is America after all...where the only constant is change...everywhere except at the NYT.
I thought Bari was different she talks the talk. But after being a paid subscriber for a year getting put into time out multiple times for pointing out how evil Hilary was and still is and will always be and realizing that almost everyone Bari hires at the Free Press has the exact same liberal Columbia Journalism worldview and finding out that it was big tech that funded her It finally dawned on me that she is not an independent voice she is the systems controlled opposition. MSM is dead it just doesn’t realize it yet. Big Tech wants to control the narrative in the new media landscape and Bari is their attempt to do so. The big tech boys are just cashing in their chips now. Bari is a part of the MSM and will never ever challenge Big Pharma or the DNC narratives or even the Neocons narratives. It will be more of the same wrapped up in different paper.
The Free Press is also captured. There are isolated articles that are good, but ultimately it's gone way downhill. That having been said, however, make no mistake about it, absolutely NOTHING that the left does is based on principle. It's always 100% based on fear of what others on the left will say or do to them (that's not to say the right is any better, but then again the right isn't purporting to do things on principle, and the left is)...
I taught business valuations to MBAs. Expected dividends or cash flows, discounted by the required rates of return. My research involved stochastic deflators, rather than the typical dividend discount model that MBAs learn.
There is a snowball's chance in hell that The Free Press is even worth $20 million.
$200 million? She is Jewish and is being rewarded for exceedingly biased 'reporting.
That is a story about cutting down a tree at a gravesite. All the pain and suffering in the world and Macron tweeted about it. Why? Macron is the hand-picked puppet of Rothschild bankers. Macron, Netanyahu, and the authors of the article misuse the term anti-Semitic over and over to pretend actions are hate crimes. Approx 150 years ago, French researcher Ernest Renan defined Aryan and Semitic (speaking a Semite language). Renan was curious why Aryan societies were typically superior to Semitic societies and wondered if genetics was the reason.
A jew labeled Renan's research anti-Semitic.
One Semitic person attacking another Semitic person is not anti-Semitic.
Anti-Zion is not illegal.
Over 80% of the world--rough estimate--is anti-Zion, Maybe over 90%.
So, Jews started calling anti-Zion behavior anti-Semitic so that they could inflame Americans to support their Zionist causes.
I knew OCT 8, 2023, that Netanyahu would not stop until he cleared enough Palestinians out of the area so that he could build a canal. The proposed Ben Gurion canal had been shelved because of too many Palestinians in the area where the canal would be, and the Oslo Accords II would prevent the canal from being built, so Netanyahu was associated with the assassination of Israeli PM Rabin to prevent the accords from being signed. It is good for Bibi that Hamas has not returned all the hostages so that Bibi can fake a motive, else Bibi would have to fake another motive.
Macron is struggling badly in France, and the SEP 8 vote on his fragile government may be the last straw. Sociopath Charles Kushner lied in a WSJ op-ed to embarrass Macron for not dropping everything in his agenda to make sure that Zionist Jews run France, even though the Jews are a small % of society and France is a democratic republic, just like the US used to be.
Jordan Bardella is the odds-on-favorite to win the 2027 election because the younger voters have not turned out to vote for Macron or Le Pen, but really like Bardella. All this Zionist crap and misusing the term anti-Semitic is going to come to an abrupt end, and the young French are relieved. Every time a Jew makes some comment about anti-Semitic in Europe, it is like throwing a lighted match into a gunpowder room. The under 35 voters in France, Germany, and Italy are strongly neo-Fascist and the days of reckoning are coming soon.
If Bari sells The Free Press to CBS, I’ll end my paid subscription to her site. Sasha, if you did the same, I’d end my paid support of you also. I’m done giving any support whatsoever to these legacy media propaganda engines. They are no friend to America, Americans or the truth.
I would posit that Bari had solid financial backing before she submitted her resignation to the NYT. I think that both she and Nelly are very talented people (I was an early paid subscriber), but after a couple years some thing seemed a little off about the way TFP operated, the stealth censorship, the very liberal staff-hires, and certain positions that were taken. Does anyone know who the initial TFP financial backers were? And why CBS, of all places?
Very fair questions. I have noticed the drift, as well.
Sasha, I love your work.
Why CBS? Um, did you see the part about the $200 million?
We would need to see the cap table to answer that question.
Hamassholes are the only ones guilty of Genocide.
People like Alan have genocide Tourettes. It just comes bubbling out like diarrhea after Indian food.
Brilliant. But now I gotta eat this oatmeal I just made.
That’s a legitimate point And the absolute best way to reply to a childish post From a child named Andy.
And here it comes. Mention the name Bari Weiss and the Nazis crawl out.
Don't forget the Hamassholes!!
Israel notifies civilians to leave before it attacks an area. Israel like any other nation has the right to fight its enemies. If Israel was targeting civilians, they would flee to Egypt. But they do not.
How can you expect me to take you? Seriously when you use the word clown and Nazi in the same sentence
I don’t know if Bari is committed to genocide in Gaza. I don’t think anyone is, actually. But the two parties seem to be locked into a death dance. That I don’t see ending until and unless there is an economic awakening in Gaza / West Bank. I’m of the opinion that 10/7 occurred (in part) because Iran mullah’s saw peace/normalized relations on-the-come w/ Saudis + Israel agreement in summer 2023 to co-develop w/ PA, Hamas and Egypt - the very $ lucrative Gaza Marine natural gas field. That offshore field has remained untapped for 25 years, due to Israel fear proceeds would be used for terror. I agree the Bibi maintains power while there is conflict, and loses it if peace returns.
Apparently you are unaware of the meaning of 'genocide'. Educate first, before libeling a group of people.
This is the only key phrase: "... genocide includes any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group:"
There must be intent to destroy a group. The Arabs (which includes the so-called Palestinians) are 410 million strong. If Israel is committing genocide, then what are its plans to kill the other 410 million Arabs? How will Israel do that? The population of Palestinians increases by 86,000 every year. Even if you agree with terrorist Hamas, the number of deaths does not put a dent in the Palestinian population.
Where is the genocide?
https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu
Bibi the war criminal
“Defendant
Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, born on 21 October 1949, Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the relevant conduct.
Arrest warrant issued on 21 November 2024
Accused LastName
Netanyahu
Accused FirstName
Benjamin
Charges
Allegedly responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.”
A bit fanatic albi, but I do acknowledge your opinion.
I have ended paid subscriptions for people who accept advertising because I figure they don't need the money. I guess I kind of agree with you. I'd probably end my paid sub after that because they wouldn't need the money or maybe they would do the honorable thing and end all paid subs.
Sasha, would you consider writing a summation type of article about the Twitter Files? (If you haven't already). I asked my liberal sister recently if she was familiar with the Twitter Files, and she said she had heard of them but knew nothing. I asked another liberal, a friend, the same question. His response, no, maybe he'll look into them. I even asked the publisher of our local newspaper, and he had it wrong. I'm guessing the reason for this ignorance is that they get their news from legacy media. I did ask my sister and she said she watches NBC news. I'm flabbergasted. Thanks, Jim P.
Tell them to read Matt Taibbi. He’s done the best coverage on the Twitter Files.
You do what you think you need to do, Sasha.
Never forget that many of these people just have opinions.
I don’t have to agree with everything you say or believe to just suddenly toss you to the curb because we have a difference of opinion on one subject.
And who knows maybe Bari gonna make that decision and put you on as a contributor and writer to her new business empire.
Everything happens for a reason, Sasha. Keep the faith.
Have a great day and a better tomorrow.😎
The thing some are missing is that you need a backer to start a Substack. Whether she had a backer or not, Bari knew the news business when she left NYT and took a chance. We have a profit and loss system. She could have lost, but she worked hard and did well. Supposed the tables were turned, suppose those who criticized her had been fired. My guess is that nearly all who criticized her would have been crybabies.
Sasha you were forced to take a chance. Thank goodness you chose to give it a shot!
The “Honorable Thing?” As any real Samurai will tell you, “the Honorable Thing,” when faced with certain death, is to chose death. Otherwise you are a coward and destined to live the remainder of your life as a coward. 😈
Yet another one into "cancel culture" who can't wear his big boy pants when consuming content.
Do you really think CBS is "ethical journalism"?
Have you watched 60 Minutes lately, or CBS Sunday Morning where the host is constantly pushing a Democrat Party narrative against Republicans and never holding Democrats to account for their blunders?
You're like a Bull Conner type threatening the black school kid that if he crosses the street to the white side, you'll cancel him forever.
Grow the eph up!!!
Matt is a US military veteran and objective commentator. So stop the ad hominem attacks.
Fuck yes!
Already cancelled. I admire her payout while lamenting her sellout. It was a great run cut short.
I ended my subscription to the Free Press shortly after I started it. It was more of the same legacy media propaganda. Weiss’ agenda is always self serving and it doesn’t resonate with me. This Warren Smith break down of a Weiss - Rogan interview pretty much confirmed what I already felt about Weiss. This may end up as another financial blunder for legacy media.
https://youtu.be/NLdgdc4rWnI?si=k_WVtw_RF9NMZAxX
Sasha stay authentic. There’s no secret to the big pay day. You just sell your soul to the highest bidders. You started writing about Hollywood and movies when acting and movies were compelling. There was a time when it was pure art at its highest form. Keep your writing like that and you”ll be fine. Believe it or not you’re a much better writer than Weiss.
Great post, Jim. Tulsi is several levels above Bari.
She’s a true Patriot. Served in the military, served in state and federal government. She’s a strong intelligent free thinking woman. No one’s mouthpiece. Peace seeker. 👊🏻
Wait for it. I can hear the footsteps and then the keyboard. Neutered trolls are about to comment. 😂
Not quite
You re being obtuse
Thanks for the Rogan/Weiss reminder of what a snobby, entitled little b*tch Weiss can be. Tulsi runs circles around her; her bravery of standing up to her prior party, never backing down even when she got hit with the wrath of Hillary. Crossing over to continue to serve her country under Trump. She’s one of his smartest picks.
I agree. There can be no greater servant to the people and enemy of the state than a veteran who was attacked by the state. I support her 100% since the 2020 primary where she outed Harris for her egregious record.
Thank you for posting the Weiss-Rogan interview clip. What a revelation! I think I've been taken in by Bari Weiss's slick, professional style and fluency. I do think she's a great interviewer -- she asks substantive questions and lets her guests answer them--but after seeing this clip I'll have to fact-check her so called "factual" claims.
I like Bari, but she defaults back to the wealthy, insulated Left.
I also ended my free press subscription after I saw that clip of Bari providing unsubstantiated claims about Tulsi.
That clip was when Bari was younger, and still @ the NYT. That said, she’s never walked it back or apologized for the Tulsi remarks which were and remain (IMO), neocon over-the-top.
Besides the remarks, it illustrates something about her character that many people are guilty of. She’s adamant she’s right and won’t entertain anything to the contrary. I can’t respect that in a “journalist”. It shows a lack of humility and honesty.
Fair enough. I’m sure working at the NYT is not a well of open minded or impartial ideas.
Bari is still a liberal. She's just smarter than most of them.
Thanks for the link...i enjoyed it
'Ivy league Lavender Miffed' is not gonna be the pay off Paramount thinks it will be, in any way, shape or form. But the business deal Weiss made is brilliant.
That’s a very Thoughtful comment on what makes America great is the ability for you to cancel the subscription to whatever You wish.
You have a great day
Bari Weiss is a Netanyahu toadie...
Does this make Sasha Stone a Bari Weiss toadie??
Jews aren’t toadies, but anti-Jews sure are.
Please expose more of your fantasy land 'thinking' to the rest of us so we can clearly identify who to ignore. Thanks for playing!
Only nihilists call everyone toadies simply because they believe in something.
I don’t think it does. I see this as Sasha recognizing a fellow Substacker-in-arms potentially making it big, and applauding that.
That is an incredibly naive take given all the info out there: https://rumble.com/v6ymxai-zionist-toady-bari-weiss-paid-200-million-to-run-cbs-news.html
Tulsi is NOT several levels above Bari. IMHO. Tulsi is a good mouthpiece, when she is not tripping over her own tongue, and is an attractive figurehead, but she’s never written anything of substance, and does not seem to be particularly quick on her feet in an unscripted situation. But hey, to each their own.
Oh, and you've read EVERYTHING she's written? Never mind....someone with TDS and probably voted for a prostitute wouldn't know substance if he carjacked you.
Way to go full on idiot! I love Tulsi. I think she’s doing a great job. I am an intelligent conservative, not a knee jerk conservative like you apparently are. So take your STUPID condescending comments somewhere else, or just shove them up your ass.
Easy there, big fella. For someone who loves Tulsi you don't have much nice to say about her.
You made a comparison I disagree with it doesn’t mean I don’t like her, this means I think they’re very different people with very different attributes. Probably just shouldn’t have engaged, not really important.
LOL, conservative my ass! Nice try though.
Yeah, sorry that my knuckles don’t drag enough.
Exactly. The more you type, the more you reveal. Thanks.
👍👍👍
Weiss, her wife N Bowles, and most of the FP are nothing but manipulative shrews. Full stop. Weiss et al are wayyyy too far up their own arses. The Gavin Newsomes of 'journalism'....
I wrote a piece about the free press on my sub stack awhile ago. I’m not a fan of her or Bowles. Bowles is infatuated with Hillary and Newsom.
Nellie used to refer to Hillary as her ‘Queen’ on the regular but she hasn’t done so for a long time now (it seems).
Maybe she grew out of love with Hillary. Or Bari was getting jealous.
Allow me to translate this for those who do not live on Troll st in Nutterville
TFP writes stories I don't like, and I never go there.
I don't mind the varied opinions but they refuse to cover top stories. Or they give them a few paragraphs. It's less what they write and more what they don't.
I agree. The Free Press did not cover the Russiagate situation or the corruption of the Bidens until Joe Biden was out of the election. That was - for many- the last straw of the free press. We needed a place where everyone - no matter who - could go to to learn one truth (regardless of which side it helped or hurt). They would not print things which could hurt the chances of the Biden reelection. As you say - that made me wonder what other truths was I missing. I stopped subscribing at that point
but they refuse to cover top stories.
You mean 1. stories Everyone else is covering? OR 2. Stories You consider Top Stories?
3. Berg’s Eighteenth Law of Media Latency: Nothing the media writes/says about any emotionally charged event – a mass shooting, a police shooting, anything – should be taken seriously for 48 hours after the original incident. It will largely be rubbish, as media outlets vie to “scoop” each other even on incorrect facts.
https://www.shotinthedark.info/wp/?page_id=5033
Stories affecting all Americans. Biden infirmity. Russia gate. Covid errors. I don’t expect coverage immediately but I do expect coverage at some time.
And you don't see it there?
I used to watch CBS.
They have raced to the bottom in terms of journalistic integrity.
They have abandoned any pretense of fair, accurate and unbiased reporting which is the North Star of the 4th Estate.
IF she can do what she's done to the NYT by slapping away 20% of their subscribers who want real journalism...to CBS...then the nation will be better for it.
You people live in a bubble.
You need to cross the Hudson River to see how the other 95% of America lives, thinks and engages in open, honest dialogue with each other.
Sasha gets that. Bari gets that.
Most of you are still stuck on stupid....stuck paying the Sulzberger's to get access to fake conservatives David French, David Brooks and Bret Stephens....whose only thing in common is a lack of understanding what MAGA is...and why at this point in our nation's history, it's our only saving grace.
Of course Pravda is going to fight this change. It threatens people's livelihoods and their widely held belief system that is rooted on "the elites get to decide and minions in fly over country can shut up while eating their sardines and Braun Schweiger sandwiches for lunch.
CBS was incredibly biased since I was a little kid. My late dad always complained about it. 60 minutes always did biased, selectively edited, hit jobs. It is their business model.
CBS has been corrupt since Cronkite and his body bag announcement every day during the Vietnam conflict.
Yep, i quit "see-BS" when nora and gayle used to yuk it up together...it was completely obnoxious
I must be the exception to your generalization, and I wonder how many other readers here are also exceptions. I don't read or view French, Brooks (no idea who he even is) or Stephens. I don't know or care who Sulzberger is. "Stuck on stupid" for supposedly paying for access to someone I don't know? Sure...
Other than Ms Weiss gets it. Oh, perhaps she does -- but It doesn't sell.
You know Bari is friends with Pastor French right?
Not even close, bud
Reading Comprehension a problem then?
I only go there to comment critically, but this may end my subscription.
Ridiculous hate.
They’re Zionist shills who never saw a Palestinian child they didn’t want killed. Full on supporters of genocide.
Oh please -- not you again.
“the
International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), passed a resolution stating that Israel's actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.”
You might want to look into what qualifies them as "scholars". It's not what you think.
Hi Steven, I did look them up and they seem legit to me. I seem to be caught in this argument between “that’s just your biased opinion” and then when I reference independent informed sources get “that’s just their expert biased opinion”. The counter arguments all seem to resolve to any criticism of Israel is solely anti-Semitic and by extension Israel is holier than God since they are incapable of sin or mistake. Here’s a list of board members and for sure I can’t validate its authenticity or accuracy. Thanks for the reminder though, Steven. I truly wish we didn’t have to argue this topic at all as I find it heartbreaking and feel like Sasha must have when she left her tribe and alienated old friends.
https://genocidescholars.org/about-us/boards-and-committees/
Well, I read that membership was based solely on paying a fee to be in the group, and that academic rigor was not a requirement.
Ah yes, the experts! Make way, bow down before the self appointed proclaimers of facts.
Definition Creep. One of the characteristic diseases of the modern age.
Or...they are advocating to help the people of Gaza free themselves of their Oppressors (Hamas).
Ever put down your shield and sword and use that God Given brain for 3 seconds?
Israel Jews committed genocide in Gaza in 2025 and it has been well and truthfully documented and is part of their history now. Let’s agree to disagree and you should stop your ad hominem attacks on me and the other military veterans you disagree with here. It’s uncalled for.
I would imagine most Israel Jews do not step foot in Gaza, making it difficult for them to commit genocide there.
I would imagine most German Nazis did not step foot in concentration camps, making it difficult for them to commit genocide there. See how that works? Lol.
No, I don't. The Holocaust was an explicit, systematic attempt at extermination vs. the Israeli-Palestinian conflict involving military operations against Hamas leadership (whose mandate is rejecting the legitimacy of the Israeli state), which is legally and ethically distinct from genocide.
It's estimated that the Gaza conflict has resulted in the deaths of 2.7% of the Gaza population, while the Holocaust killed 6 million Jews representing almost two-thirds (63%) of the global Jewish population at the time.
If "history" is still quibbling about the Armenians and the Turks, scooter, then I wouldn't bet the house that your hyperbolic descriptions of the Israel/Hamas conflict will fare any better for qualifying as "genocide".
You seem to place an inordinate amount of stock in the consensus of people who hate Israel as much as you do. They're not any more convincing than you are, and the authority they assumed on the subject is entirely self-awarded.
You're right about one thing, though, in a backhanded kind of way. Many people do think the world, and the Middle East in particular, will only benefit when nobody alive can call themselves a Palestinian anymore.
Those people are correct.
And there you have it folks; the Zionist prayer; “Many people do think the world, and the Middle East in particular, will only benefit when nobody alive can call themselves a Palestinian anymore.
Those people are correct.”
Clearly Matthew J Florio firmly believes in the genocide of Palestinians. And he’s representatives of most Jews. “..when nobody alive can call themselves a Palestinian anymore”; let that sink in folks. That’s the guy on your team.
Destroying the poisonous dream of "Palestine" doesn't necessarily involve killing the dreamers unless they actively choose to stay in dreamland while its being bulldozed.
As far as "teams", didja see the Holocaust denier who popped up to support you, scooter? Is there room for him among the murderers and rapists you're cheering for?
I don't support Hamas but I certainly understand them. The Palestinians have been getting screwed since WW1. I wonder if most of the Jewish population support what's going on in Gazza or is it mostly the Zionists.
I looked at that also and the majority of Israeli Jews condone the genocide.
If Israel were truly a genocidal people why didn’t they respond to October 7 by immediately and repeatedly carpetbombing Gaza intending to kill as many Palestinians as possible and keep killing them until no more terrorists remained alive? Israel had the means and an indisputable casus belli to end the threat from Hamas permanent; Israel did not make the convenient choice of genocide and instead risked the lives of its ground forces who volunteered to substitute their own lives in Gaza for risk-free carpet bombing — or maybe you and all others blinded by antisemitism missed that news.
Israeli Jews did commit genocide against Christian and Palestinians in Gaza in 2025; it’s well documented and part of history now. Never forget or deny the Holocaust of Gaza.
You are saying that the "Holocaust of Gaza" is equal to the Jewish Holocaust. This comparison is outrageous and disturbing!
Hi Jen, I am also outraged by the genocide that Israeli Jews have committed against Christians and Palestinians in Gaza. Both Holocausts were and are tragic and should upset everyone. Now let’s stop the current one and get full and prompt reparations from Israel to Gazans on the same order as Germany paid.
There are no two Holocausts. Your attempt at conflation is amazing. Let me know when Palestinians are rounded up and forced into concentration camps, truly starved and tortured, stuffed into ovens, gassed and then cremated. And don't bother with some sort of platitude that "Gaza is a concentration camp". Your refusal to hold to account the barbarianism of radical Islamic terrorism as the perpetrators of a decades long genocide against its own people, under the guise of religion, is why I find it difficult to believe you or anyone else who says this actually have true concern for Palestinians. Of course, Hamas is what they want. I'm sure there is a minority that doesn't want any of it but to speak out would, more than likely, result in death. Maybe you didn't understand the "death to America and Israel" chant that has been relentlessly repeated and acted upon for decades. These inculcated people cheered for 911. War is unfortunate and people suffer. Best to not start a conflict in first place.
I often wonder why the people who think casualities of war is a genocide and say absolutely nothing about an actual genocide happening in the Sudan. If Israel were committing an actual genocide for 2 years, Gaza would have about 50,000 people left at most. You have had that word shoved down your throat by the media and online comments sections right out of the Covid playbook with various terms. When you all start protesting Sudan in a meaningful way I may take you more. seriously. And no, I am not a Zionist shill. I look at things from above the noise. This war would have ended long ago if Hamas gave up the hostages. But, they REALLY love that body count as it gets more people to hate Israel. They are playing you and your like minded people like fiddles and using the civilians of Gaza as their fuel.
I was a very early subscriber to the formerly Free Press. But they kept adding more and more refugees from the alphabets and leftist screeds and those voices predominated. Nellie lost her humor on her Friday posts. The FFP became alphabet lite. The final straw was their oppressive moderators whom I suspect were newbie J school graduates from places like Columbia. There’s where the offended twitter scolds went.
So after about two years, it was sayonara.
Yep, I was right there with you. My last straw was the moderation of the comments section and especially of those of us who had been long time commenters.
I was “banned” for a month on 2 occasions and I have no idea why
Loved TFP when it started but it lost its initial mission and has disappointed
I've never had a comment moderated here.
I write the same comments on the Minnesota Star Tribune site and 95% of my posts are deleted...and my account has been put in 24 hour timeouts more than Carter has pills.
You tell me which one is biased and trying to control the narrative?
Yes, the timeouts were infuriating. And they never let you know why or for how long until you tried to comment. WTF, are they in kindergarten?
Yes
I was an early supporter as well. My hunch is that they started banning longtime commenters and deleting comments around the same time they started courting outside investors. They wanted the site to appear more "acceptable" to coastal, urban investors.
They only ever deleted comments from one side and around that same time, we started seeing a lot more sycophantic comments that never quite felt genuine. They wanted to "clean up" the comment section so as not to scare off the NYT crowd or force them to see any alternate viewpoints.
Good point. They never banned that horrible troll who used to change his name T1000 or quarto or something like that. Kevin Durant took the brunt that’s for sure.
They added a phrase at the top of the comments section telling us “don’t be a jerk”, or words to that effect - a little ivy league condescension?
But they never defined it.
Just about three years ago, I was proud to say that I was a very early subscriber and supporter of Bari Weiss and the Free Press, from back when it was still Common Sense. It was refreshing and I was hopeful, seeing a leftist “get it”, and to fearlessly expose the excesses of woke. But right about that time was when things started to show themselves through the glittery fog, and especially as she added new personnel, like Oliver Wiseman, it became clear that the Free Press was really NYTlite with a veneer of covering both sides (very selectively, of course), and still possessing healthy doses of Hillary love, TDS, and especially to this over educated country boy, a massive case of coastal elitism that really came through loud and clear in almost everything they did, even when I did find it amusing and correct.
Now I’m proud to say that I was also early to see the light on that, and early to cancel my paid subscription, before she even reached 100,000 mark. There were also quite a few dissenters who bailed around the same time, and some good sub stacks have spun off from that movement as well. It did not dent TFP’s continued growth and success, and I never had any illusions that it would, but I could no longer be a part of the charade.
Sasha, your writing has been a true and continued breath of fresh air since I’ve discovered it, as has your genuine full journey from the dark side, and your courage to risk it all and pay the price for speaking the truth.
I’m sorry I have been lax prior to this in full support, but I’m becoming a paying subscriber today. Please keep up what you are doing for a long time!
I was also an early supporter of Common Sense. I suspect if Bari takes over CBS News it will be more of the same. The veneer of "balance" but really only the same coastal, urban viewpoints every other corporate news source already presents, just in a slightly more presentable package for middle America.
Well, first, I never said anything about being a God, I said a breath of fresh air. Geez.
As is every former lefty, who finally gets it. I never quite had that feeling that Bari Weiss completely did, and it became clear that she hadn’t and still hasn’t.
Anyway, to your main point, I get your point, though at the same time I really don’t look at it in terms of who should get more applause, I look at it in terms of what is it going to take to win against this totalitarian leftist monster. Of course it feels good to know you never fell for that crap, but if nobody from the left ever saw through it and turned away from the left, we would never move anywhere, and honestly would probably go down that road further. We need more and more people on the left to wake up to the reality of what it is, and so I do applaud those who really do, as I applaud those who have seen it from the start. The one place where I would differentiate is does someone truly get it, whether they saw the truth from the start, or came to it late. On the other hand, if you have fakers or half-ways who talk out of both sides of their mouth, (though still one side a lot more), like Bari Weiss, or Malcolm Gladwell with his recent total weak ass bullshit admission that he should’ve spoke out about trans stuff earlier, screw them. Those are definitely not worthy of any applause.
It got to point that anytime Oily Wiseman wrote a piece, I would simply delete it. I haven’t seen him on TFP in quite a while and hope he went back to the UK.
Not fair. Sasha is a good writer, not a God. There is no getting in front or behind in this battle. We are all in front. I give her credit for stepping back and analyzing her beliefs and changing her mind and putting her herself and her career on the line for it. Her opinions are at least equal to those who supposedly always knew the truth. There are just as many sheep on the right as the left. Trump is not a god either!
I am no academic, as you claim to be, but I have to wonder what sort of academic turns to Substack for research? I read several Substack writers for entertainment, for reading pleasure, and to stay informed. While I am not an impressive academic, such as yourself, aren’t there more noteworthy places to do research, such as university libraries, or archives? You say you’re “ an expert in the field.” What field? You never say. Moreover, Sasha wrote an entertainment column for decades. I never heard of her until recently, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t write about totalitarianism previously. What kind of research do you hope to obtain from a former entertainment writer?
I smell a rat.
Behold “A,” the mighty anthropologist, conducting field studies on Sasha Stone readers as though they are Amazonian savages, akin to discovering a new species of insect that requires dissection and analysis.
Sadly, I do not share your intellectual prowess, as I left school at 16. You have me at a disadvantage.
If you’re this critical of Sasha and her writing, why are you here? You’re not going to convince me not to read her Substack. If you’re surrounded by such geniuses, why not stick with them and their writings and leave Sasha to us great unwashed?
If you don't like her writing, go to one of the other hundreds! Why are you wasting your time and ours?
You have a funny way of giving a leg up. You think very highly of yourself. Chip in........you've got to be kidding!!!! You can stay or go......I don't give a ****!
Well A, the most powerful Christian pastor I ever had, was a former atheist. Something about his darkness to light journey illuminated his ability to deliver Scripture. Sasha has a similar talent that comes from the lived experience.
The Free Press started out well then tripped over their rhetoric and now is irrelevant. Every opinion, every statement is all tilted in one direction and I stopped paying months ago, sad.
Are we to judge by your screen name that you're a heavily compliant Progressive Democrat and you don't need nobody telling you things different than you already know?
No. Small l libertarian. The blue part of my screen name refers to my loyalty to a hockey team and I am quite open to other viewpoints politically. I am about as far away from a progressive D as one could be. I am very disappointed in TFP as it seems to have become a one trick pony on certain issues.
Sasha, you are the best. This piece was so touching and illustrated the gap between where we’d like things to be, with free speech and open discussion about real facts, and reality. The woke mobs of the hive mind attempt to cancel whoever stands in their way and dares tell the truth if that conflicts with their demonstrably wrong narrative. Echos of the French Revolition ring loudly online.
The tide may be turning, slowly, after years of insanity. How far will things go? The News has always been the bastion of the left. But team truth now has points inthe board. You’ve seen this story from the start. And you are still writing. Thank you.
I think Bari started out with good intentions and got lost along the way. Her writers at the Free Press wrote about 'the other side' in a characiture -istic sort of way. Over time, there was less and less nuance and the tone took on a New York Times -lite affect. Oliver Wiseman took his name seriously instead of his responsibility humbly. Her wife, like others, always has a slightly snarky tone to her writing born of a life living in a pseudo cocoon of coastal coolness. And her interviewing techniques are never dispassionate and balanced. I like Douglas Murray, but she practically drools on him when interviewing about Israel. CBS is not taking a principled leap, they are putting their toes in lukewarm water at best.
WE get it.
Liberals and Progressives frame all of their morality through the lens of Ending Oppression and Fairness.
Nothing else matters. You don't clap for people singing the National Anthem, you don't attend 4th of July parades, you hate Christmas because it's not inclusive; you hate Thanksgiving because we're on stolen land; you think our government should provide all the resources for the tens of millions of economic refugees who've been treated unfairly in life in their home country; and you love Islam/Socialism/Communism because it promised to "end oppression and create total and complete equity."
WAKE UP!!!!
“Bari, resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.”
No kidding.
'Best thing she can do is move CBS News Headquarters to Charlotte NC or Omaha NE.
Get these people away from their progressive cocoon and $300 lunches.
And this? This sick woman
@bariweiss
slandered
@DNIGabbard
as an "Assad toadie", (a word she did not even comprehend sufficiently explain to a Joe Rogan audience).
In turn, she was awarded $200M.: https://x.com/MonsieurAmerica/status/1963622243508134363
Just watched the X link. Bari looked bad when she couldn’t define the insult used. I read some of her posts soon after NYT resignation, but was soon turned off by her overly liberal views. I don’t care what she does with the offer from CBS. I don’t follow her now and definitely don’t watch CBS horrid news.
That incident reminded of mean middle school girls, and I stopped my subscription. But I started thinking about how we all fail at some point in our lives and how often women are ostracized for a single bad moment, while men can mess up over and over again without being burned at the stake. I resubscribed and I'll wait and see what changes happen.
Men & women who live by lies pay a price. Operation Mocking Bird has been exposed. Her oily, coy propaganda/ deception may have won her a job in Fake News Operations, but my moto is Live Not By Lies. When I discover a liar, I'm done w them, male or female.
I was thinking of this exact interview when I described what had happened to her. Bari and her reporters are lazy at best. She'll fit right in at CBS.
Sasha, you are unquestionably my favorite writer on Substack!! I’m SO glad that I stumbled upon your writings. Thank you
RFK JR is absolutely correct — he and we do not know how many Americans died because of COVID.
Due to mandated reporting requirements, we do not know who died FROM COVID or who died WITH COVID.
Accurate; it was intentionally obfuscated to maximize and grease the payouts.
POISONED CHALICE? YOU BETCHA!
Another home run dear Sasha! It especially resonates with me as my own trajectory tracks very close to yours as a lifetime democrat who started to see the light in 2016 but voted for Her anyway....then could not endure what They put Him through....only to come to 2020 and not vote for Him again because "what good would it do in Massachusetts?" AND it would give me plausible deniability to my friends -- all of whom were leftoids. I had been making the case for Trump to them throughout his first term but it fell of deaf ears -- not even deaf, for the deaf can through miracles be made to hear, these ears were DEAD, and no amount of cogent reasoning could persuade them even the slightest bit.
I heard of someone named Bari Weiss, but wasn't sure who "he" was, even though I am a lifetime NY Times reader, though by Biden's term I was consulting it largley to see how the "enemy" was trying to frame the narrative, not for news or opinion -- I was getting those from Twitter and podcasts faster and better.
When I discovered who Ms. Weiss was I was delighted and when her resignation letter appeared it was a moment of great joy, as I know personally a Times WH correspondent and wanted to wave this under his nose. Nothing doing....he'd have none of it. This was "small potatoes" (another misjusdment). Then, when Bari set up her new ventures I was hooked and often re-tweeted her or posted her pieces on my FB thread.
But now that she has reached mega-stardom I fear this latest victory may be a poisoned chalice -- a kind of last chance at failure through success offered by one's enemies. They can't beat her but they can induce her to join them and by degrees slowly bring her into line. I say give it a try and make a good faith effort to change the culture there -- after all this is what they are hiring her to do. CBS used to be the mainstream and as American as apple pie. And if it fails, if they try to block her, thwart her, she'll write another resignation letter that will be remembered in history as a landmark in America's struggle to free itself from the tentacles of the Left's unearned dominance in American life.
Better to have these problems of success than to still be looking up the long steep climb toward it, as Trump did for the entire Biden years in office. I say to Bari what Trump said to us: FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
Some if Us strongly suspect that the Big Bucks re-entry was the goal from the git-go. I also found Ms Weiss' journey utterly compelling. At first. But the vibe sifted inexorably toward Popular Kidism. No sale.
She has a platform that is well received by people who are looking for authentic journalism.
These are the same people (like me) who are paying Sasha, Michael Schellenberg, Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald and others my cash to get access to their content.
My eyeballs no longer visit the NYT or WSJ. My subscriptions no longer go to Establishment media.. primarily because the difference between Jimmy Kimmel, Steve Colbert and Margaret Brennan on CBS is indistinguishable.
To Sasha's point...we don't need journalists telling us what to think.
We need them to put words into stories that get us to think for ourselves.
We the People can do the rest.
And to those who create platforms that inform and inspire free thinking ideas....they should be rewarded with a larger platform that allows them to reach tens of millions instead of hundreds of thousands.
This is America after all...where the only constant is change...everywhere except at the NYT.
That was the TFP promise. It slunk away from that toward the bright lights.
I thought Bari was different she talks the talk. But after being a paid subscriber for a year getting put into time out multiple times for pointing out how evil Hilary was and still is and will always be and realizing that almost everyone Bari hires at the Free Press has the exact same liberal Columbia Journalism worldview and finding out that it was big tech that funded her It finally dawned on me that she is not an independent voice she is the systems controlled opposition. MSM is dead it just doesn’t realize it yet. Big Tech wants to control the narrative in the new media landscape and Bari is their attempt to do so. The big tech boys are just cashing in their chips now. Bari is a part of the MSM and will never ever challenge Big Pharma or the DNC narratives or even the Neocons narratives. It will be more of the same wrapped up in different paper.
The Free Press is also captured. There are isolated articles that are good, but ultimately it's gone way downhill. That having been said, however, make no mistake about it, absolutely NOTHING that the left does is based on principle. It's always 100% based on fear of what others on the left will say or do to them (that's not to say the right is any better, but then again the right isn't purporting to do things on principle, and the left is)...
I taught business valuations to MBAs. Expected dividends or cash flows, discounted by the required rates of return. My research involved stochastic deflators, rather than the typical dividend discount model that MBAs learn.
There is a snowball's chance in hell that The Free Press is even worth $20 million.
$200 million? She is Jewish and is being rewarded for exceedingly biased 'reporting.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/brothers-arrested-for-felling-tree-at-memorial-to-murdered-french-jewish-man/
That is a story about cutting down a tree at a gravesite. All the pain and suffering in the world and Macron tweeted about it. Why? Macron is the hand-picked puppet of Rothschild bankers. Macron, Netanyahu, and the authors of the article misuse the term anti-Semitic over and over to pretend actions are hate crimes. Approx 150 years ago, French researcher Ernest Renan defined Aryan and Semitic (speaking a Semite language). Renan was curious why Aryan societies were typically superior to Semitic societies and wondered if genetics was the reason.
A jew labeled Renan's research anti-Semitic.
One Semitic person attacking another Semitic person is not anti-Semitic.
Anti-Zion is not illegal.
Over 80% of the world--rough estimate--is anti-Zion, Maybe over 90%.
So, Jews started calling anti-Zion behavior anti-Semitic so that they could inflame Americans to support their Zionist causes.
I knew OCT 8, 2023, that Netanyahu would not stop until he cleared enough Palestinians out of the area so that he could build a canal. The proposed Ben Gurion canal had been shelved because of too many Palestinians in the area where the canal would be, and the Oslo Accords II would prevent the canal from being built, so Netanyahu was associated with the assassination of Israeli PM Rabin to prevent the accords from being signed. It is good for Bibi that Hamas has not returned all the hostages so that Bibi can fake a motive, else Bibi would have to fake another motive.
Macron is struggling badly in France, and the SEP 8 vote on his fragile government may be the last straw. Sociopath Charles Kushner lied in a WSJ op-ed to embarrass Macron for not dropping everything in his agenda to make sure that Zionist Jews run France, even though the Jews are a small % of society and France is a democratic republic, just like the US used to be.
Jordan Bardella is the odds-on-favorite to win the 2027 election because the younger voters have not turned out to vote for Macron or Le Pen, but really like Bardella. All this Zionist crap and misusing the term anti-Semitic is going to come to an abrupt end, and the young French are relieved. Every time a Jew makes some comment about anti-Semitic in Europe, it is like throwing a lighted match into a gunpowder room. The under 35 voters in France, Germany, and Italy are strongly neo-Fascist and the days of reckoning are coming soon.
And Tesla isn't worth the electric battery it's built on.
You taught...which means you lost out on making money during the Bitcoin rise even though you were well aware of the industry.
You had all that knowledge as a teacher....and yet poo poo'ed BC at $1 because it wasn't worth the digital space it sat on.
Tell me I'm wrong.
She is being hired to manage news at CBS. That is her fee.
And it only makes sense if she will be firing or motivating the departure of deadwood who are costing the new owners more than 200 million is salary.
Right on Patrick!!!
Exactly correct; pays to support genocide. Sasha knows it too.