CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss will reveal her plans for “the future of CBS News” during an all-hands meeting on Tuesday, according to an email she sent out to staffers on Monday.
Weiss is expected to announce a reorganization at the 11 a.m. ET meeting, the precise timing of which was kept under wraps until Monday, according to a CBS News insider. “She’s announcing a new structure and plans for the future of CBS News,” the source said.
Employees were encouraged to send her questions ahead of the Tuesday meeting. CBS News did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
The conversation will follow months of shakeups at the Tiffany Network since Weiss joined the organization in October after Paramount’s $150 million acquisition of the Free Press. After a round of roughly 100 cuts in October following Paramount’s merger with Skydance, the outlet has seen multiple top executives and anchors depart as Weiss has put her stamp on everything from program bookings to anchor changes.
It will also follow months of turmoil inside the network as Weiss’ changes have rankled staff. Weiss’ revamp of “CBS Evening News” with anchor Tony Dokoupil has drawn intense scrutiny over Dokoupil’s largely congenial interviews with and commentary on Trump administration officials, along with his characterization of the uprisings in Minnesota and the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
In the show’s first week alone, Dokoupil flubbed a transition between segments; the network ousted the show’s No. 2 producer; Dokoupil promoted Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “the ultimate Florida man”; and Dokoupil delivered a segment on childhood vaccinations that set off alarm bells within the medical community. The show’s debut ratings were also down considerably from the debuts of other “Evening News” hosts, though they rose to a new high last week — while its NBC competitor, “NBC Nightly News,” was off the air.
Weiss’ decision to temporarily spike a “60 Minutes” segment on the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan migrants to a megaprison in El Salvador, three hours before it was set to air, also spurred an internal rebuke from correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi and others over the decision’s timing. Alfonsi claimed the decision to hold the segment appeared to be “political” as Paramount CEO David Ellison, to whom Weiss reports directly, was trying to curry the Trump administration’s favor in his bid to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery.
Longtime correspondent Scott Pelley also told his colleagues in a meeting last month that Weiss, who only weighed in on the segment after its legal review with concerns that it didn’t include on-record administration voices, could not treat her role as “a part-time job.”
The segment aired this month with a new introduction by Alfonsi, but the aired report was the same as a version that mistakenly aired in Canada. The “60 Minutes” episode has led to some concerns that Alfonsi and Pelley could be fired, according to the New York Post, and the network is reportedly willing to buy staffers out of their contracts.
Sharon Waxman contributed reporting.