Paramount CEO David Ellison’s effort to keep CNN chief Mark Thompson aboard signals doubts about Bari Weiss’s ability to oversee the network after turmoil at CBS News, Status founder Oliver Darcy argued.
“I think that’s a real indictment of her. I really do,” Darcy said Friday on Status’s “Powerlines” podcast as he dug into Ellison’s apparent assessment that Weiss isn’t ready for the high-profile role.
“I don’t think this is a good sign for Barry Weiss,” he added.
Darcy said Status had heard Ellison’s enthusiasm for Weiss had fizzled. Ellison’s decision to ask Thompson to stay at CNN, he argued, “indicated that he does not believe that she has the operational chops to oversee CNN.”
According to Darcy, the original plan was for Weiss to lead both news organizations. Executive then sought an experienced business leader to pair with her, but industry veterans pushed back.
“No one wants to work with Bari Weiss,” Darcy said Friday. “No one worth their salt wants to share editorial oversight or any oversight of any company with Bari Weiss.”
Darcy described the upheaval at 60 Minutes as a “total disaster.” Status co-host Jon Passantino questioned whether Weiss would survive at CBS.
“I think that by every metric, it has not been a success,” Passantino said. “It’s been a public embarrassment at times.”
But Darcy cautioned that Ellison could still want Weiss to lead both news operations eventually.
For now, he said, CNN employees were “breathing a sigh of relief that for now Barry Weiss is not coming in.”
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