By Douglas V. Gibbs
CBS News has a new boss. Bari Weiss. While she is not necessarily a conservative, she’s a straight shooter. She’s the mind behind The Free Press, which Paramount/CBS purchased for $150 million, and as a part of the deal she was brought in as the new editor in chief that seems to be Paramount’s attempt to steer CBS away from its entrenched progressive slants in mainstream reporting.
David Ellison, the new top dog at Paramount, has also made it clear he plans to move the movie-maker away from its progressive/WOKE direction, a shady path it has been taking along with the rest of the industry over the last fifty or so years. Ellison, when announcing the deal with Weiss, said he wants “news that reflects reality,” and journalism that “doesn’t seek to demonize, but seeks to understand.” Perhaps, he also wants news that people are willing to watch, and movies folks are willing to go to the theater for. In short, he wants to make making money great again.
In her new position, Weiss wasted no time enacting sweeping reforms, revamping CBS News to streamline operations which has been operating like The Swamp: bloated, out of touch, and bleeding money. Once in front of her new staff, Weiss was clear. “I wanna blow this up.” She emailed her employees with a clear roadmap, beginning with describing each of their roles and sharing ideas on “how we can make CBS News the most trusted news organization in America and the world.”
Unlike media executives perched in ivory towers, her hands-on approach is a clear departure from where CBS has been wallowing for a very long time. Weiss seeks to, and has, personally connected with her staff, and has leapt into the trenches with them individually discussing her plans with each of them one-on-one. She is also like a focused-on-recruiting college football coach, personally contacting high-profile anchors to recruit them into her CBS team. Never mind traditional agent negotiations; she has personally contacted the likes of Bret Baier of Fox News and CNN’s Anderson Cooper – a clear indication that many members of the current news anchor team are likely to get pink slips.
Weiss is not just shaking up the evening news broadcast, but is targeting the entire realm of CBS News. CBS Mornings host Gayle King’s contract is near its end, and word has it that the talks include more cost-effective options rather than her usual run-of-the-mill pillaging of the Paramount/CBS check book. 60 Minutes is facing a major revamp, with a plan to bring in new talent and to show high-level, long-time contributors the door. A big goodbye to heads of standards and talent strategy has already occurred. Other shake-ups and layoffs are on the horizon.
Bari Weiss’s pro-Israel stance led her to intervene in the near-dismissal of correspondent Chris Livesay after he raised concerns about being isolated for his pro-Israel stance. The one-sided narrative against Israel, and anything not totally progressive, has Weiss inserting a major counterbalance, which has already birthed a resistance to her leadership with established media figures seeking to maintain narratives that favor certain global agendas.
As has become the habit of anyone who dares to oppose the hard-left here in America, Weiss is surrounded by tight security, with bodyguards accompanying her to offices amid reported threats. No surprise there. Challenging the progressive status quo tends to stir the pot of progressive violence. From the violence in the streets against ICE, to violence and violent rhetoric against Republican politicians, not limited to the assassination attempts against President Trump, going against progressives, or even questioning their hard-left agenda, can be a difficult row to hoe. Weiss has shrugged it off, stating in a recent interview, “If I were distracted by” negative press, “I would’ve had to throw in the towel a very, very long time ago.”
Her full strategy is yet to be unveiled, and while I don’t believe CBS News is on its way to become a new conservative bastion for truth, what Bari Weiss is doing at CBS will definitely reshape the network away from the steep leftist political spin it has been a part of and into something that might be closer to a network that prioritizes facts over spin in an industry so deep into the scheme of Cultural Marxism they can’t otherwise see the light of day.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
