FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 9, 2025
Media Contact: Melissa Garriga | [email protected] |
Coalition of Peace Groups to Raise Concerns at CBS Over Editorial Appointments and Lack of Journalism
CODEPINK, Entertainment Labor 4 Palestine, and Artists Against Apartheid expose the wolf in sheep's clothing as the Ellisons build a media monopoly to distort minds.
LOS ANGELES – On Thursday, December 11, 2025, a coalition of peace organizations, including CODEPINK, Entertainment Labor 4 Palestine, and Artists Against Apartheid, will gather outside CBS headquarters in Los Angeles to draw attention to the network’s recent editorial direction and distorted journalistic practices. Activists will deliver two petitions signed by thousands: one challenging the hiring of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News following the network’s acquisition by David Ellison, and another calling on 60 Minutes producers to cease their recent pro-war reporting, continuing to erode fragile global peace.
The protest responds to the dangerous consolidation of media power under the Ellison family, following David Ellison’s recent purchase of Paramount/CBS and his father Larry Ellison’s acquisition of TikTok earlier this year. The family is also using all their muscle to acquire Warner Bros., even though that deal was recently awarded to Netflix. They called on Trump to intervene, which raises concerns about an outrageous media monopoly with unprecedented influence over public perception and thought.
WHEN: Thursday, December 11, 2025 | 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM PST
WHERE: CBS Headquarters | 4200 Radford Ave, Studio City, CA 91604
VISUALS: Protesters will gather with banners, signs, and petition demands for editorial integrity and balanced reporting.
“We are witnessing a media takeover by billionaires with a clear and dangerous agenda,” said Miriam Arghandiwal or Entertainment Labor for Palestine “Putting Bari Weiss—a known defender of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and a platformer of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim voices—in charge of news at CBS is a direct threat to honest journalism. Bari supports the murder of cultural workers and members of the press in Gaza.”
The petition regarding 60 Minutes follows a delivery by CODEPINK activists at CBS’s New York Broadcast Center on Monday. Organizers accuse the program of airing segments that “manufacture consent for U.S. wars and regime-change operations” by falsely portraying China as a national security threat and Venezuela as a failed state, while ignoring the role of U.S. sanctions, military buildups, and interventions.
“From Iraq to Libya to Syria, we’ve seen this script before: demonize a sovereign nation, fabricate a moral excuse, then bomb or overthrow its government,” said Jodie Evans of CODEPINK. “Venezuela and China are now in the crosshairs simply because they offer alternatives to U.S. domination. 60 Minutes is not doing journalism—it’s repeating State Department talking points.”
Another example of CBS’s unethical journalism is the recent 60 Minutes interview with Donald Trump, in which he declared Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s “days are numbered” without being challenged by the hosts. This is an explicit endorsement of illegal regime change.
“A free press should challenge power, not amplify its most dangerous lies,” said CODEPINK West Coast organizer Ryan Wentz. “CBS must stop spreading propaganda, drop Bari Weiss, and return to journalism that serves the people, not the Pentagon or the Ellison empire.”
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