CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss told staff to leave the company if they were unwilling to move forward under her vision as she continues to make the network more Trump-friendly.
The network has been embroiled in controversy since Weiss, who had no prior experience in TV news, was hired as its editor-in-chief after its parent company, Paramount, acquired her news blog, The Free Press, for $150 million. Weiss directly reports to Paramount CEO David Ellison, son of Trump megadonor Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.
In an all-hands meeting across each CBS News bureau on Tuesday, Weiss appeared to acknowledge that the network has had a poor public reception during her takeover and told staff to quit if they do not like her vision.
“Let me start by saying: I get it. I also get why, in the face of all this tumult, you might feel uncertain or skeptical about me or what I’m aiming to do here,” she said in prepared remarks.
“I’m not going to stand up here today and ask for your trust. I’m going to earn it, just like we have to do with our viewers. What I can give you is what I’ve always tried to give my readers as a journalist: transparency, clarity, straight talk,” she added.
Weiss compared the nearly 100-year-old network to that of a start-up under her leadership, calling CBS News “the best-capitalized media startup in the world,” while warning there would be further changes.
“But startups aren’t for everyone. They’re places that move at a rapid speed. They experiment. They try new things. They sometimes create noise and, yes, bad press,” she said.
“If that’s not your bag, that’s ok. It’s a free country and I completely respect if you decide this is just not the right place at the right time for you,” she continued.
Her remarks come as NPR reported earlier Tuesday that layoffs are coming at the network.
Weiss also said that the network will now “put huge emphasis on scoops.”
“Not scoops that expire minutes later. But investigative scoops. And, crucially, scoops of ideas. Scoops of explanation. This is where we can soar, and where we’ll be investing,” she continued.
She told her staff, “We are not producing a product enough people want,” adding that the network needs a “singular editorial vision,” and that “we need to create the wave and then ride it.”
Weiss said that the network would be “for the center, we’re for the center-right, and we’re for the center-left. And that is the vast majority of the company—that’s who we need to reach,” a similar sell she has branded her blog with.
Weiss, a former conservative columnist at The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, has long claimed that legacy media has fallen to left-wing tribal thinking.
Weiss also announced during the meeting that the network would hire 18 paid commentators, including many existing contributors for The Free Press, like conservative British historian Niall Ferguson, and tech commentator Patrick McGee.
The first question from staff during the Q&A portion of the meeting cornered Weiss on criticism that she was turning CBS News into a “right-wing network.”
“I’m here to do one thing. It’s not to be a mouthpiece for anybody. It’s simply to be a mouthpiece for fairness and the pursuit of truth,” Weiss replied, according to Business Insider.
Weiss also fielded a question from a transgender employee who asked about the network’s usage of the term “biological sex,” which is largely seen as offensive to those in the trans community.
Celebrity journalist Gayle King, of CBS Mornings, stood by Weiss during the meeting, telling staff, “I’ll be curious to see how long it takes for this to get out. ‘Cause it’ll be somebody in this room.”
Following the meeting, one CBS News staffer said the meeting “was so weird. So produced, so forced,” according to The Guardian.
CBS News has been embattled with controversy after controversy under Weiss’s leadership.
Weiss alienated several 60 Minutes producers after she insisted they shelve a segment on the notorious mega-prison CECOT, where the Trump administration has been sending deportees.
She demanded that 60 Minutes producers include an on-camera interview with a member of the Trump administration, which producers had already tried and failed to secure. The segment, which later leaked online, had already reportedly cleared the network’s internal legal and editorial hurdles.
During the Tuesday meeting, Weiss admitted it was a mistake to pull the segment just hours before it was supposed to air, but still maintained her position that it had to be pulled.
When questioned about whether Paramount leadership had been behind her decision to table the segment, Weiss said she “was not pressured by David Ellison or anyone else.”
“I didn’t know the screening schedule for every single thing,” she said, adding, “That specific logistical nightmare, that’s never going to happen again. So please rest assured that nothing of that kind is ever going to happen again. You have my promise.”
Last week, the interview aired largely unchanged, but had one of the newsmagazine’s lowest ratings in its 58-year history, as it competed with the NFL divisional playoff games for viewership.
Weiss’s talent placement choices have also been under heightened scrutiny after she installed former CBS Mornings anchor Tony Dokoupil as the new anchor of CBS Evening News.
Weiss was also asked about CBS Evening News’s new “core principles,” including notably the principle which states that “We love America. And we make no apologies for saying so.”
“Loving America is not about jingoism. It’s not about blind patriotism,” Weiss said. “It’s about vociferous defense of the principles and values that have made this country exceptional and that allow us to do the work that we do. And so anyone that disagrees with that, I’d love to have a conversation with you.”
The one-time home of journalist legend Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News has seen abysmal ratings in its first two weeks under Dokoupil. Viewership for CBS Evening News has declined by about 20 percent as compared to this time last year, when Norah O’ Donnell anchored the show.
One staffer confronted Weiss about changes at CBS Evening News.
“Certain decisions and editorial choices have scared us. At Evening News, people are afraid for their jobs and afraid to even speak for fear of retaliation,” the staffer said at the meeting, according to The Guardian.
“There has been a chilling effect within our newsroom,” they added. “It feels right now like if we offer feedback, alternatives, or constructive criticism, that we are asking for targets on our backs—or the answer is simply no.”
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