Bari Weiss wants to add a third outlet to her growing media empire, according to a new report: CNN.
The CBS News editor in chief has told talent and executives she’s recruiting that, if David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance succeeds in its quest to purchase all of Warner Bros. Discovery, she would run a combined CBS-CNN, according to Breaker Media. Weiss is already the editor of both CBS News and the Free Press, the anti-woke journalistic operation she co-founded.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed to TheWrap that Weiss wants to see the deal go through. Weiss, the source said, believes the deal would provide CBS News with even more resources and opportunities if it joins forces with a global newsgathering organization like CNN.
Spokespeople for Weiss, CBS News, Warner Bros. and CNN declined to comment. A Paramount spokesperson did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
Weiss has sought to make bold changes to CBS News’ programming in her nearly two months on the job. Weiss has reportedly been interested in cable stars like Anderson Cooper and Bret Baier for anchor positions.
At a Jewish Leadership Conference event, Weiss spoke of “redrawing the lines of what falls in the 40-yard lines of acceptable debate” and suggested the vast majority of Americans in the center aren’t being served by prominent voices on the right, like Tucker Carlson, or left, like Hasan Piker. (Piker shot back that CBS was trying to set up a debate with him.)
According to Breaker, Weiss plans to introduce Saturday night debates in front of a live audience
Weiss putting her stamp on the news division comes after a round of layoffs last month that rocked the network and saw roughly 100 people exit, including the closure of its race and culture unit. CBS News also lost “Evening News” co-anchor John Dickerson, who will leave next month, and head of standards Claudia Milne.
Should Weiss take the reins of the Ted Turner-founded news outlet, it would likely prompt CNN CEO Mark Thompson to exit. Thompson, who started in 2023, has spent years trying to remake the cable network into a digital-first operation. Most recently, the outlet launched a streaming service for most of its flagship programming, “CNN All Access,” and it has added a paywall to its website. It has also hired talent from the Washington Post and New York magazine, among others, in its bid to flesh out its digital news arm.
