Paramount Skydance is poised to title Bari Weiss as editor in chief of CBS News in the coming days — giving the hard-charging journalist uncommon clout to revamp the struggling community as it also acquires her scrappy information web site the Free Press, The Post has realized.
Weiss — a 41-year-old former New York Times opinion author who has constructed the Free Press into a buzzworthy web site with a contrarian bent — is expected to be named to the high post in a Monday announcement, although the talks are in flux and the timing could change, a source close to the state of affairs said.
In a exceptional reshuffle of CBS News’ decades-old management construction, Weiss will report straight to Paramount Skydance Chief Executive David Ellison as she helps set the editorial direction at the Tiffany Network’s third-place information division, a source close to the state of affairs said.
Bari Weiss is expected to be named editor in chief of CBS News in the coming days, a source said. Getty Images for Uber, X and The Free Press
Weiss’s direct line to Ellison means she will not report to CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, who presently reports to George Cheeks, chair of TV media at Paramount Skydance. No further particulars could be immediately realized about how Weiss would work with Cibrowski.
Insiders said the hiring of Weiss casts doubts on hypothesis about the doable return of former CBS President David Rhodes to the community, with one source saying their job candidacies were an “either/or” state of affairs.
Sources instructed The Post that Weiss could be a sturdy counterpart to Cibrowski, a former “Good Morning America” govt who is regarded more as a manufacturing wizard than a journalist.
Others said they expect it will only be a matter of time before Weiss — who has emerged as a main voice against antisemitism and the “woke” elites in mainstream media — zeroes in on Cibrowski’s job.
Weiss will report straight to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, according to a source. Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
“Bari is extremely ambitious. Tom had better watch out,” a source close to both events said.
As beforehand reported, Paramount Skydance is expected to purchase The Free Press in a deal valued at around $150 million. Sources said the transaction is expected to embody a combine of stock and money and will embody earn-out provisions to attain its full worth.
A Paramount Skydance spokesperson didn’t immediately reply to requests for remark.
Others expect the new management construction to create a pressure on the already “dug in” tradition at CBS at applications like “60 Minutes,” which just lately elevated longtime assistant Tanya Simon to govt producer.
“It would be like dropping a grenade” in the newsroom, one former CBS News veteran instructed The Post last month, of Weiss’ addition to the community.
“They are used to doing things their way,” another source said of CBS News and “60 Minutes” veteran staffers.
The company is expected to shed mild on how Weiss will work with CBS News president Tom Cibrowski Getty Images
News of a potential partnership has sparked anger at the information division, which has been under fire over its alleged left-leaning bias.
Weiss has been closing in on a deal with Ellison for roughly a yr, sources instructed The Post, but his overtures grabbed the consideration of the media when the two were noticed in July at the Allen & Co. summit, recognized as the “summer camp for billionaires,” in Sun Valley, Idaho.
As beforehand reported by The Post, Ellison first approached Weiss about taking a high position at “60 Minutes” as he seems to be to make main modifications at the group that will carry more conservative voices to the community.
As half of Ellison’s post-merger reset, Skydance Paramount just lately named Kenneth R. Weinstein as CBS News ombudsman — a Federal Communications Commission situation aimed at addressing bias complaints.
Ellison is resetting the left-leaning CBS News to embody more conservative voices. AFP via Getty Images
Weeks before the merger was authorised by the FCC, Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit introduced by Donald Trump over alleged biased modifying of a “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris shortly before the election.
The community denied any wrongdoing, but it finally settled the lawsuit with Ellison sweetening the deal by agreeing to throw in an further $20 million in pro-MAGA promoting to get the deal finished, Trump has said.
Aside from the Harris scandal, the community was pressured to fend off calls of bias over its Israel protection, which roiled the company’s then-controlling shareholder Shari Redstone.
Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit introduced by Donald Trump over alleged biased modifying of a “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. 60 Minutes
Last October, “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil was thrust into the highlight after a tense interview with writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, who described Israel as a state constructed on “apartheid” and “ethnocracy.”
Dokoupil, who is Jewish and has two kids dwelling in Israel, slammed Coates for omitting historic context — to the shock of “CBS Mornings” workers, who later complained to community brass.
Adrienne Roark, the president of the information division at the time, rebuked Dokoupil in an all-hands assembly on Oct. 7 — the two-year anniversary of Hamas’ lethal attack on Israel — saying his work didn’t meet the requirements of the community.
Months later, “60 Minutes” aired a controversial phase that includes State Department officers who stop over American support for Israel’s efforts to root out Hamas terrorists in Gaza — a piece the American Jewish Committee blasted as “shockingly one-sided, lacked factual accuracy, and relied heavily on misguided information.”