{"id":8366,"date":"2026-01-02T09:25:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/?p=8366"},"modified":"2026-01-02T09:54:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:54:04","slug":"legacy-media-elites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/legacy-media-elites\/","title":{"rendered":"Legacy Media Elites Think You\u2019re a \u2018Village Idiot\u2019 \u2013 Bari Weiss CBS Era, Dokoupil Proves It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8378 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Legacy-Media-Elites.jpg\" alt=\"Legacy media elites cartoon illustration showing polished TV news anchors labeled \u201cLegacy Media Elites\u201d looking down on skeptical ordinary viewers, for post titled \u201cLegacy Media Elites Think You\u2019re a \u2018Village Idiot\u2019.\u201d\" width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" srcset=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Legacy-Media-Elites.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Legacy-Media-Elites-500x281.jpg 500w, https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Legacy-Media-Elites-1024x575.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Legacy-Media-Elites-768x431.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Legacy media elites think you\u2019re a \u201cvillage idiot\u201d \u2014 and this week they went ahead and said it out loud. CBS\u2019s new Evening News anchor <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tony_Dokoupil\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tony Dokoupil<\/a> posted a video promising to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/media\/article-15427991\/CBS-News-anchor-divisive-message-Bari-Weiss.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stop leaning on \u201cadvocates\u201d and \u201cacademics or elites\u201d<\/a> and instead put the average American at the center of the broadcast, and the very people he was talking about instantly proved his point.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Legacy media elites were furious that anyone inside CBS would even suggest viewers might not trust them anymore, especially in the Bari Weiss CBS era where the old club suddenly has a boss who isn\u2019t impressed by their credentials. Within hours of Dokoupil\u2019s video, academics, pundits, and self\u2011described \u201cexperts\u201d were flooding social media to defend legacy outlets and sneer at the idea that ordinary Americans should ever outweigh the sacred consensus of the green room.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/legacy-media-elites\/#Legacy_Media_Elites_and_Their_%E2%80%98Village_Idiots\">Legacy Media Elites and Their \u2018Village Idiots\u2019<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/legacy-media-elites\/#Tony_Dokoupil_Says_the_Quiet_Part_Out_Loud\">Tony Dokoupil Says the Quiet Part Out Loud<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/legacy-media-elites\/#%E2%80%8BLarry_Sabato_and_the_Viewers_He_Loathes\">\u200bLarry Sabato and the Viewers He Loathes<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/legacy-media-elites\/#When_%E2%80%98Experts_Become_Activists_With_Titles\">When \u2018Experts\u2019 Become Activists With Titles<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/legacy-media-elites\/#Bari_Weiss_CBS_and_the_Panic_Inside_the_Club\">Bari Weiss CBS and the Panic Inside the Club<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/legacy-media-elites\/#Why_Legacy_Media_Elites_Keep_Losing_the_Country\">Why Legacy Media Elites Keep Losing the Country<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Legacy_Media_Elites_and_Their_%E2%80%98Village_Idiots\"><\/span>Legacy Media Elites and Their \u2018Village Idiots\u2019<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Legacy media elites and their favorite \u201cvillage idiots\u201d script each other\u2019s roles so well that half the country can now recite it from memory. They play the sober guardians of democracy; you play the confused rube who must be corrected whenever you notice the Iraq WMDs, the lab leak, or a campus hoax they spent years insisting were settled facts.<\/p>\n<p>What Dokoupil did in that short promo was admit, in careful corporate English, that the critics have a point: for years the big networks have \u201ctaken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American,\u201d and \u201cput too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That is just a polite way of saying what viewers already know in their bones \u2014 that legacy media elites have been programming for the faculty lounge and the activist Slack channel, then acting stunned when the people they ignored stop trusting them and change the channel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tony-dokoupil-tells-viewers-dont-trust-me-make-me-earn-it-ahead-of-new-cbs-role\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tony Dokoupil Tells Viewers \u2018Don\u2019t Trust Me, Make Me Earn It\u2019 Ahead of New CBS Role<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/01\/tony-dokoupil-cbs-news-independent-corporate-owner-1236659739\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tony Dokoupil Asserts \u2018CBS Evening News\u2019 Will Be Independent From Its Corporate Owner: \u201cI Report For You\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5XEOfzbb_As\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tony Dokoupil: Don&#8217;t just trust me. Make me earn it.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 class=\"mb-2 mt-4 font-display font-semimedium text-base first:mt-0\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Tony_Dokoupil_Says_the_Quiet_Part_Out_Loud\"><\/span>Tony Dokoupil Says the Quiet Part Out Loud<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p class=\"my-2 [&amp;+p]:mt-4 [&amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [&amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\">Tony Dokoupil is smart enough to see the numbers on the wall: barely a quarter of the country still trusts the outlets that made him a star, and the trend line is still heading down. His little confession reel is less a moral awakening than a damage\u2011control memo read straight to camera \u2014 an admission that the old script is dying and the audience is not coming back on nostalgia alone.<\/p>\n<p>When he says the press has \u201cmissed the story\u201d by putting too much weight on advocates, academics, and elites, he is talking about years of coverage where anyone who questioned the party line on Russiagate, lockdowns, or Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop was painted as crazy or corrupt. Now the same faces are begging viewers to \u201chold us accountable,\u201d as if the problem was a lack of slogans instead of a lack of respect for the people who turned them off in the first place.<\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%8BLarry_Sabato_and_the_Viewers_He_Loathes\"><\/span><span class=\"inline-flex\" data-state=\"closed\">\u200b<\/span>Larry Sabato and the Viewers He Loathes<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p class=\"my-2 [&amp;+p]:mt-4 [&amp;_strong:has(+br)]:inline-block [&amp;_strong:has(+br)]:pb-2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Larry_Sabato\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry Sabato<\/a> likes to present himself as the calm, data\u2011driven grown\u2011up in the room, the professor who can explain America to the rest of us from a safe distance in Charlottesville. But when he lets his guard down on social media, the mask slips and the voters he claims to \u201canalyze\u201d turn into the \u201cvillage idiots\u201d he blames for everything from measles outbreaks to believing the wrong things about elections.<\/p>\n<p>This is the perfect specimen of the old ecosystem Tony Dokoupil is talking about in that promo clip: a class of credentialed talkers who live off television hits and university brands while dripping contempt for the very people they insist they understand.<\/p>\n<p>When those people tune out of the evening news or show up in polls saying they don\u2019t trust the press, Sabato and his peers never ask what they did to earn that distrust; they just crank up another thread about how dangerous it is when the \u201cvillage idiots\u201d stop listening to their betters.<\/p>\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"When_%E2%80%98Experts_Become_Activists_With_Titles\"><\/span>When \u2018Experts\u2019 Become Activists With Titles<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>For years, the people filling those green rooms were introduced as neutral \u201cexperts,\u201d even when their social feeds and side hustles made it obvious they were activists with titles. Viewers were told to treat every panel as objective analysis, then went online and saw the same faces fundraising for causes, dunking on half the country, and declaring dissenters too dangerous to platform.<\/p>\n<p>That gap between the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and the behavior is a big reason trust in the media has fallen below 30 percent, with major polls now finding more Americans who have zero confidence in the press than those who have even a \u201cfair amount.\u201d People can smell the difference between a straight shooter and a hired gun, and no amount of new slogans from legacy media elites can erase the memory of all the times the \u201cexperts\u201d turned out to be campaign surrogates in disguise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/barrettmedia.com\/2025\/10\/02\/trust-in-media-reaches-new-lows-in-2025-new-gallup-data-shows\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Trust in Media Reaches New Lows in 2025, New Gallup Data Shows<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Bari_Weiss_CBS_and_the_Panic_Inside_the_Club\"><\/span>Bari Weiss CBS and the Panic Inside the Club<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Bari Weiss walked into CBS with a mandate that terrifies the old guard: stop treating the news division as a private club and start treating viewers like adults who can tell when they\u2019re being spun. Her push to tighten standards at CBS and even \u201c60 Minutes\u201d signaled that the era of automatic deference to legacy media elites might finally be ending.<\/p>\n<p>That is why so many internal leaks read less like principled objections and more like a tantrum from people angry that someone is finally checking their work. Staffers mocking Tony Dokoupil as \u201cmediocre\u201d and sneering at his promotion are really sending a message to Weiss and to the audience: they would rather torch their own shop than accept a shake\u2011up that forces them to earn back the trust they casually burned.<\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/12\/23\/bari-weiss-cbs-news-60-minutes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bari Weiss plans overhaul of CBS News and &#8220;60 Minutes&#8221; standards and procedures<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/news\/world\/americas\/us-politics\/cbs-news-tony-dokoupil-evening-news-b2881114.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CBS News staff grouse over \u2018mediocre\u2019 Tony Dokoupil getting \u2018Evening News\u2019 gig: \u2018It\u2019s an insult\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_Legacy_Media_Elites_Keep_Losing_the_Country\"><\/span>Why Legacy Media Elites Keep Losing the Country<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Legacy media elites keep blaming \u201cdisinformation,\u201d \u201cpopulism,\u201d and \u201cpolarization\u201d for the collapse in trust. But fewer than three in ten Americans now say they have even a fair amount of confidence that the press will tell them the truth.\u200b<\/p>\n<p>When 70 percent of the country tells pollsters they have \u201cnot very much\u201d or no trust in the media at all, that is not a messaging problem. It is a verdict on decades of sneering at the people who were right about the stories the networks \u201cmissed.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n<p>Tony Dokoupil\u2019s little speech only landed because it finally echoed what viewers have been shouting back at the screen since Iraq and Russiagate. The press chose advocates over the average American and academics and elites over the people paying the cable bill.\u200b<\/p>\n<p>If Bari Weiss is serious about fixing any of this, she has a clean decision to make. CBS can still be run for legacy media elites and their favorite \u201cexperts,\u201d or it can finally be run for the so\u2011called \u201cvillage idiots\u201d who turned out to be the only adults in the room.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note<\/strong>: This post builds on an earlier piece about Bari Weiss\u2019s first big move at CBS &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/22\/bari-weiss-cbs-new-boss\/\"><strong>Bari Weiss CBS: New Boss Pulls 60 Minutes Trump Hit Piece, Signals Real Change<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/695762\/trust-media-new-low.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Trust in Media at New Low of 28% in U.S.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/tv\/news\/tony-dokoupil-cbs-news-press-has-missed-story-1236622164\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New CBS Evening News Anchor Tony Dokoupil Says News Has \u2018Put Too Much Weight\u2019 on Academics and Elites: \u2018The Press Has Missed the Story\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legacy media elites think you\u2019re a \u201cvillage idiot\u201d \u2014 and this week they went ahead and said it out loud. CBS\u2019s new Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil posted a video promising to stop leaning on \u201cadvocates\u201d and \u201cacademics or elites\u201d and instead put the average American at the center of the broadcast, and the very &#8230; <a title=\"Legacy Media Elites Think You\u2019re a \u2018Village Idiot\u2019 \u2013 Bari Weiss CBS Era, Dokoupil Proves It\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/02\/legacy-media-elites\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Legacy Media Elites Think You\u2019re a \u2018Village Idiot\u2019 \u2013 Bari Weiss CBS Era, Dokoupil Proves It\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,51,231,294,184,57,110,232,65,198,66,105],"tags":[246,114,248,55],"class_list":["post-8366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deep-state","category-woke","category-big-govt","category-cbs","category-daily-mail","category-democratic-party","category-famous-american-women","category-immigration","category-msm","category-news","category-progressivism","category-trump","tag-2026-midterms","tag-democrats","tag-elections","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8366"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8382,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366\/revisions\/8382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmismusingstech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}