Paramount said Monday that it has bought the news and commentary website The Free Press and installed its founder, Bari Weiss, as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, saying it believes the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based.
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.
“I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News,” said David Ellison, who took over this summer as the corporate leader overseeing the network when his company, Skydance, purchased Paramount. “This move is part of Paramount’s bigger vision to modernize content and the way it connects — directly and passionately — to audiences around the world.”
No purchase price was announced for The Free Press, which has grown to reach 1.5 million subscribers since Weiss started it in 2021 after leaving The New York Times as an opinion editor. When she left the Times, she wrote a letter of resignation that spoke of a culture of intolerance at the newspaper and said she was bullied by colleagues who disagreed with her.
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.”
Some at CBS News have been concerned about what they see as signs that the news division is moving in a direction more friendly to President Donald Trump. Paramount’s merger with Skydance was approved by the administration shortly after Paramount settled the president’s lawsuit against “60 Minutes.” Ellison has hired Kenneth Weinstein, former head of a conservative think tank and a Trump contributor, as an ombudsman to examine complaints about CBS News.
“60 Minutes,” which is two weeks into its new season, has been seeking an interview with Trump.
CBS isn’t the only news organization to face pressure from the president. He also settled a lawsuit against ABC News, has sued The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and is fighting a battle with The Associated Press over access.
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 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.”
In a Pew Research Center survey taken earlier this year, 56% of Americans who are Democrats or lean Democrats say they trust CBS News, while only 23% of Republicans say the same thing. Those levels are similar across all major broadcast media outlets, with Republicans primarily turning to Fox News Channel.
