Bari Weiss, CBS’s News editor-in-chief, has her eyes on a potential new addition to the CBS family: Fox News star Bret Baier.
Weiss has allegedly had conversations with associates about Baier becoming part of the CBS team, possibly for the CBS Evening News anchor chair, according to Status News.
Baier, who currently hosts Fox’s Special Report with Bret Baier and serves as the chief political anchor for the conservative network, is just one of several potential candidates to replace current co-anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois. Some internal names, like Norah O’Donnell and Tony Dokoupil, have reportedly been discussed for the position amongst top executives like Weiss and CBS News President Tom Cibrowski.
Even if CBS News wanted Baier for the position, there may be trouble legally obtaining him as he signed a contract extension in 2023, which allegedly pays him $14 million per year, and would keep him at Fox News until 2028.
CBS News and Fox News did not immediately respond to the Beast’s request for comment.
Currently, CBS News leans left in its coverage, according to All Sides, which measures the media bias of online publications. Weiss has expressed her desire to shift the station’s stance slightly, which could fit well with Baier’s right-of-center stance.
On Oct. 6—her first day as CBS’s top executive—Weiss sent out a memo that listed some “core principles” for the network to focus on, including broadcasting “journalism that holds both American political parties to equal scrutiny.”
She also urged employees to embrace “a wide spectrum of views and voices” as they report “fairly, fearlessly, and factually.”
Weiss, who took over CBS’s top role shortly after David Ellison acquired the station, has never been one afraid to voice her opinion. Although she considers herself a centrist, she gained notoriety by condemning “cancel culture” and the “woke” liberal media. Since then, she’s also had brushes with conservatives, claiming that they’ve “erased the line between good and evil” and feuding on Twitter with Elon Musk.
During Weiss’ first month at CBS, she has already implemented some staffing changes, appointing fellow New York Times alum Adam Rubenstein as her deputy editor, giving her sister, Free Press co-founder Suzy Weiss, a spot on CBS Mornings Plus, and having conversations with Catherine Herridge, according Status News, a conservative journalist who left CBS in 2024.
The alleged conversations around acquiring Baier leave room for speculation on what direction CBS News may be headed under Weiss’s leadership. Baier previously said that he has “off-the-record conversations and moments with President Trump,” claiming they offer him closer insight into the president’s moves.
While he has been skeptical of Trump on occasion, he tends to lean more MAGA-centric and even hosted a contentious interview with former presidential candidate Kamala Harris in October 2024. His program also hosts plenty of right-wingers who celebrate Trump’s moves as president, but Baier himself has a reputation for occasionally fact-checking misinformation.
This also isn’t the first time Weiss has tried to get someone under contract with Fox News to come over to CBS News. During her first week at CBS, she attempted to get former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to speak on a panel of other former secretaries of state about the Middle East peace deal. Pompeo, however, did not participate as he is under an exclusive contributor contract with Fox News.
The post New CBS Boss Wants Fox News Star as Evening News Anchor appeared first on The Daily Beast.
