Bari Weiss, the new editor-in-chief at CBS News, is already making waves.
The founder and editor of The Free Press and former New York Times columnist has adopted a rallying cry in meetings with colleagues, according to the Wall Street Journal.: “I wanna blow this up.”
Weiss’s plan “is working to overhaul the organization’s evening news program, counter what she sees as a left-leaning bias in legacy media and make the newsroom operate more efficiently,” reports the Journal.
Paramount Global and its new boss, Dave Ellison, recently acquired CBS in a deal that was harshly criticized by other legacy media outlets.
Katy Couric, the former anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” warned that “the whole setup with the Ellisons bringing her in and buying the Free Press is compromising independent journalism.”
Couric neglected to explain what or who was being “compromised,” but that’s par for the course. The unspoken criticism is that Weiss just isn’t left-wing enough. She’s an anti-woke crusader who wants to get legacy media to take their thumbs off the scale and report the news honestly. She’s no MAGA cheerleader, even though some media critics fear that CBS will now kowtow to Trump.
Weiss is trying to fix a broken system. To my mind, it’s like trying to “fix” the carriage-making industry or the blacksmith guild. The business model of the news industry is failing, and I can’t see anyone who can engineer a turnaround.
However, Weiss is going to try.
At the time of her appointment, Ellison said he tapped Weiss to bring to CBS “news that reflects reality” and journalism that “doesn’t seek to demonize, but seeks to understand.”
Weiss is operating with Ellison’s full backing. His support gives Weiss the freedom to reshape the news division as she sees fit.
She travels to New York City CBS offices with a caravan of SUVs and a gaggle of bodyguards, according to current and former employees. While some have poked fun at her entourage, Weiss has received threats that people close to her say warrant the protection.
Weiss reports directly to Ellison. CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, meanwhile, reports to chair of TV media at Paramount, George Cheeks. Weiss and Cibrowski, who oversees much of the day-to-day business of CBS News, have developed a working rapport while she sketches out her vision for the future, people familiar with the matter said.
Last month, Weiss engineered the exit of standards and practices chief Claudia Milne and also disbanded the network’s Race and Culture Division.
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CBS News correspondent and part-time anchor John Dickerson saw the writing on the wall, and he also left the network. Weiss may give the ax to co-anchor Maurice DuBois, according to the Journal, and even CBS Morning Show host Gayle King may be on thin ice.
This is just the beginning, according to the Journal.
Her approach to talent management and operations has been a marked change. In searching for potential new anchors for the high-priority “CBS Evening News,” Weiss has contacted outside talent directly to discuss joining the network rather than using the typical practice of negotiating with their agents, people familiar with the matter said.
Some people inside CBS say Weiss has played a more active role in booking guests using her professional network than prior executives who largely left that work to bookers and producers. To fans and supporters, her methods represent a needed shake-up for an institution that has become stuck in its ways and is struggling to compete in the ratings.
Among her earliest acts: A survey-like email asking staffers to outline their jobs, people who saw it said. In a separate email, she asked staff to provide feedback on “how we can make CBS News the most trusted news organization in America and the world.”
Naturally, the woke staffers at CBS resented being asked to justify their employment. It’s all part of Weiss’s efforts to get everyone at the network thinking in the same direction.
Leftists who believe Weiss is some right-wing, pro-Trump shill are wrong. She will be as independent as Ellison and the network allow her to be. That’s a darn sight better than the way CBS operated previously.
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