Where are my beefy bodyguards? The newly minted Editor-In-Chief of CBS News Bari Weiss arrives at the RedBird Capital AGM on October 20, 2025. (Credit: William Farrington/Copyright: Breaker Media)
Welcome to the latest edition of Breaker. If this email has been forwarded, you can subscribe here and send your questions and complaints here. If you have a tip contact the 24/7 Breaker Tip Hotline via text or Signal # 551 655 2343. Anonymity guaranteed!
In tonight’s edition, the fallout from the 100-odd layoffs at CBS News was reverberating around the industry on Thursday. Questions are now being asked why some correspondents lost their jobs while others were saved. Tonight, we go inside the CBS News building to reveal which CBS correspondent pleaded directly with Bari Weiss to keep their job.
Jimmy Finkelstein had slinked away from public view following his disastrous run as owner and founder of The Messenger (remember The Messenger?). Tonight, we reveal why he has been trying to raise $50million – you guessed it – to buy a well-known publication (that we are told isn’t for sale).
Also, on The Breaker pod this week, we are joined by investigative journalist Vicky Ward, who shares her thoughts on the media and Epstein, leaving legacy media for Substack and a new book project with famed author James Patterson.
Plus, the Air Puck deal finally closes, a scene report from the Knight Bagehot 50th Anniversary dinner, and a NYT profile in the works on one of Puck’s “peerless” partners.
Finally, it’s Thursday, which means Journo Jobs is back. Tonight, we have gigs at: The New York Post, The New York Times, Realtor.com, CNN, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Daily Beast.
Mentioned tonight: John Malone, Rupert Murdoch, Siobhan McKenna, Lachlan Murdoch, Gerry Cardinale, John Thornton, Arianna Huffington, James Tisch, Josh Harris, Jay Penske, Tom Cibrowski, Sarah Ferguson, Jane Pratt, Ellen Pollock, Mohammed Hadi, Joe Plambeck, Erin Mershon, James Patterson, Katie Robertson, Jared Kushner, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Peter Lattman, Khadeeja Safdar, Cat Rakowski, Matt Negrin, V Spehar, Tracy Connor, Kim Last, James Franey, Christa Robinson, Oli Coleman, Kaya Yurieff, Jasmine Enberg, Bill Brink, Natalie Jarvey, Elisabeth Bumiller, Oliver Darcy, Isaac Chotiner, Joe Flint, Erik Wemple, MaxI Tani, Jessica Testa, Ilene Chaiken, Pam Drucker Mann, Christopher Williams and more.
The Breaker Gift That Keeps On Giving
With the holiday season fast approaching, why not gift your loved one, staff, or associated scoop-addict a Breaker Gift Subscription! Twice a week, they’ll receive the Breaker newsletter and access to our weekly podcast. It’ll put them ahead of the curve with the latest breaking news and scoops, plus access to the full Breaker archive. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, literally!
Air Puck Closes
It’s official! Just as Breaker was going to the presses Thursday evening, the deal we dubbed Air Puck and first broke back in September closed. Graydon Carter’s Air Mail has been acquired by Puck, the publication founded by his one-time mentee Jon Kelly.
As Breaker first reported, Julia Vitale, currently Air Mail’s deputy managing editor, will become Editor of Air Mail.
“As I know well from experience, Graydon’s greatest talent has been as a mentor and teacher, and he has elevated an extraordinarily talented new generation of leaders at Air Mail—starting with its brilliant new editor, Julia Vitale,” Kelly said, looking to downplay Breaker’s reporting that his relationship with Carter had dramatically soured during the deal process.
“Air Mail was always envisioned as the weekend edition to a digital daily news engine. And in Puck, we have the perfect alignment,” Carter added.
We look forward to seeing the two men toasting the deal at Carter’s Waverly Inn or maybe The Odeon near Puck’s “South Tribeca” offices.
Bari’s Bloodbath
(Exclusive.) The dust began to settle on Thursday, following the bloodbath that was the Wednesday layoffs at CBS News that saw around 100 people lose their jobs.
While much of the focus of the layoffs has centered on streaming shows such as CBS Mornings Plus and CBS Evening News Plus being canceled, and the Race and Culture unit being eviscerated, the devil is in the details.
CBS News has been airing some of the most fearless coverage of the war in Gaza over the last two years. That coverage has been led in large part by Debora Patta, who was promoted to senior foreign correspondent at the network this year.
Patta, who is based out of CBS News’ Johannesburg bureau, is widely respected by foreign correspondents from the BBC, CNN, and Sky News, who were shocked that she was let go.
CBS News staffers fear the move is the first signal that newly installed Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, whose views about Israel are well known, is starting to tighten her ideological grip on the news division.
While Patta, who is a well-known face to viewers of CBS News, was let go, Breaker has learned a rather curious situation played out in another CBS News foreign bureau where…
Don’t Shoot The Messenger
(Exclusive.) Have you been wondering what Jimmy Finkelstein has been up to since he created and then blew up The Messenger, resulting in 300 people losing their jobs? Nah, us neither. That was until Breaker got word that Finkelstein, who has always been fixated with his legacy, had been up to what he does best – talking a big game and trying to raise money to buy a media entity. Why anyone would give Finkelstein – who managed to blow $50 million in less than a year – even one shekel is beyond us.
But that hasn’t stopped the former owner of The Hill from hitting up old friends like Loews CEO James Tisch, and Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris, as well as private equity bankers. Finkelstein is trying to raise tens of millions of dollars to buy…
Vicky Ward On Epstein, Kushner, Luigi Mangione & Substack
(Exclusive.) Vicky Ward has reported for Vanity Fair, CNN, and she’s a New York Times Bestselling author. Today, she’s the founder of her own Substack, Vicki Ward Investigates, and she’s our guest on this week's edition of The Breaker Pod coming to you from iconic steakhouse Delmonico’s in the Financial District (cheers to restaurateur Max Tucci for inviting us down).
Ward had just read the recently released tell-all by key Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, (whom Ward knew from her extensive Epstein reporting), and she told Breaker that she found the book powerful and revealing “by the time she gets drawn in to work for Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, part of the appeal for her is that they are weirdly the family she's never had.”
Epstein aside, Ward has also covered another controversial figure, former Trump adviser and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in her book Kushner Inc. “I think probably people perceive me rightly as, as probably Jared Kushner's, harshest critic, I'm very proud of the work and the reporting in Kushner Inc. I really feel it was ahead of its time.”
In July, Ward released her latest book with legendary author James Patterson on the tragic murder of the Idaho Four. Not one to sit idle, she’s already back at work with Patterson on their next book, focused on Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. “Everybody, it doesn't matter what your politics are …everybody has, has a really negative response to the health insurance industry, obviously, everyone should also condone murder,” she told us.
Catch more in this week's episode of The Breaker Pod. Make sure you check us out and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods.