Has feminism failed women? I know that may seem like a silly question to ask when women’s rights are declining around the world thanks to rightwing authoritarian politics, but trust me, OK? The problems with feminism are what we really need to be focusing on right now.

Or rather, don’t trust me. Trust the millennial media mogul Bari Weiss (and Bank of America). Starting in 2026, CBS News and Weiss’s media startup, the Free Press, are kicking off a debate series called Things That Matter, looking at questions like ‘Has feminism failed women?’, ‘Does America need God?’ and ‘Should gen Z believe in the American Dream?’ All of which is sponsored by the Bank of America.

Weiss is positioning Things That Matter as a way to bring together polarized America and get people talking about important issues. Zoom out, however, and this new series looks rather more like a vehicle to amplify the Things That Matter to Donald Trump’s Billionaire Friends, and Bari Weiss.

As you may have noticed, rightwing Trump allies are rapidly taking over the US media ecosystem and reshaping it to reflect the Maga worldview. Earlier this year, for example, CBS’s owner, Paramount reached a $16m settlement with Trump over an interview on 60 Minutes and axed Stephen Colbert’s Late Show. Many commentators saw these moves as a way to butter up Trump before a potential $8bn Paramount sale to Hollywood studio Skydance Media, owned by David Ellison. Lo and behold, the mega-merger went ahead and the centi-billionaire Larry Ellison, and his son David, became two of the most influential people in media. Daddy Ellison is also one of the most powerful people in Washington; the Trump donor has been described by Wired as a “shadow president”.

The Ellisons have been busy. In October, Paramount bought Weiss’s the Free Press for $150m and installed Weiss as CBS News editor-in-chief. It’s not her editorial experience that seems to have landed her the role; rather, it’s her pro-Israel views and obsession with criticizing “wokeness” and

© The Guardian