Bari Weiss’ CBS News foreign editor Shayndi Raice threatened to fire staffers in a heated Tuesday meeting that escalated to a confrontation over the Palestinian death toll in Gaza being included in the network’s Oct. 7 anniversary coverage.
Raice spent roughly 15 minutes defending her editorial decisions and reminding journalists of the network’s management hierarchy before specifically targeting senior foreign correspondent Holly Williams, Status reported Tuesday, citing leaked audio obtained from a source.
A representative for CBS News did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
The meeting followed a report that Raice had intervened in Williams’ coverage of the Oct. 7 anniversary, as editorial tensions continue under CBS News Editor-in-Chief Weiss.
“This is not your publishing platform,” Raice told staffers, according to Status. “This is a company that we all work for, and there’s a hierarchy in place.”
“If you can’t answer to that hierarchy, and you don’t listen to what we say, that is called insubordination, and it’s legal grounds for firing,” she added.
In its Monday report, Status said Raice had pushed back on the inclusion of the Palestinian death toll in a “CBS Evening News” report marking the third anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Raice denied ordering the death toll removal, saying she had instead asked that the Israeli death toll also be included and that Palestinian casualties be distinguished between civilians and combatants. She said the additional context made the segment too complicated.
Williams pushed back on Raice’s description of the editorial process, saying she had been instructed to make changes to her report without any opportunity to discuss them.
“I was told that I had to make the changes as written, and that there was no negotiation,” Williams said.
Raice is said to have acknowledged that the changes were nonnegotiable at that point, but defended that Williams could have contacted her directly.
Williams said her biggest concern was not the death toll but the removal of allegations involving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Raice defended leaving out those allegations, saying CBS News had not independently verified them and Netanyahu had denied them.
“I just think you got it wrong,” Raice told Williams. “And you probably got it wrong because you don’t know the story as well as I do.”
Raice also referred to the Palestinian death toll as a “magic number,” arguing that repeatedly citing it was “not saving Palestinians” and suggesting that doing so amounted to “posturing.”
CBS News senior global affairs correspondent Trevor Phillips, another recent Weiss hire, also reportedly weighed in, defending editorial oversight and criticizing the airing of internal newsroom disputes outside the network.
The meeting followed another Status report Monday that veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl had considered quitting after contentious discussions with Weiss over her reporting on Israeli settler violence in the West Bank. CBS News rejected that account, calling it a “ludicrous, twisted narrative” and defending the program’s editorial review process.
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