The News
Less than a week into her tenure as CBS News’ editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss is already making her editorial presence felt at the network.
On Monday, Paramount announced that it had purchased the center-right, pro-Israel digital news publication The Free Press for $150 million, and would install Weiss, its founder, atop the storied newsroom.
During CBS News’ editorial meeting on Thursday, Weiss said the network should lean heavily into the news of a major hostage and prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, per two people who were in attendance. Weiss proposed an idea: a roundtable panel with former secretaries of state Hillary Clinton, Mike Pompeo, and Antony Blinken.
She said she was happy to use her contacts to book the panel herself and began texting sources during the meeting to try and set it up. Her idea was met with some initial skepticism among CBS News staff; Clinton, Pompeo, and Blinken are not easy guest bookings. And the network does not typically run roundtable political discussion panels.
Still, by Thursday afternoon, the three panelists had initially agreed to sit down with the network, four people with knowledge confirmed to Semafor. The likely interview will be hosted by Norah O’Donnell, the former CBS Evening News anchor, and is expected to air in segments over several days.
The New York Times’ Michael Grynbaum was the first to report that Weiss had proposed the idea.
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During her introduction to CBS News staff on Monday, as Semafor reported, Weiss said she wanted to “win,” and restore interest and trust in CBS News. While the response to those remarks was not necessarily positive, Weiss booked the panel on the same day as her first visit to CBS News’ Washington newsroom, where some staff have seen it as a symbolic victory.
The booking of three high-profile former secretaries of state sends a message to the network’s newsroom that, while Weiss may lack experience in television programming, she is skilled in the art of attracting attention and has a fairly long journalistic rolodex.
But Weiss will have to continue to work to earn the trust of her CBS News colleagues, particularly around issues where her very public personal views run up against a nonpartisan news broadcast.
The Free Press has established itself as one of the most pro-Israel US media organizations and has criticized establishment media for what it sees as anti-Israel bias. That reputation has followed Weiss to CBS News, where staff are already carefully watching whether she attempts to shape coverage related to the war in Gaza.
One CBS News staffer noted to Semafor that during Thursday’s morning editorial call, a London-based producer repeatedly emphasized that the network needed to hear from people in Gaza about the hostage deal — which prompted no response from Weiss.
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The move also represents a notable return for O’Donnell, who could benefit from Weiss’ arrival.
The former anchor was forced to leave her job earlier this year amid a broader rethinking of the evening newscast spearheaded by then-network president Wendy McMahon. O’Donnell has since stayed on as a contributor.
But she appears to be among Weiss’ early favorites; the new editor-in-chief told staff that she’d met with O’Donnell in recent days, and they worked together on Thursday to quickly book and record the roundtable.