Can Bari Weiss ‘Fix’ CBS News in Trump’s America?
There has been no shortage of hot takes about Bari Weiss’ appointment as CBS News’ top editorial exec — and speculation that David Ellison paid $150 million for her contrarian outlet The Free Press mainly to appease the likes of Donald Trump by trying to show that he wants to make CBS News “anti-woke” and root out alleged liberal bias.Predictably, Weiss’ arrival at CBS News rattled the troops. WGA East warned staffers to not reply to her memo asking for details on “how you spend your working hours” until the union received assurances that the responses wouldn’t factor into layoffs or “discipline.” CBS told the WGA that employees would not be disciplined for not responding.But the episode reflects the fear and uncertainty of what Weiss plans to do at CBS News. A number of observers have expressed dire warnings and anger over Ellison’s putting her in charge of news operations.
Dan Rather, longtime anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” called Weiss “one of the most polarizing figures in today’s American media landscape” and lamented that her appointment marks “a dark day in the halls of CBS News.” (His post was titled “MAGA Tested, Trump Approved News.”) New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie , Weiss’ former colleague at the paper, called her impending CBS News appointment “a heartwarming story of how being an unethical and talentless hack is no barrier to your success when you are willing to endlessly flatter the wretched views of rich dipshits.” Jon Oliver slammed Weiss as having “spent years putting out work that, in my opinion, is at best irresponsible and at worst deeply misleading.” And so on.Weiss maintains that she simply wants to “seek the truth and tell it plainly.” The Free Press’ 170,000 subscribers “demonstrated that there’s a market for honest journalism,” she wrote on X Oct. 6. “And they’ve given us a mandate to pursue that mission from an even bigger platform” at CBS News. She has supporters, by the way: Conde Nast’s Anna Wintour said Weiss is “a very accomplished young woman” who has the makings of a great leader.”It’s true that trust in the news media is at an all-time low. Per a Gallup poll fielded Sept. 2-16, 28% of Americans agreed they had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in newspapers, TV and radio to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly.” That’s the lowest the figure has been since Gallup began measuring Americans’ confidence in news reporting in 1972. To Weiss and others, that’s proof that news organizations must change if they want to remain going concerns.Meanwhile, as Variety’s Brian Steinberg has pointed out, CBS News does need some shaking up: The news division’s series of senior execs over the past few years have been unable to turn around “CBS Evening News” and “CBS Mornings,” whose ratings remain stuck in third place behind time-slot rivals at NBC News and ABC News.However, a major factor in the decline of Americans’ trust in media has been the attacks on the news media by Donald Trump and his fellow MAGA travelers. Over the course of 10 years, Trump has written nearly 3,500 social media posts that attack the press. On Thursday, the president’s lawyers refiled a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, alleging its reporters have knowingly and maliciously maligned his achievements. (The Times says the refiled suit is meritless and that “nothing has changed.”) This comes after he received $16 million payouts from suits he filed against ABC News and CBS News’ “60 Minutes”; he’s also filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on the bawdy birthday letter he once sent to Jeffrey Epstein.Why is Trump relentlessly antagonistic toward the news media? (Note that he’s lashed out at ostensibly friendly outlets like Fox News when it suits him.) According to “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl, after Trump won the 2016 election she asked him why kept railing against the press. Per Stahl, Trump replied, “You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so that when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.”In that context, there may be nothing Weiss can really do to change the perception (or misperception) that mainstream media is irreparably unfair. Regardless, additional changes are undoubtedly ahead for CBS News under her watch — not least of which are looming job cuts, as Paramount Skydance is about to make thousands of layoffs. It’s bound to be a bumpy ride.
Dan Rather, longtime anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” called Weiss “one of the most polarizing figures in today’s American media landscape” and lamented that her appointment marks “a dark day in the halls of CBS News.” (His post was titled “MAGA Tested, Trump Approved News.”) New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie , Weiss’ former colleague at the paper, called her impending CBS News appointment “a heartwarming story of how being an unethical and talentless hack is no barrier to your success when you are willing to endlessly flatter the wretched views of rich dipshits.” Jon Oliver slammed Weiss as having “spent years putting out work that, in my opinion, is at best irresponsible and at worst deeply misleading.” And so on.Weiss maintains that she simply wants to “seek the truth and tell it plainly.” The Free Press’ 170,000 subscribers “demonstrated that there’s a market for honest journalism,” she wrote on X Oct. 6. “And they’ve given us a mandate to pursue that mission from an even bigger platform” at CBS News. She has supporters, by the way: Conde Nast’s Anna Wintour said Weiss is “a very accomplished young woman” who has the makings of a great leader.”It’s true that trust in the news media is at an all-time low. Per a Gallup poll fielded Sept. 2-16, 28% of Americans agreed they had a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in newspapers, TV and radio to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly.” That’s the lowest the figure has been since Gallup began measuring Americans’ confidence in news reporting in 1972. To Weiss and others, that’s proof that news organizations must change if they want to remain going concerns.Meanwhile, as Variety’s Brian Steinberg has pointed out, CBS News does need some shaking up: The news division’s series of senior execs over the past few years have been unable to turn around “CBS Evening News” and “CBS Mornings,” whose ratings remain stuck in third place behind time-slot rivals at NBC News and ABC News.However, a major factor in the decline of Americans’ trust in media has been the attacks on the news media by Donald Trump and his fellow MAGA travelers. Over the course of 10 years, Trump has written nearly 3,500 social media posts that attack the press. On Thursday, the president’s lawyers refiled a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, alleging its reporters have knowingly and maliciously maligned his achievements. (The Times says the refiled suit is meritless and that “nothing has changed.”) This comes after he received $16 million payouts from suits he filed against ABC News and CBS News’ “60 Minutes”; he’s also filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on the bawdy birthday letter he once sent to Jeffrey Epstein.Why is Trump relentlessly antagonistic toward the news media? (Note that he’s lashed out at ostensibly friendly outlets like Fox News when it suits him.) According to “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl, after Trump won the 2016 election she asked him why kept railing against the press. Per Stahl, Trump replied, “You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so that when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.”In that context, there may be nothing Weiss can really do to change the perception (or misperception) that mainstream media is irreparably unfair. Regardless, additional changes are undoubtedly ahead for CBS News under her watch — not least of which are looming job cuts, as Paramount Skydance is about to make thousands of layoffs. It’s bound to be a bumpy ride.