It’s a bold step for the television network of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and “60 Minutes,” long viewed by many conservatives as the personification of a liberal media establishment. The network is placing someone in a leadership role who has developed a reputation for resisting orthodoxy and fighting “woke” culture.
Weiss will report directly to Ellison and partner with the current CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, who reports to Paramount executive George Cheeks.
Editor-in-chief is a new role at CBS News. Ellison said that Weiss will “shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news.”
In a letter to CBS News employees on Monday, Weiss said that watching CBS was part of a family tradition growing up in Pittsburgh. Her goal in the next few weeks is to get to know the staff, she said.
“I want to hear from you about what’s working, what isn’t, and your thoughts on how we can make CBS News the most trusted news organization in America and the world,” Weiss wrote. “I’ll approach it the way any reporters would — with an open mind, a fresh notebook and an urgent deadline.”
“60 Minutes,” which is two weeks into its new season, has been seeking an interview with Trump.
Broadcast news organizations are generally fading in influence with the growth of online alternatives, and have aging audiences. CBS is generally third in popularity behind ABC and NBC, but “60 Minutes” and “CBS News Sunday Morning” have devoted fan bases.
Rather, who stepped down as anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News” in 2005, told The Associated Press that he did not know Weiss and hopes she gets to know the people at CBS News before making any big changes.
“No one has to send a memo to everyone down the line at CBS News about what is going on with journalism and this presidency,” Rather said. “It is obvious that there is tremendous pressure to bend the knee to the Trump administration. The fear is that this appointment is part of that overall play.”
Weiss has worked in opinion journalism and has little background in broadcast journalism. She has described herself politically as a centrist and wrote a column for the New York Post in 2021 headlined, “10 ways to fight back against woke culture.”
Writing for the liberal website the Unpopulist, Matt Johnson said that “one reason for The Free Press’ popularity is that it offers intellectual reassurances to legions of anti-anti-Trump readers — sophisticated conservatives who may be uneasy about Trumpism, yet want to believe that wokeness and other left-wing excesses are the primary threats to western civilization.”
Weiss said told fellow CBS News employees that she stood for the same core journalistic values that have defined the profession from the beginning, including reporting on the world as it actually is and being fair, fearless and factual.
In separate staff memos, Ellison and Weiss outlined similar philosophies about a mainstream America being ill-served by a destructive form of partisanship.
“When we reduce every issue to ‘us vs. them’ or ‘my way vs. the wrong way,’ we close ourselves off from listening, learning and ultimately growing, both as individuals and as a society,” Ellison wrote. “I don’t pretend to have a solution to this challenge. But I do believe we each have a responsibility to do our part.”
Weiss will remain as the boss of The Free Press, which she indicated would continue on the same course but expand more quickly with Paramount’s money. Indeed, she said in a letter to subscribers that The Free Press will help reshape CBS News.
She said mainstream Americans — which she defined as being politically mixed and pragmatic — are being ill-served by an illiberalism from the fringes of society.
“On the one hand, an America-loathing far left,” she wrote. “On the other, a history-erasing far right. These extremes do not represent the majority of the country, but they have increasing power in our politics, our culture and our media ecosystem.”
