CBS’ Bari Weiss Tells Critics to ‘Judge Us by the Journalism’

CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss said critics of her leadership of the network should “judge us by the journalism” in a wide-ranging interview with Jessica Lessin of The Information Wednesday.

Speaking at The Information’s WTF Summit, a gathering of senior women in the technology and finance industries, Weiss acknowledged the “unusual” and “exceptionally loud year” she’s had. Weiss has grabbed headlines for months over her efforts to reshape CBS News, including venerable programs like “60 Minutes.”

“Change is hard,” she said. What has gotten much less attention about her efforts at CBS, she said, is that the majority of producers, journalists and correspondents at CBS “have shifted to a much more entrepreneurial mentality and culture.”

Among the examples she cited were live events hosted by veteran correspondent Norah O’Donnell, the launch of Tony Dokoupil’s new podcast “Great Question” and coverage of the war in Ukraine by CBS correspondent Aidan Stretch.

Weiss mentioned she’s also trying to get Elizabeth Holmes, the convicted founder of now-defunct blood-testing firm Theranos, to appear on CBS, floating the possibility of Holmes appearing live on the network’s free streaming app. Holmes was the subject of a lauded documentary by comedian and filmmaker Nathan Fielder released this month.

Weiss vaulted into the spotlight last year when Skydance, the owner of CBS formerly known as Paramount Skydance, bought her publication The Free Press for more than $100 million and promoted Weiss to the top role at the broadcast network’s news division. A journalist and columnist known for attacking left-leaning bias in the media, Weiss has had to juggle the challenges of leading a legacy news organization suffering from ratings declines, an aging audience and broader shifts in media consumption away from television. At the same time, her critics have alleged that Weiss has injected her own political views into the network’s news coverage.

Most recently, her editorial leadership came under scrutiny when Status’ Oliver Darcy reported that a CBS editor pushed back on including the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in a report on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. CBS reported the Gaza death toll in a morning story about the Hamas attack, but not in its evening news report.

Weiss, who noted that CBS has about 1,200 people in the newsroom, said she wasn’t involved in editing the stories. She likened the issue of including the Gaza death toll to how a news organization might cover the anniversary of the September 2001 al Qaeda terrorist attack on New York. She said it was “a question of taste” to focus on the victims of the Hamas attacks rather than the Palestinian victims of Israel’s bombings that followed.

“You can make a legitimate argument on either side of that. It seemed like in the morning we went with one perspective. In the evening, we went with another,” Weiss said. “I don’t think there’s anything scandalous or controversial about that.”

Weiss defended the network’s approach to covering national and world events, arguing that it is guided by a desire to ensure “the information that people are getting is accurate and fair, and again, reflects reality.” She pointed to Lesley Stahl’s investigative report on Israeli settler violence in the West Bank this month and the way correspondent Matt Gutman has covered the Israeli election.

“The myth that anyone has a view from nowhere and is a perfectly blank slate, has been exploded by social media,” she said. “The question is whether or not you can strive to get outside of your own perspective to understand what your blind spots are and to make sure that the product, the information that people are getting, is accurate and fair.”

Weiss indicated that CBS could test subscriptions after focusing on making content viewers would want to pay for. CBS doesn’t have such paywalls now, though its content is available on the subscription based Paramount+ streaming app.

“I’m a total believer” in subscription-based pricing, Weiss said. “And so, obviously, that’s the future.”

‘Civilizational Role’

There’s been wide speculation that Skydance CEO David Ellison could seek to consolidate CBS and CNN following the completion of Skydance’s buyout this month of Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN. That cable news network has around 3,000 employees worldwide, while CBS has far fewer staffers.

The question is whether or not you can strive to get outside of your own perspective to understand what your blind spots are.

Weiss didn’t address whether layoffs at the combined company’s news operations are on the table. She acknowledged misgivings over the topic among staffers, saying “everyone feels anxiety whether or not their company has just merged with another giant company as ours had.” Still, she spoke favorably about CNN’s potential. “The possibilities here are really, really incredible,” she said. “CNN is an unbelievable organization.”

Asked whether she would want to run CNN, Weiss said: “I want to focus on doing CBS News, trust me. This is a big enough challenge.”

CNN CEO Mark Thompson was previously the chief executive of The New York Times when Weiss was an opinion columnist and made a fiery exit, claiming that the newspaper’s staff was hostile to other political points of view. Weiss said she and Thompson recently laughed about the episode during a plane ride.

Asked about declining ratings and her overhaul of CBS’ flagship show, “60 Minutes”—the network’s management has fired several prominent staffers, including longtime correspondent Scott Pelley, roiling the team—Weiss defended the changes she’s made to the show, which she said is doing “tremendously well.”

“I am focused on transforming the business,” she said. In response to a question about the decline in ratings at “60 Minutes,” she said: “I could never build anything if I were focused on the precise number of people that happen to tune in to the second feature on 60 Minutes on a given Sunday.”

Weiss dismissed the idea that Trump has been particularly sympathetic to CBS and Ellison, noting the U.S. president has called her a “gay dictator.” (Weiss is married to the journalist and The Free Press co-founder Nellie Bowles.) Weiss noted that the Trump administration has been a loud critic on social media of CBS’ work, including journalist Gianna Toboni’s reporting on the U.S. government’s deportations of immigrants to countries that aren’t their country of origin.

Weiss said her “only way to function” as the leader of CBS is to “put the blinders on, tune out the noise and focus,” when discussing what it is like to be in the media spotlight. Otherwise her “entire life” would be devoted to being “a reply guy on the internet,” she said.

She said of her new role, “I’m not doing anything I’m doing for popularity’s sake.”

“Journalism and journalists have a civilizational role to play,” she said. “And that’s my focus.”