When George Clooney said he felt new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss was “dismantling CBS News as we speak,” Weiss responded by inviting him to visit the CBS newsroom.
“Bonjour, Mr. Clooney! I’m a huge fan of your work. It sounds like you would like to learn more about our work. This is a general invitation to the CBS Broadcast Center, where I am vacationing with my colleagues for the relaunch of evening news. Tune in on January 5th,” Weiss said in a statement shared by Paramount Skydance. “Bonjour” is likely a reference to Clooney, his wife Amal, and their twins, who will become French citizens this week.
In a wide-ranging interview with Brent Lang about his career and his latest film, Jay Kelly, Clooney also touched on the CBS News turmoil, politics and his own activism.
“Are you worried about the movie studios? Of course. That’s my job, but my main loyalty is to my country. I’m much more worried about how they’re going to inform themselves and how they’re going to determine reality without a functioning press,” he said.
In an interview with Variety, Clooney also addressed President Trump’s lawsuit against ABC News and CBS News. “If CBS and ABC had challenged these lawsuits and said, ‘Fuck it,’ we wouldn’t be in this country today,” Clooney says. “That’s just the truth.”
Weiss, who took over CBS News in October, recently came under fire for abruptly retracting a “60 Minutes” report on El Salvador’s CECOT prison.
Weiss’ response was first reported by the New York Post.
