CBS News is increasingly looking like something out of a scripted drama by Aaron Sorkin.
In shows like “The Newsroom” and “Sports Night,” the well-regarded writer sketched stories of feisty media outlets just trying to get news to the people, even though doing so sometimes brought unwanted scrutiny that could reflect poorly on their corporate parents while they were enmeshed in deal making, or just trying to keep revenue flowing.
Fictional media titans like Continental Corp. and Atlantis World Media, however, have nothing on the current antics taking place at CBS News and its owner, Paramount Skydance. The media conglomerate, recently put under the aegis of CEO David Ellison, in October placed CBS News under the editorial supervision of Bari Weiss, a digital provocateur whose opinion site, The Free Press, had at the time cultivated just 170,000 paid subscribers. A spate of unforced errors by Weiss has kept scrutiny high on CBS News — and not for its shows or reportage.
The latest gaffe unfolded over the weekend, when CBS News revealed that a “60 Minutes” segment reported by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi and centered on the on-screen accounts of Venezuelan men deported by the U.S. to prison in El Salvador had been shelved just hours before Sunday’s broadcast. As disclosed by an email sent to colleagues by Alfonsi, the decision was made by Weiss, who insisted that Trump officials appear in the report to comment on camera, even though Alfonsi’s team had made good faith efforts to secure response ahead of filing the report for legal review. “The public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship,” Alfonsi said in her memo.
CBS News staffers find the decisions made over the past few days “distressing” and “ominous,” according to two people familiar with the newsroom. Remarks made Monday by Weiss at CBS News’ daily editorial meeting did little to reassure. “The only newsroom I’m interested in is one in which we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters with respect, and, crucially, where we assume the best intent of our colleagues,” she said. “Anything else is absolutely unacceptable.” She did not explain why she waited until after the “60 Minutes” segment was publicized before taking concrete action. “Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else,” Weiss said. “That’s my north star and I hope it’s yours too.”
Paramount can ill afford negative scrutiny in this current moment. The company, backed by the Ellison family, is trying to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, even though that conglomerate’s board has already struck a deal to sell its studio and streaming assets to Netflix. One of Paramount’s talking points is that it will serve as a good home for Warner’s CNN, a news outlet with a storied brand but a troubled business outlook. Every time Weiss blunders, it raises a cloud over Paramount’s ability to steady media properties. amid a difficult operating climate — and, more critically, help them flourish.
CBS News declined to make executives available for comment.
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Weiss’ motivations may have been in earnest. To be sure, every piece of journalism can probably be improved ahead of its publication. Still, the process was allowed to continue so that the segment to be promoted via CBS News’ publicity team, and the segment had passed multiple reviews by standards and practices, according to people familiar with the situation.
And that’s not just because of the strange decision-making timeline. CBS News and “60 Minutes” have been under a microscope for months, with previous Paramount management agreeing to pay a $16 million settlement to rid the company of flimsy legal charges that the show cast former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in a more favorable light than now-President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election. Paramount’s decision undermined the newsmagazine’s credibility. Recent decisions by Paramount’s new management have only exacerbated the situation, and Weiss’ is likely to further wear away at its journalism bona fides.
There is some portion of CBS News staffers who believe “60 Minutes” could use a kick in the rear, according to two people familiar with the newsroom. This contingent would like to see “60 Minutes” gain back some of the swashbuckling mien it displayed when Mike Wallace led tough-nosed investigative segments, and the program wasn’t weakened by a corporate decision in 1995 to spike a whistleblower’s report on the tobacco company Brown & Williamson’s efforts to hide the health risks of cigarettes.
Weiss’ moves this week do nothing to help “60 Minutes,” and more to hurt it. Her decision is the latest in a series of bull-in-a-China-shop maneuvers that have alienated staff and raised more questions than answers about where she wants to lead CBS News.
Weiss has attracted unwanted attention from the outset, mainly because she has no experience running a large media asset and her skill set is tied to the formulation of commentary around the news, rather than the gathering of facts that typically sits at the center of the process. Since her arrival, she has brought pushback from the union representing CBS News staffers after asking them to lay out their job duties; nabbed conservative newsmakers and Trump administration officials for various segments for broadcast and online programming; tried to hire big-name anchors by enticing them to leave their current contracts at rival operations; and launched a new series of town halls and debates by moderating a session with conservative activist Erika Kirk that lacked support from mainstream advertisers. Bank of America has signed on as a sponsor for future editions of the series, now dubbed “Things That Matter.”
Weiss has good reason to seek a shake-up at CBS News. The news division’s morning and evening programs have long run in third place behind rivals at ABC and NBC. CBS is overhauling “CBS Evening News” for example — yet again — after the most recent two-anchor format caused thousands of viewers to ditch the show. Tony Dokoupil launches his tenure on the program in early January.
Two people familiar with her recent work say Weiss is tireless and may even have ambitions beyond the news division. Still, she has yet to forge a clear alliance with the people for whom she is responsible. She has yet to demonstrate a real feel for the job she has at hand. And with statements such as “We live in a time in which many people have lost trust in the media” — made while announcing Dokoupil’s hire — she may have to work a lot harder to accomplish those goals. Meanwhile, her lengthening series of missteps cast fog around Paramount management’s ability to run media properties with any degree of success.
From Variety US