Polarizing CBS News chief calls all-hands meeting about organization’s future, will directly address staffers
Weiss will address employees Tuesday after tumultuous start to tenure
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss will hold an all-staff meeting on Tuesday to discuss "the future of CBS News," Fox News Digital has confirmed.
New York-based staffers will attend live while the meeting will be streamed live to the Washington, London and Los Angeles bureaus. CBS News employees who are out in the field will have an opportunity to join the meeting remotely, and employees were encouraged to submit questions to Weiss in advance.
Weiss, who was handpicked by CEO David Ellison, was formally named editor-in-chief of CBS News in October after her outlet, The Free Press, was acquired by Paramount. The move was met with both internal and external criticism — with some citing her opinion background and lack of television experience. But others have welcomed the move, noting that CBS News trailed ABC and NBC in most metrics and needed to evolve.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Uber, X and The Free Press)
Weiss quickly put her stamp on the network, naming Tony Dokoupil as the new anchor of "CBS Evening News," questioning staffers about public mistrust in the media, and delaying a "60 Minutes" report on the notorious El Salvador prison CECOT.
Sharyn Alfonsi, a longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent, sent a note to colleagues fuming over the late December decision by Weiss to hold the story, "Inside CECOT," claiming it was done for political rather than editorial reasons.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BARI WEISS SUGGESTS CECOT '60 MINUTES' PIECE SHE DELAYED WASN'T 'FAIR' IN MEMO TO STAFFERS
Paramount owner David Ellison tapped Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News and acquired her outlet, The Free Press, for $150 million. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images; James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images; Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press)
Weiss took heat from the left, with outspoken critics claiming she held the story to appease the Trump administration. Weiss insisted it lacked key context and needed additional reporting, but she gave it the green light to air with a few minor changes a few weeks later.
Puck’s Dylan Byers reported on Wednesday that, despite weeks of bickering through intermediaries, Weiss and Alfonsi had not met in person until the week before the segment finally aired.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Sharyn seemed angry and annoyed throughout the meeting and resistant to any input," Byers wrote, citing "multiple sources."
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Bari Weiss selected Tony Dokoupil as the new anchor of "CBS Evening News." (Michael Tessier/CBS)
Alfonsi then reportedly snapped at deputy editor Adam Rubenstein, a former New York Times opinion editor who Weiss brought to CBS and also works for The Free Press.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Weiss is expected to directly address employees during Tuesday’s internal meeting.
Her tenure has been met with negative coverage from several left-leaning outlets, including CNN, The Guardian and The Daily Beast, the last of which keeps calling Dokoupil "MAGA-coded" in headlines.
While The Free Press is frequently accused of carrying water for the Trump administratio, Weiss' website's banner story on Monday was an editorial blasting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for "lying" about the Border Patrol killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.