One year ago, Bari Weiss was boasting of how her “anti-woke” digital outlet, The Free Press, had obtained leaked audio recordings of CBS News meetings, and quotes from anonymous staffers, amid the fallout over anchor Tony Dokoupil’s combative interview with celebrated author Ta-Nehisi Coates.
But as new editor-in-chief of CBS News – and the focus of less-than-flattering reports – Weiss now wants to crack down on leaks and identify employees who are sharing details of internal editorial calls with other news organizations.
“Now in a position of power at the network, Ms. Weiss is the one concerned about leaks,” the New York Times, where Weiss was once a columnist, reported. “She has complained that her comments at private CBS meetings keep turning up in media reports, asking if the company can identify the leakers, according to three people familiar with her remarks.”
One CBS News’ senior staffer told The Independent that Weiss’ hunt for leakers was “insanely ironic,” considering The Free Press’ previous leak-based reporting about the network. Another CBS News employee labelled her push to out leakers as “hilarious.”
The Independent has contacted CBS News and Weiss for comment.
Even before Paramount chairman David Ellison installed Weiss as the Tiffany Network’s top editor, and bought her “heterodox” website for $150 million, many CBS staff had expressed serious reservations about her potential reign over the large broadcast news operation.
“It’s not a good place right now,” one CBS News staffer told The Independent, days before Weiss was officially hired. “There was a proper way to do this and a not proper way, and they’re doing it in the non-proper way, and maybe that’s by design.”
Once Weiss was announced as editorial leader of the news division – while also remaining The Free Press’ CEO and editor-in-chief – reporters and staffers spoke out en masse to multiple media publications about the atmosphere behind-the-scenes at CBS News. They also provided copies of staff-wide memos and details of news calls and meetings.
After Weiss’ first editorial meeting included a “Sorkinesque” call to journalistic arms, multiple staffers told The Independent that employees were literally rolling their eyes at her “cringey” rallying cry.
Days later, when she sent out an email urging all CBS News employees to provide her with a memo laying out their work day, insiders compared Weiss’ request to Elon Musk’s directive while working for the Trump administration at the Department of Government Efficiency.
As the Times previously noted, Weiss – a self-described “radical centrist” who has long warned about the excesses of the “woke left” – The Free Press published leaked recordings of an internal CBS News editorial meeting last year. That meeting was centered on internal backlash over Dokoupil’s interview with Coates, where the news anchor claimed the author’s book on Israel’s treatment of Palestinians “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.”
In multiple Free Press articles, which included anonymous quotes and leaked details, Weiss – who labels herself a “Zionist fanatic” – and others at the outlet took aim at CBS News’ reprimand of Dokoupil over the interview, claiming that it showed the network had an anti-Israel bias.
“There are some people at CBS who think that ‘Israel’s existence as a state should be part of fair conversation,’ said one CBS source,” Weiss wrote in one piece. “Can you imagine journalists having that conversation about any other country?”
In 2020, shortly before she resigned as an opinion editor and writer for The New York Times due to its “illiberal environment,” Weiss live-tweeted a heated internal meeting that took place at the paper over its decision to publish a controversial op-ed by Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton.
The juxtaposition of Weiss leaning on CBS News leaks last year to frame the network in a negative light, and demanding that those leaks stop now that she’s in charge at the network, hasn’t been lost on the newsroom.
“Insanely ironic Weiss is whining about leakers when her rag leaked audio of our 9 am editorial over Dokoupil, and now she expects it to be a safe place after rendering it unsafe herself?” the senior CBS News staffer rhetorically asked.
The same source claimed that Weiss had initially “loved all the media attention and seeing her name everywhere,” following the announcement of her hiring. However, with headlines growing increasingly critical, “now she wants the ‘leakers’ shut down or sacked.”
Ultimately, as the insider noted, Weiss should have fully expected this situation at CBS, considering the turmoil that’s rocked the news division over the past few years.
“If she took 5 seconds to learn anything about CBS News before joining, she’d know it’s been through so much change and tumult over the past 5 years, really since Charlie Rose’s #metoo ouster, that it’s become one of the leakiest news divisions in America – including to her,” the staffer said, referencing the veteran journalist’s ouster as morning host following sexual misconduct allegations.
This was largely echoed by another network reporter, who told The Independent that Weiss’ sale of her Substack-based website would likely not have been possible if it weren’t for her CBS stories.
“Hilarious. She’s literally a millionaire because she used leaked audio to help her catch the eye of David Ellison,” the reporter noted. “This place is leakier than the Titanic. Good luck trying to plug all the holes.”
Besides the Dokoupil kerfuffle, The Free Press’ editorial board also took CBS News to task last October over 60 Minutes’ editing of its interview with Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, which prompted President Donald Trump to sue the network for supposedly interfering with the 2024 election.
In the op-ed, The Free Press accused the network of having “concocted a deception” while urging 60 Minutes to release the entire, unedited interview and transcript. CBS News said that it had followed the network’s standard editing practices and that the president’s allegations were without merit.
In the end, parent company Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle the lawsuit just weeks before his administration approved the company’s $8 billion merger with Ellison’s Skydance Media. Paramount’s settlement negotiations with Trump’s legal team, amid its push to finalize its merger, also eventually resulted in resignations of several newsroom leaders and executives.
Beyond the leaks, a growing question among CBS News staff is how Weiss plans to balance her duties as leader of The Free Press and editorial chief of the network.
“In the two weeks that she has worked at the network, Ms. Weiss has not promoted any articles or reporting from CBS News on her X account, which reaches 1.1 million followers. She added her CBS title into her X bio on Friday,” the New York Times pointed out.
“As a Middle East peace deal came into view, Ms. Weiss shared numerous pro-Israel opinion pieces from The Free Press, and an editorial that said Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, had failed ‘the Hamas test,’” the Times added.
“CBS News declined to comment on whether Ms. Weiss’s expression of strong opinions on major news events ran afoul of its ethics rules, or belied CBS News’s efforts to appear nonpartisan.”
As for Weiss’ hopes that the company would be able to keep internal communications private, it was crystal clear Monday that the leaks would continue after an email to staff, from Paramount executives Jeff Shell and George Cheeks, was shared withThe Independent and other media outlets.
In the memo, the executives detailed the role of new CBS News ombudsman Kenneth Weinstein, which would feature Weiss potentially working to “recommend and implement appropriate next steps” regarding any “complaints of bias” at the network.
