If you want to make her a mob boss, she’s at best a third string boss in charge of one small piece. She absolutely answers to Ellison. And Ellison is simply paying his protection money to the real mob boss - Trump. He’s paying that protection by hiring someone who won’t question Trump.

But that's not really the factor, here. IMHO, a fall guy is someone who takes the blame for the misdeeds of others - so if the misdeeds are actually theirs, it's not appropriate to treat them as a fall guy. To use an extreme example, Goring wasn't a fall guy for Hitler. He did the things! He was guilty of his own crimes! He answered to Hitler, but he was 100% responsible for all the things he was accused of.

That's why even your illustration of a hit man isn't really a good example of a fall guy. If that hit man murders someone at the direction of a mob boss, and we prosecute him for first degree murder, he's not "taking the fall" for the mob boss. He's the one who committed the murder! He's the one who is entirely guilty of the crime he's being charged with!

The same is true of Bari Weiss. If she ends up destroying CBS News, then she will have been the one to destroy CBS News. She will have done so while answering to someone, but she will still be the one who actually did it. She's not a fall guy for anyone else - she's the one who actually did the thing!

Nor do I think it's at all likely that she can (or will) take any of the blame that would belong to Ellison. The hit man might try to shield his boss ("It was all my idea!"), and perhaps that will work in the context of a criminal setting. But Ellison won't be able to avoid the blame for what happens at CBS News. He's not avoiding it now! He's not going to be able to credibly assert that he didn't want the outcomes that Weiss produces, or that he wasn't involved in them happening. He's the boss.

If CBS News is destroyed, Bari Weiss will receive pretty close to exactly the amount of blame she will deserve for it. No less - she'll be the one who did it. But no more - everyone will know exactly the culpability that Ellison has.

No fall guy there.