Paramount Skydance is preparing to name journalist Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News, according to the New York Post. The announcement could come as early as Monday, though sources cautioned the timing may still shift.
Weiss, 41, rose to prominence as an opinion writer at The New York Times before launching the Free Press, a digital outlet known for its contrarian bent. As part of the shake-up, Paramount Skydance will fold the Free Press into CBS News, giving Weiss not only institutional authority but also a platform of her own. In a break from CBS tradition, she will report directly to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, bypassing the usual layers of management.
The decision reflects Ellison’s push to revamp CBS News, which has long lagged in third place among broadcast networks. “It’s a remarkable reshuffle of CBS News’ decades-old management structure,” a source told the Post.
Weiss’s arrival comes at a politically fraught moment. CBS has had an uneasy history with Donald Trump, both during his first term and now in his second. Trump has often blasted CBS for “fake news,” famously clashing with correspondent Paula Reid in 2020 when he accused the network of being “nasty” and biased. Those tensions have carried into his return to office, with Trump continuing to single out CBS as hostile to his agenda.
That clash is hardly theoretical: in October 2024, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS and its parent company, alleging that the network edited its Harris “60 Minutes” segment in a misleading way that misrepresented her views and advantaged her politically. AV Club+5CBS News+5Newsweek+5 CBS has denied wrongdoing, insisting the editorial decisions were routine — and later released full transcripts to counter the claims.
Where Weiss fits into this picture is less clear. She has not been regarded as either pro- or anti-Trump. At the Times and in her own work, she criticized progressive orthodoxy in newsrooms but also distanced herself from Trump-style populism. Her Free Press has published a wide range of voices, with Weiss presenting herself as a champion of debate and free expression rather than a partisan. Supporters see her as an independent thinker; detractors argue she gives too much oxygen to conservative perspectives while never fully aligning with Trump.
By bringing in Weiss, Ellison is signaling a willingness to disrupt CBS’s culture and potentially reframe its coverage for an audience that has grown skeptical of legacy outlets. The gamble is clear: Weiss’s independent streak could make CBS more relevant in a shifting media landscape — or deepen the friction between the network, its staff, and the political figures it covers.
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