Next week, CBS News will gain insight into what’s ahead as Bari Weiss, who created the newer news platform the Free Press, is scheduled to visit the historic offices once frequented by broadcasting legends like Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace. This visit will likely reveal much about the network’s direction.
According to sources with knowledge of the talks-who weren’t permitted to speak on the record-Weiss, 41, is taking on a new position as editor in chief at CBS News. An announcement regarding the appointment could come as early as Monday.
At 42 years old, David Ellison, who is both chairman and CEO of Paramount – the company that owns CBS – reached out to Weiss several months ago as part of his efforts to bring about changes. She will be reporting directly to Ellison and will collaborate with Tom Cibrowski, the President of CBS News, who began his role at the network in February.
Hollywood Inc.
Kenneth R. Weinstein, who used to work at the Hudson Institute, will now be the person to receive and address concerns regarding how CBS News reports information.
I’ve been following the news about this closely! Paramount is purchasing Weiss’s digital media company – it’s only four years old, but they do a lot, including newsletters, in-depth articles, podcasts, and these interesting things they call ‘sense-making columns.’ The deal is worth around $150 million in cash and stock. Honestly, everyone in the news industry has been talking about her potentially joining CBS News for months now. It’s a big move since CBS News has been around for a long time and is a well-established name. It’s definitely a hot topic!
It’s unusual that Weiss – who used to edit the opinion pages of a newspaper – has quickly risen to a significant position influencing how a TV news organization reports stories, especially since she has no prior experience in television. This move is likely to be carefully examined and attract a lot of attention. This is an unprecedented situation.
Will she reshape the news department – which has struggled with frequent changes in leadership and consistent criticism from President Trump – to reflect her own vision? Another key question is whether the person who built a streamlined digital news site like the Free Press can successfully lead a traditional TV news organization with a much larger staff of over 1,000 people.
Big changes are definitely planned for CBS by its new owner, Skydance Media. After the company received approval for its $8 billion merger, Federal Communications Chairman Brendan Carr expressed his optimism about Skydance’s “commitment to make significant changes” to the historically well-known CBS broadcast network.
Hollywood Inc.
Skydance also committed to naming a CBS News ombudsman to encourage openness and greater responsibility within CBS News. Skydance CEO David Ellison has also held discussions with center-right journalist Bari Weiss.
To allow the deal to move forward, Paramount paid $16 million to resolve a $20-billion lawsuit brought by Trump. Legal professionals considered this lawsuit to be without merit. The suit stemmed from Trump’s claim that an interview was altered to favor then-Vice President Kamala Harris, his rival in the 2024 election. Since then, he hasn’t engaged with the network at all.
Neither Skydance nor the Free Press offered a statement regarding the anticipated appointment of Weiss. In August, when questioned about her potential involvement with the network, Ellison-the son of Oracle co-founder and Trump supporter Larry Ellison-explained his vision for the news division: he wants it to appeal to the approximately 70% of Americans who identify as politically center-left or center-right.
Amidst many political and cultural commentators, Weiss distinguished herself by offering a unique perspective as a gay Jewish woman. She frequently criticized what she saw as extreme positions on the political left, arguing that it often shut down differing opinions. She jokingly referred to herself as “a diversity hire” while working at the New York Times’ generally liberal opinion section, and she built a following by appearing on HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher.”
Hollywood Inc.
This policy shift happened because Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem expressed concern that comments she made on the August 31st program were edited and cut short before being broadcast.
After leaving the New York Times in 2020, she claimed the newspaper didn’t defend her against criticism from coworkers. Her resignation letter was posted online and shared by Donald Trump Jr. and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who both used it as evidence of left-leaning bias within the media.
Known for being a strong and effective communicator, Weiss leveraged her public profile to gain funding for the Free Press, a digital media company that provides newsletters, news reports, opinion articles, and podcasts. It was established in 2021 and is currently the top-selling politics platform on Substack.
The Free Press has become a significant voice in national discussions. An essay detailing the perceived left-leaning bias at NPR – penned by a veteran editor from the radio network – gained widespread attention and probably contributed to the decision to cut off federal funding for public media.
Last year, the Free Press reported on a disagreement within CBS News. The issue involved Tony Dokoupil, a co-host on
I was really surprised to hear Nathaniel Dokoupil say that Hugh Coates’ book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.” Apparently, some people at the Free Press posted a recording of an editorial call where CBS News leaders told him off for making that comment. It caused quite a stir, and they had to address it internally.
Weiss resonates strongly with corporate leaders who oppose high taxes and large government. Executives in finance and private equity particularly praise Free Press’s writings criticizing what they see as overly “woke” viewpoints and DEI programs, believing these initiatives hinder business operations.
Hollywood Inc.
Companies like YouTube, Disney, and Meta have paid over $90 million to resolve lawsuits brought forth by President Trump.
Weiss has also gained fame, even appearing at the wedding of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez in Italy. She was the center of attention at the yearly meeting of powerful figures in the media industry held in Sun Valley, Idaho.
News organizations generally aren’t quick to welcome people from outside, and CBS News has always been slow to adapt. This is because the network has a strong sense of tradition and values its history. Change doesn’t come easily there, as the culture is deeply rooted in its past successes.
“Organizations like CBS News are deeply committed to their established practices and core values,” explained Tom Bettag, a long-time network news producer who now teaches at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. “They operate with a specific set of beliefs, and someone new to the team needs to earn the trust of those already working there.”
Even commentators who generally share conservative viewpoints, like Megyn Kelly, hinted that Weiss could struggle to adapt within such a deeply established organization.
“I’m concerned they’ll be incredibly critical of her, because CBS often favors those who have come up through the ranks,” Kelly explained on her Sirius XM podcast last month. “It feels like you need to have been nurtured by CBS to earn the respect of people who work there.”
Several CBS News veterans, speaking anonymously, are taking a cautious approach to the upcoming appointment of Weiss. They are unsure about what her responsibilities will be. They don’t expect Weiss to be involved in the details of daily news operations, like deciding how many reporters and technical staff to deploy to cover events such as a natural disaster.
Placing someone who regularly shares opinions in a leadership position could cause concern for some employees. However, despite widespread layoffs impacting television news, a predicted mass departure of staff doesn’t seem to be happening, according to a former executive at CBS News.
A potential area of disagreement could be how news outlets are reporting on global events, especially the war in Gaza. This conflict has sparked considerable discussion and differing viewpoints within many news organizations.
Weiss, who previously attended services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh – the location of a tragic shooting in 2018 – is a strong advocate for Israel. She is now joining a company that, under its current leadership, stood alone among studios in resisting a growing movement within progressive Hollywood circles to boycott Israeli film festivals and groups.
It’s unusual to see strong disagreements about beliefs become public within a newsroom. Running a TV news department mostly involves watching the budget, tracking viewership numbers, and ensuring there’s enough content to fill many hours of scheduled broadcasts every week.
Even with its widely known difficulties, CBS continues to broadcast two highly-rated news programs: 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Morning.
Despite facing scrutiny earlier this year, 60 Minutes still attracted a large audience for its 58th season premiere on Sunday. The episode brought in 10 million viewers, according to Nielsen ratings, making it the week’s most-watched program outside of sports. This demonstrates the show’s continued popularity even after recent challenges.
Hollywood Inc.
Inside CBS News, frustration about a $16 million settlement – which many considered a surrender to Donald Trump – was lessened by the understanding that things could have turned out even more negatively. The situation, while disappointing, wasn’t as bad as it potentially could have been.
Bettag pointed out that despite keeping former Paramount majority owner Shari Redstone informed about “60 Minutes” stories during the legal issues earlier in the year, he’s confident the show maintained its journalistic standards and remained independent.
“If anything, it stiffened spines,” Bettag said.
“CBS Sunday Morning” continues to be the most popular weekend morning show, and it actually reached more viewers last season. It averaged nearly 5 million weekly viewers.
Although those two programs continue to have a strong and dedicated viewership, CBS News is experiencing a drop in ratings and income. This is because more and more people are switching from watching regular TV to online video services. CBS News has maintained a 24-hour streaming channel for some time, but it doesn’t generate the same number of viewers or advertising revenue as the main network.
CBS News also needs to win back the confidence of viewers who have heard conservative commentators repeatedly question the trustworthiness of traditional news organizations.
It’s not like this just started happening. Back in the mid-1980s, Senator Jesse Helms, who was known for his conservative views, actually tried to take over CBS – he wanted to be Dan Rather’s boss! But now, with social media, those claims of bias are getting way more attention. It’s really pushing viewers who support MAGA toward Fox News and other news sources that lean conservative.
Bettag thinks CBS News needs to improve how it explains its reporting methods to the public. This would help address claims of media bias coming from the right-wing and demonstrate its commitment to accuracy and fairness in its editorial process.
Hollywood Inc.
As the audience moves to streaming, TV stations are pressing Washington for relief.
He believes Bari Weiss could succeed if she can clearly explain their actions and the reasoning behind them, as he stated: “If Bari Weiss can come in and explain what they’re doing and why they’re doing it then I think she can be successful.”
Experienced leaders in TV news are cautioning that actively trying to attract conservatives who are unhappy with other networks could cause CBS News to lose millions of its current viewers. CNN tried a similar strategy – responding to requests from its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery – to appeal to viewers who lean right, but this resulted in a drop in viewership that hasn’t recovered.
A possibility being discussed at Paramount is keeping Free Press as a separate part of the company. It would continue to supply writers and analysts for its in-depth reports, the Sunday discussion show “Face the Nation”, and its streaming service.
Although the Free Press has gained support from conservatives, Bari Weiss’s own political views are somewhat flexible, particularly when it comes to how she votes. She voted for Mitt Romney in 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020.
In a video shared last autumn, Weiss stated that the Free Press team’s 2024 voting preferences were divided – roughly a third supported Trump, a third favored Harris, and a third were still undecided. She suggested this mirrored the broader national sentiment.
Weiss supports abortion rights and advocates for gun control and LGBTQ+ rights (Weiss is married to Nellie Bowles, a former journalist with the New York Times who now works at the Free Press).
She recalled being one of many people who were upset and cried after Donald Trump was elected in 2016. However, she told Fox News in early 2024 that her opinion of the president had changed somewhat. She specifically said she approved of how he managed the relationship with Israel and the economy during his first term in office. She indicated her views had moderated since 2016.
“I’ll be the first to say I used to be caught up in what people on the right back then labeled ‘TDS,’ or Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Weiss explained.
However, the Free Press doesn’t offer Trump uncritical support like some other conservative news sources do. Currently, a main story on their website is a sharply critical analysis of a speech given by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to military leaders on Tuesday, focusing on the topic of warrior ethos.
Read More
- Clash Royale Best Boss Bandit Champion decks
- RAVEN2 redeem codes and how to use them (October 2025)
- Ethereum’s Golden Cross: $4,000 Rally? Hold Your Breath!
- ESPN Might Drop Doris Burke From NBA Broadcast Team Next Season
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Gets Trial Experience On PS Plus Premium
- Chaos Zero Nightmare Combatant Tier List
- Kingdom Rush Battles Tower Tier List
- Brawl Stars: Did Sushi Just Get a Makeover? Players React to Event Ending
- Tom Cruise’s Emotional Victory Lap in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
- Stocks stay snoozy as Moody’s drops U.S. credit—guess we’re all just waiting for the crash
2025-10-03 21:03