Should I write or not?
CBS News staffers are responding to contradictory orders Monday, three people familiar with the matter said, after some producers at Paramount Skydance’s news division asked reporters and journalists to respond to an eyebrow-raising memo from new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss that drew criticism from the Writers Guild of America last week. In the memo, Weiss asked staff to tell her “how they spend their time” and what they think about CBS News so that she and the editorial staff can “align to achieve our shared vision for CBS News.”
Within hours of the memo surfacing, the WGA advised CBS News union members not to respond to the document until CBS provided details about its purpose, including whether the response could be “the basis for discipline, termination, or dismissal.”
Weiss was named CBS News editor-in-chief by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison last week, but the CBS News staff has been reeling ever since. Weiss, a digital entrepreneur and opinion writer who founded Free Press, has no experience running a mainstream TV news outlet and little experience helping traditional journalists overcome the challenges of finding facts. She is directly related to Mr. Ellison, and Tom Cibrowski, a former ABC executive who became president of CBS News earlier this year, has been tasked with working with Mr. Weiss and lending his expertise.
CBS News declined to request comment from executives.
The Paramount news drama comes as most employees fear losing their jobs. Paramount executives have said they intend to significantly reduce their workforce to cut costs. Details of the layoffs are expected to be revealed in Paramount’s next financial report.
A person familiar with the newsroom said staffers were in “a panic” as some bosses urged them to submit memos to Mr. Weiss, while the union told them the exact opposite. Some producers at CBS News are not covered by union contracts and may feel pressured to make their employees do what their new bosses do, according to people familiar with the matter.
There’s good reason to shake up CBS News. The division has suffered from a parade of heavyweights in recent years, but no one has been able to buck recent trends and further increase the traction of weekday standard programs “CBS Evening News” and “CBS Mornings,” which remain in third place compared to competitors in the NBC News and ABC News time slots. At the same time, CBS News already has the hard-won trust of many viewers, and its “CBS Sunday Morning” and “60 Minutes” are some of the best-known news brands on television. According to the Pew Research Center, 51% of U.S. adults who trust information from national news outlets at least somewhat trust CBS News. Only ABC News and NBC News are more trusted in this group, with CBS News on par with both CNN and PBS.
