Bari Weiss to take over as editor-in-chief of CBS News

Weiss, 41, a former opinion columnist for the New York Times who dramatically quit the paper in 2020 blaming a culture of leftwing “bullying”, will be unveiled in her new role as soon as Monday.

Weiss has no experience of managing TV coverage and the appointment, which will give her sweeping control over editorial policy at CBS, has been greeted with dismay by many at the network. “Everyone is concerned,” a senior source on the CBS News team told The Observer.

The appointment of Weiss follows a radical shake-up at the company that has itself stirred controversy. Donald Trump’s administration approved the $8bn merger of Paramount and Skydance in August, days after CBS agreed a multimillion-dollar payout to settle a lawsuit with the president.

Trump has launched a barrage of lawsuits against media outlets he accuses of treating him unfairly, raising fears of growing state censorship from the White House. The merger brings Paramount’s Hollywood prestige into the same stable as TV networks such as CBS and MTV, along with streaming services. The group is led by billionaire media mogul David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, the world’s second-richest man.

Weiss will report directly to Ellison, not to CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, according to reports. The Free Press will remain a standalone outlet, separate from CBS News.

At the New York Times, Weiss frequently attacked the progressive left, sparking an internal culture war at the newspaper until she quit in spectacular fashion. In a scathing resignation letter that went viral, Weiss condemned an “illiberal environment” at the newspaper, claiming that Twitter had “become its ultimate editor”.

Since launching the Free Press as a “fiercely independent” news outlet in 2021, Weiss has amassed some 1.5 million free and paid subscribers. Its opinionated coverage of politics and foreign affairs has stirred frequent controversy, notably in its staunch support for Israel’s war in Gaza. In recent weeks, it has stirred outrage with a high-profile investigation that disputed reports of a mounting famine in the devastated Palestinian enclave.

The imminent arrival of Weiss continues a turbulent year at CBS, with concerns that the broadcaster and its owners have bowed to pressure from the White House. In July, Paramount paid $16m to settle a lawsuit with Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris in the final weeks of last year’s election campaign. Trump accused the network of editing the interview to present his Democratic rival in a more favourable light. Days later, CBS announced that it was cancelling its headline late-night show, hosted by comedian Stephen Colbert, an outspoken critic of Trump.

The move came days before the Federal Communications Commission, chaired by Trump loyalist Brendan Carr, approved the merger between Paramount and Skydance. Trump has publicly urged Carr to revoke the licences of TV networks that criticise him, calling them “an arm of the Democrat party”. The president has since launched lawsuits against the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

One CBS staffer told The Observer that the company’s surrender to Trump had been greeted with “despair” by many at the company. People see where this is going,” the staffer said. “Each capitulation makes it harder for the next company targeted to stand up to [Trump].”

Photograph by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images