Bari Weiss Disruption
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, May 11 2026
Extinction Rebellion NYC
Contact: Devin Lilly
xrnyc.media@gmail.com
CBS EDITOR BARI WEISS EVENT DISRUPTED
BY EXTINCTION REBELLION NYC AND CLIMATE DEFIANCE
Long Island, NY - Members of climate action groups Extinction Rebellion NYC (XR NYC) and Climate Defiance brought a public talk with CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss to a halt Monday evening by disrupting the event. One protestor began the disruption shortly after an introduction of Weiss, rising from his seat at the center of the auditorium. He excoriated Weiss for firing climate reporters and providing war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu with a 60 Minutes interview, telling her “You aren’t a journalist, but a puppet of the regime”. A second a protestor holding a banner that read “CBS = PROPAGANDA” yelled out “Billionaire Larry Ellison installed you at CBS, which is now ‘state-run media’”. Another protestor carried a banner that read “TELL THE TRUTH” while she told the crowd, “Genocide is ecocide!” The group had tickets to the event at the Tilles Center on Long Island University’s campus. They complied when ejected and no arrests were made.
Bari Weiss’s controversial appointment to the helm of one of the largest US news outlets came on the heels of last summer’s widely shunned contract termination of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a CBS program, after Ellison purchased the network through its parent company Paramount. Not long after her appointment, she blocked a report on the award-winning 60 Minutes covering conditions inside the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador from airing, and last week, the show’s star correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi was told she would be out of a job by the end of the month. Alfonsi has hired an attorney, accusing Weiss of covering for the White House.
PAST ACTIONS
This was not the first action on the matter led by Extinction Rebellion NYC. Their headline-grabbing stunts —from disrupting the US Open to the recent shutdown of Trump Tower on Earth Day— have often directly targeted media, especially for climate misinformation and abysmally absent reporting across the spectrum. They occupied the Times Square offices of Paramount last summer after the monopolistic purchase, leading to nine arrests, and then partnered with comedic activists the Goofballs to visit The Late Show to ask the host how he felt about the takeover by the world’s second richest man.
PHOTOS AND VIDEOS
You can see photos and videos from the action here. XR NYC owns the media in this folder, and you have permission to use these media with attribution to "Extinction Rebellion NYC".
QUOTES
“Bari Weiss is the mouthpiece of the Trump administration working to put a respectful face on the genocide of Plasestine and the destruction of our Natural world. Her editorial decisions range from firing nearly all of CBS’s Climate Reporting staff, to interviewing ICC war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu on 60 minutes. Everywhere she goes to give talks in an attempt to normalize fascism can and should be disrupted.” said Davidson Boswell, a member of Climate Defiance who participated in the action.
“How is Bari Weiss gutting climate reporting at CBS News as the temperatures and seas are rising? Because she is doing the bidding of billionaire Larry Ellison and Donald Trump,” said Jenna Cardinale, an Extinction Rebellion member who participated in the action.
“It’s clear that Bari Weiss has turned CBS in the propaganda department for the Trump/Netanyahu alliance and the people aren’t having it, as shown by their plummeting ratings under her leadership.” said Devin Lilly, a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion.
About Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion is an international movement that uses nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action on the climate and nature emergency.
Extinction Rebellion exists because the conventional approaches: voting, writing to politicians, lobbying, and signing petitions, have failed. Powerful political and economic interests prevent change, as does our outdated political system itself. Our strategy is therefore one of nonviolent, disruptive civil disobedience – in short, it is a strategy of rebellion.
Climate boiling is here and now. It’s happening all around us, and it hits historically vulnerable communities hardest of all. Extinction Rebellion demands that all of us, especially major institutions and governments, tell the truth about the ongoing Sixth Mass Extinction. Extinction Rebellion believes that, when faced with the government’s criminal inaction, it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, through peaceful civil disobedience .
Internationally, Extinction Rebellion has been demanding that those with power act now to halt the worst outcomes of the climate catastrophe currently unfolding. Unlike other climate advocacy groups, Extinction Rebellion understands that we must go beyond politics and establish Citizens’ Assemblies. Citizens’ Assemblies are deliberative bodies that are, like juries, formed of randomly selected members of the public. Assembly members hear expert testimony and develop recommendations on specific policy issues. Only through this method can we achieve the fair and just transition we need.
Leading by example, Extinction Rebellion is fighting for a more stable, sustainable world.
Follow us on: X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky, Website
About Climate Defiance
Climate Defiance uses non-violent direct action to force politicians and leaders to take action at the scope and speed necessary to avert the worst impacts of this crisis.
Follow us on: X, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, BlueSky, Website