I didn’t say his viewpoint was self-serving. It’s ideological. A system based on box checking and politics makes it easier to achieve liberal social and political goals.
Seems like a just-so story. You could have just said Oliver has it out for Weiss over politics and ideology, and I'd have agreed. But you came up with this weird specific story instead.
I’m suggesting that, as an ideological matter, Oliver values box checking and credentialism in hiring someone to run CBS News, and devalues business accomplishments.
The Free Press makes $15M in annual revenue and sold for $150M - that's a 10x revenue multiple. That's not a business outcome, that's an ideological bailout. Ellison didn't buy this as a media investment, he bought it to install Weiss at CBS. The early VCs (Andreessen, Sacks, etc.) weren't making business bets either - they were funding ideology and got rewarded for it when a fellow billionaire needed to acquire the vehicle to legitimize his hire (but still nowhere near the type of exit they would seek for their non-ideological bets).
Also, since when is "built a business" the qualification for editor-in-chief of CBS News? That's an _editorial_ position at a major news organization. The relevant qualifications are journalism credentials and editorial judgment - you know, the things Weiss notably lacks. She came up through opinion pages, not the news side, and as Oliver documented, her publication has repeatedly published poorly fact-checked stories that fell apart under scrutiny. But sure, she can raise money from right-wing billionaires, so let's put her in charge of 60 Minutes.