Update: A battle has broken out between Paramount corporate and CBS News’ news chief Bari Weiss over cutting ties with new contributor Peter Attia, TheWrap has learned.
Weiss insists she does not want to cut ties with Attia over his links to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and sees it as giving in to the mob. Senior Paramount executives sees this as an HR matter and that Attia cannot be giving expert advice on a broadcast network.
“It’s Bari versus everyone right now on Attia,” said an individual with knowledge of the internal discussion. The sense inside Paramount is that CEO David Ellison will have to make this call.
Previously: CBS News is expected to cut ties with new contributor Peter Attia, a wellness expert, over his dealings with Jeffrey Epstein, according to an individual with knowledge of Paramount’s thinking.
In the latest trove of Epstein emails released Friday, Attia appears chummy with the late, convicted sex offender, making crude jokes, offering to help Epstein live longer “for the ladies,” and gushing about Epstein’s “outrageous” lifestyle. Attia’s name appears more than 1,700 times in the trove of 3 million emails, including many personal email exchanges with Epstein.
In one 2015 email, Attia wrote: the “worst part about being your friend is that the life you lead is so outrageous, and yet I can’t tell a soul…” In another in 2016, Attia joked about diet with Epstein by saying: “P—y is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten, though.”
The individual referred to the embarrassing revelation about Attia as an HR issue rather than an editorial matter.
A CBS News spokesperson did not immediately respond for comment.
CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss announced Attia last week as one of the network’s 19 new contributors.
Attia, a physician and founder of Outlive, is an expert on wellness and longevity. His YouTube channel has over 1 million subscribers, where he’s a frequent voice on the health and wellness topic and has carved out a niche on longevity. He also boasts 1.7 million Instagram followers.
A representative for Attia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Attia posted an apology on X that he said he also sent to his team: “To be clear: 1. I was not involved in any criminal activity. 2. My interactions with Epstein had nothing to do with his sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone. 3. I was never on his plane, never on his island, and never present at any sex parties. That said, I apologize and regret putting myself in a position where emails, some of them embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible, are now public, and that is on me. I accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it.”
Attia’s appearance in the Epstein emails is the latest blow to Weiss’ efforts to revamp CBS News, whose four-month tenure as the editor-in-chief has been marred by controversies. She has received blowback over the rocky rollout of Tony Dokoupil as the anchor of “CBS Evening News,” as well as for abruptly holding a “60 Minutes” segment on the plight of Venezuelan men who were swept up in Trump’s immigration crackdown and sent to a notorious El Salvador prison.
Last week, Weiss told her staff in a town hall that she was determined to earn their trust.
“I’m not going to stand up here today and ask for your trust. I’m going to earn it, just like we have to do with our viewers,” Weiss said, according to her prepared remarks. “What I can give you is what I’ve always tried to give my readers as a journalist: transparency, clarity, straight talk.”
