It’s War of the Worlds on CBS News.
Ten people familiar with the workings of CBS News say the Paramount Skydance division is heading toward dysfunction, with executives led by Bari Weiss not valuing the standards of veteran journalists and staff viewing the editor-in-chief and her hand-picked senior staff with extreme skepticism because of her lack of experience managing mainstream media properties.
These people are the latest in a series of mistakes at CBS News — rushing new “Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil to the job without a long period of time to publicize his appointment, and letting Erica Kirk’s town hall run without mainstream advertising support. The report suggests that the decision to send a “60 Minutes” segment after it had already been announced undermines the value and credibility of CBS News, and that it can only be fixed if producers and reporters challenge Mr. Weiss more regularly.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management, said this portends a rapid “deterioration of CBS News,” and worries that this dynamic could lead to a “death spiral” that would be “difficult to reverse.”
Some say Weiss is just getting started. She may be preparing to focus on “CBS Morning,” keeping in mind that host Gayle King’s salary, which is worth about $15 million a year, according to people familiar with the station, is no longer viable in a depressed media economy. King is said to be considering various options. These include the role of special correspondent, who appears on CBS News programs but is not a regular host, and the role of correspondent, who can stay on the air for another year but at a lower pay, giving viewers a full 12 months to say goodbye. There is also hope that Weiss may overhaul the news division’s streaming services and increase its reliance on talk-heavy podcasts.
Weiss has been under the microscope since arriving in October after Paramount acquired her conservative opinion site, The Free Press, for $150 million. Since taking office, she has pressed programs like “CBS Evening News” and “60 Minutes” to give Trump administration officials and other leaders more time. Dokoupil’s early days on “CBS Evening News” were marred by embarrassing episodes, including one praising Secretary of State Marco Rubio, downplaying the seriousness of changes to vaccine protocols, and covering the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the shooting death of a woman in Minneapolis by ICE agents.
Staffers said the tactics distracted from the actual scoops and reporting, as staffers had hoped Weiss would use his Free Press acumen to draw broader attention to CBS News’ digital assets. Her work style has been shaped by the culture of a start-up company, and although she is known for working hard and with determination, her approach can be exasperating. Officials say she has a tendency to pick people up furiously to carry out orders, only to change her mind at the last minute, all of which proves exhausting. One staff member said Weiss often “mecks around” for no apparent reason. “That’s part of what fuels the frustration,” this person says. “We are doing our job well.”
Certainly, there were signs that some people were ready to join hands. You have to do that. Like its competitors, CBS News operates at a time when traditional television viewers get their news in different ways, straining regular cash flow. Weiss is actively seeking advice from TV veteran Tom Shibrowski, who joined CBS News last year as president. But because Weiss reports directly to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, some people said they were in no position to challenge him publicly. Mr. Cibrowski will report to Mr. George Cheeks, who oversees television operations. And that would give Weiss even more control.
CBS News declined to request comment from executives.
The news network tried to overcome one of its weekend divides by postponing the airing of a report on “60 Minutes” that Mr. Weiss had originally ordered, after CBS announced it would air Dec. 21. The story, by correspondent Sharin Alfonsi, was built around an on-screen account of a Venezuelan man who was deported by the United States to a harsh prison in El Salvador, even though at the time Weiss insisted that Trump officials appear in the report and comment on camera. Despite Alfonsi’s team making good faith efforts to secure a response before submitting its report for legal review.
The actual report on Sunday appeared little different from the one originally prepared and scrutinized. However, Alfonsi provided other information and statistics in his on-air foreword and afterword. The Trump administration declined to make anyone available for on-camera interviews. Weiss defended his decision to keep the work. But people familiar with her thinking say she acknowledges that her timing was inappropriate and that she was late in the editing and vetting process for “60 Minutes.”
This may be an inevitable fallout for corporate assets that have seen a parade of top managers and shifts in business focus. Since 2019, CBS News has been grappling with multiple changes in its senior leadership ranks. There were multiple senior editorial executives. Four different presidents. And since Scott Pelley left the CBS Evening News in 2017, five anchors with different names have taken the helm. In contrast, NBC News has changed its anchors for “NBC Nightly News” only three times in 40 years. Meanwhile, David Muir has been anchoring ABC News’ “World News Tonight” since 2014.
“What people do when a disruption like that happens is they retreat to a safe place. They don’t want to stand up. They don’t want to be seen as someone else’s person,” Sonnenfeld says. As a result, news staff are less willing to “take risks on behalf of viewers,” he added.
Now, CBS News’ internal struggles are becoming a national joke. Host Nikki Glazer drew laughs and raised eyebrows at the Golden Globes when she touted CBS News as “the best place to get the latest BS news in America” in a monologue that poked fun at its acclaimed news division (on its own network).
To journalists, Weiss is an outsider who excels at attracting attention digitally but often fails on traditional television. And she appears to have taken a dark view of her staff, issuing multiple statements about how America is losing trust in mainstream media. Still, if she and the CBS News journalists want to reach new audiences, everyone will need to be patient and get along.
