Veteran CBS News producer Mary Walsh stepped down from the network after 46 years, writing in an exit note to colleagues Friday that an apparent expectation to politicize the newsroom further right meant her leave was “for the best.”
“We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum,” Walsh wrote in the note obtained by TheWrap. “Honestly, I don’t know how to do that.
“These days there’s a lot said about legacy, especially legacy media,” Walsh continued. “The put-down is that you’re old and out of touch. To me, legacy is the way you will be remembered for generations to come. It is not about technology. We always produced great stories – even when ‘cut and paste’ script editing was done with scissors and scotch tape (been there done that). Legacy is about standing on the shoulders of the great journalists of CBS News. Legacy is dynamic. You are creating it now.”
Walsh’s note came shortly after Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery officially announced their merger, the end of a months-long saga that saw Paramount CEO David Ellison highlight his close ties to the Trump administration and hint at a news operation that could combine CBS News and CNN to build “a scaled news service … that is in the truth business, and that speaks to the 70% of Americans that are in the middle.”
Walsh declined to comment on the note when reached by TheWrap on Friday.
Walsh is one of nearly a dozen CBS News producers who’ve opted to take a voluntary buyout offered to “Evening News” staffers amid the network’s transformation under Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss and newly minted “Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, a transition that has spurred allegations of political bias toward Republicans.
Dokoupil’s role atop “Evening News” has included congenial coverage of Trump administration officials, while Weiss drew national scrutiny for holding a “60 Minutes” segment largely critical of the administration’s immigration enforcement for weeks before it aired last month. “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who reported the segment, alleged the decision was “political,” though Weiss said it needed more reporting.
A CBS News spokesperson declined to comment, though a network insider previously told TheWrap it expected some exits from the show with a new anchor and editorial vision in place.
Walsh’s departure came after a nearly 50-year career that included stories from the frontlines of presidential campaigns and war zones. She joined the network in 1979 during Walter Cronkite’s tenure as anchor of “Evening News,” eventually working alongside CBS News stars such as “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker and one-time network president Susan Zirinsky, who returned to the network last year in an advisory role focused on standards.
“Evening News” executive producer Kim Harvey thanked Walsh for her time at CBS News in a note to the show’s staffers, first reported by the Guardian U.S. and obtained by TheWrap. But she pushed back on Walsh’s claim that the show had taken a political bend.
“Mary wrote in her farewell note, ‘We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum,’” Harvey wrote. “That is simply not true. Here at the ‘Evening News,’ we value our editorial independence, and CBS News leadership has never asked us to aim our reporting in any political direction.”
In an email chain including other CBS News colleagues viewed by TheWrap, Zirinsky shared anecdotes from their decades working together at the network. “I can’t remember a time where she lost her cool, yelled – cried or threw anything,” Zirinsky wrote, describing Walsh as a “confidant” and “calm in the midst of chaos.”
Zirinsky also said she tried to convince Walsh to stay at the network, writing that she “could not see going through the changes we are about to encounter without her perspective – her ability to look at the wide shot – her ability to push through no matter what. I failed at changing her mind.”
CBS News is expected to face layoffs later this spring, months ahead of the subsequent Paramount-WBD merger later this year.
Walsh’s departure comes weeks after “Evening News” producer Alicia Hastey tore into the “sweeping new vision” she said the network has instilled on the show. It also followed the ouster of Javier Guzman, who worked as the No. 2 producer of “Evening News,” during Dokoupil’s first week as anchor last month over disagreements with Harvey.
News of Walsh’s exit was first reported by Status.
