CBS News is looking more and more like an Aaron Sorkin-written drama.
On shows such as “The Newsroom” and “Sports Night,” this acclaimed writer has told stories of overzealous media simply trying to get the news out to the public, even though doing so sometimes brings unwanted scrutiny and may damage the company’s reputation while the parent company gets dragged into contract deals or simply tries to maintain revenue.
But fictitious media giants like Continental and Atlantis World Media are not reporting on the current antics going on at CBS News and its owner, Paramount Skydance. The media conglomerate, which recently came under the aegis of CEO David Ellison, placed CBS News under the editorial oversight of Bari Weiss in October. Bari Weiss was a digital provocateur whose opinion site, Free Press, had only 170,000 paid subscribers at the time. Mr. Weiss’s spate of unforced errors continues to draw the attention of CBS News, not the show or the reportage.
The latest gaffe came to light over the weekend, when CBS News revealed that a “60 Minutes” segment centered on correspondent Sharin Alfonsi’s on-screen account of a Venezuelan man who was deported by the United States to a prison in El Salvador was taken off the air hours before Sunday’s broadcast. The decision was made by Weiss, who insisted that Trump officials appear on the report and comment on camera, despite Alfonsi’s team’s good faith efforts to ensure a response before submitting the report for legal review, as revealed in an email Alfonsi sent to colleagues. “The public will correctly perceive this as corporate censorship,” Alfonsi said in the memo.
CBS News staffers find the decisions made over the past few days “disastrous” and “creepy,” according to two people familiar with the newsroom. Weiss’ remarks Monday during CBS News’ daily editorial meeting offered little reassurance. “The only newsrooms I’m interested in are ones where we have contentious disagreements about the most troubling editorial matters in terms of respect, and, importantly, where we assume the best intentions of our colleagues,” she said. “Anything else is absolutely unacceptable.” She did not explain why she waited until the “60 Minutes” segment was released before taking any concrete action. “The audience comes first, not the listing schedule or anything like that,” Weiss said. “It’s my North Star, and I hope it’s your North Star too.”
Paramount can’t afford negative scrutiny at this point. The company, backed by the Ellison family, is trying to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, but the conglomerate’s board has already struck a deal to sell its studio and streaming assets to Netflix. One of the stories about Paramount is that it could serve as a good home for Warner-owned CNN, a news outlet with a storied brand but a questionable outlook. Each misstep Weiss makes casts a cloud over Paramount’s ability to stabilize its media assets. We help businesses thrive in challenging business environments and more importantly.
CBS News declined to request comment from executives.
Weiss’ motives may have been serious. Indeed, every part of journalism can probably be improved before publication. Still, the process was allowed to continue for the segment to be promoted through CBS News’ public relations team, and the segment passed multiple reviews based on standards and practices, according to people familiar with the situation.
And it’s not just because of the weird decision-making schedule. CBS News and “60 Minutes” have been under scrutiny for months, with former Paramount executives agreeing to pay a $16 million settlement to settle flimsy legal charges against the company that the show favored former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris over current President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election. Paramount’s decision damaged the newsmagazine’s credibility. Recent decisions by Paramount’s new management will only make the situation worse, and Wyeth’s journalistic integrity is likely to deteriorate further.
Some CBS News staffers believe “60 Minutes” could kick ass, according to two people familiar with the newsroom. The unit wants “60 Minutes” to regain some of the adventurous side it displayed when Mike Wallace led its tough investigative division, undiminished by the company’s decision in 1995 to ramp up whistleblowing over tobacco company Brown & Williamson’s efforts to cover up the health risks of cigarettes.
Weiss’ moves this week hurt “60 Minutes” rather than helping it. Her decision is the latest in a series of China Store bull moves that have alienated staff and raised more questions than answers about where she wants to take CBS News.
Weiss has attracted unwanted attention from the start, largely because she has no experience running large media properties and her skillset is tied to creating commentary on news rather than fact-gathering, which is usually central to the process. Since her arrival, she has faced backlash from the union representing CBS News staff who have asked her to explain her job description. Conservative news reporters and Trump administration officials were featured in various segments of broadcast and online programs. Attempted to hire a well-known anchor by enticing him to leave his current contract with a competing company. And it launched a new series of town halls and debates, with sessions moderated by conservative activist Erica Kirk, who had failed to gain support from mainstream advertisers. Bank of America has signed on to sponsor an upcoming edition of the series, currently titled “Thing That Matter.”
Weiss has good reason to want to revamp CBS News. The news division’s morning and evening programming has long ranked third behind rivals ABC and NBC. For example, CBS is overhauling “CBS Evening News” again after its latest two-anchor format drove thousands of viewers away from the show. Tony Dokoupil will begin his tenure with the program in early January.
Two people familiar with her recent work say Ms. Weiss is tireless and may even have ambitions beyond the news department. Still, she has yet to forge a clear alliance with those responsible. She has yet to show any real sense of the task at hand. And she may need to work even harder to achieve these goals, given Dokoupil’s remarks when announcing her hiring, such as, “We live in a time when many people have lost trust in the media.” Meanwhile, her long series of missteps has clouded Paramount management’s ability to run its media properties with any degree of success.
