Posted on 10/03/2025 8:47:40 AM PDT by Signalman
The revamped leadership of CBS News, following the merger between Paramount and Skydance, has elevated a conservative journalist who has upset the legacy media with her own successful center-right career.
Bari Weiss, founder of The Free Press, will take the reins at CBS News in the coming days, say sources familiar with her selection. Her upstart news site, which has defied the trend of declining subscriptions across the industry, will also be acquired.
Weiss, a 41-year-old former opinion writer for the New York Times, built The Free Press out of her own volition back in early 2021, riding a growing wave of conservative and nontraditional media by offering highbrow think pieces on the state of the Biden economy and sharp insights into contemporary society.
The remarkable shuffle will see Weiss report directly to David Ellison, Skydance’s CEO, as she works to increase the visibility of CBS News, which currently ranks third behind both ABC and NBC.
Weiss’s chain of command is striking, given that she will bypass CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, who currently reports to George Cheeks, chair of TV Media at Paramount+ Skydance. The NY Post had no further details about who will report to Cheeks.
The dynamic is expected to allow Weiss to complement Cibrowski, a former “Good Morning America” host who is widely seen as a more talented producer than a hard-hitting journalist.
Sources also note the competitive partnership playing out with Weiss, a critic of “woke” culture and allegedly biased news coverage, eventually vying for Cibrowski’s job.
“Bari is extremely ambitious. Tom had better watch out,” a source close to both parties said.
The sale of The Free Press to Paramount Skydance is expected to net $150 million in a mix of cash and stock and will include earn-out provisions to reach its full value, the outlet previously reported. Executives plan to let The Free Press continue to operate independently from CBS News.
It seems clear to observers that Weiss will be charged with guiding the editorial direction at CBS News, a tacit admission by Ellison that the flailing network was in need of a new conservative bend under the second Trump administration. It’s unclear if Weiss, who hosts her own show “Honestly with Bari Weiss,” will take an on-air presence at CBS.
Others expect Weiss’s involvement to strain partnerships like those with the team at “60 Minutes,” who are reportedly “dug in” to resist changes far above their heads. The embattled Sunday evening show put CBS News in the crosshairs for its coverage of Kamala Harris in 2024, resulting in a seven-figure settlement in a lawsuit brought by Trump.
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Correction “Neoconservative Journalist”.
Weiss is not a conservative, she’s just not a marxist lunatic that is basically all of mainstream media.
20 years ago she’d be considered on the left, and even today she’s at best a centrist.
“Winning”........................
Megyn Kelly talked about this the other day.
Someone leaked that Megyn was the one being picked up by CBS.
Total fabrication.
Will this be a real conservative like Rob Finnerty and Rob Schmitt at Newsmax or a “conservative” like the Trup-hating David Brooks of the New York Times?
This is BIG; it’ll be interesting to see how many CBS News people douse themselves in gasoline and light a match. But Bari Weiss is not a conservative. She’s a pretty liberal gal who was always interested in doing real reporting, listening to all sides, and engaging in civil discussion. She was therefore ostracized at the NYT, resigned with one of the all-time great opus letters, and went independent.
She’s an honest liberal who got red pilled. The interesting question is always how far along the long and winding path to the right she will get, but she’s open to discussion. Which means, come the revolution, she’ll be stood up in front of the wall with the rest of us ... and she knows it.
Weiss is not Conservative. She’s an old school Liberal. Which means she does actually value truth and is willing to actually allow people to present a different point of view without automatically labelling them fascist/Nazi.
I suppose this is better than what they had but I don’t expect real significant change in the slant of the news.
I’m not playing their game though. By calling her a conservative, it what then gives them the cover to call people like Charlie Kirt a “right wing extremist”.
There is a big difference betwenn the two. She is certainly not a conservative either though. She is a holdover from a dwindling sect of Americans that have all but become exticnt. A thinking liberal that is still able to communicate & debate with conservatives that she now suddenly finds she shares more in common with than she will ever share with the radical woke leftist militants.
I appauud the move, but do not confuse her as being a conservative, because that is not the case at all.
Most centrists are wobbly at best, vasillating between somewhat liberal & somewht conservative. They may be somewhat better than the radical woke leftist militants, but they also can be found supporting some of their narratives as well.
“conservative” 😀
When your resume includes the New York Times, then you are no conservative.
That said, Ellison is the boss and I think he interested in the bottom line.
And a liberal news division is not profitable.
CBS News is SO EXTREME maybe she can change the direction a bit because it probably can not go much further Marxist.
I am optimistic there will be some change but I not optimistic it will much change, a baby step in the right direction.
Correction: Larry Ellison lackey Israel first journalist.
Not only is she not conservative but if you saw her on the Rogan podcast she is dumb as a box of rocks. She is clearly being hired as a figurehead.
Actions speak louder than words or resume.
Clean up 60 minutes left wing agenda
Fire Gayle King
Hire a known conservative to lead the nightly news
According to The Washington Post, Weiss “portrays herself as a liberal uncomfortable with the excesses of left-wing culture” and has sought to “position herself as a reasonable liberal concerned that far-left critiques stifled free speech”.
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