A new report Thursday alleges that CBS News insiders tried to downplay the significance of the Mary Peltola “Decoy Dan” scandal, in which the New York Times accused her Alaska Senate campaign of trying to deceive the electorate by recruiting a man with the same name as her GOP rival, incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, to get his name on the ballot.
If true, it is grossly unethical, and the investigations underway by the Department of Justice and the State of Alaska may determine that it is, in fact, criminal.
But over at CBS News, some of their journalists reportedly think it’s no big deal:
CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss faced “significant resistance” from staff at Thursday’s 9 a.m. meeting about the growing Alaska ballot controversy, network insiders told Fox News Digital.
“This is a scandal,” Weiss declared to staff.
According to multiple sources on the call, several CBS News staffers pushed back at Weiss’ enthusiasm over the bombshell New York Times report alleging Democrats schemed to find a Dan Sullivan to run against incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, in hopes of aiding Democratic opponent Mary Peltola.
Not surprisingly, serial Democrat apologist and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan’s name comes up prominently:
Fox is reporting that CBS’s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan was one of those objecting to pursuing the Peltola scandal. Brennan allegedly compared a decoy candidate to voters being confused by different Sununu brothers who have run for office… https://t.co/MApUbExtrQ
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) October 29, 2026
Yeah, except the Sununu brothers weren’t trying to confuse anyone — they’re from a prominent New Hampshire political family, and that’s their last name. The Dan J. Sullivan in the Alaska case has been non-political his entire life and lives in a small fishing village.
Pretty lame comparison, Brennan.
…Just as the Times restores some of its earlier luster, CBS staffers appear to be rushing back to the lowest common denominator. Actively seeking a fake Dan Sullivan to confuse voters (and then lying about it) is not a major scandal? The idea that it is comparable to brothers…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) October 29, 2026
The idea that it is comparable to brothers running for different offices is perfectly bizarre.
But Brennan wasn’t the only one — other CBSers allegedly argued that the effort to deceive voters was just everyday tactics:
Many on the call shrugged it off as routine politics and said Republicans have also engaged in similar scheming.
CBS News political correspondent Ed O’Keefe also insisted that such tactics are nothing new. Earlier that morning, during his appearance on “CBS Mornings,” O’Keefe stressed to viewers that what happened in Alaska “could be a dirty trick, but it’s not illegal,” adding that “this has happened before, kind of.” He pointed to the 2016 Alaska Senate race when former Anchorage mayor Dan Sullivan — no relation to the U.S. Senator of the same name — briefly ran against incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary, hoping “name recognition” of the other sitting senator would help his own candidacy.
Wonder what O’Keefe would have to say about this?
🚨Mary Peltola in August:
“It should be a criminal offense to lie or mislead the electorate. YES!” pic.twitter.com/oemOFQJxKZ
— Senate Republicans (@NRSC) October 28, 2026
Bari Weiss founded the Free Press in 2021 after she realized during her stints at the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times that the mainstream media was hopelessly biased in favor of the Democrats. In October of 2025, she was hired to be the boss of CBS News, and since then she’s done a yeoman’s job of trying to restore some sanity to The Tiffany Network.
It’s hard to teach old dogs new tricks, however, and the leftists over at “60 Minutes” and “Face the Nation” have continuously had their knickers in a twist over being held to actual journalistic standards.
Stay strong, Bari, and remember: You can’t hate the media enough.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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