Bari Weiss, the new editor-in-chief of CBS News, sent a 10-point memo to the staff on day one which has been described by media outlets as a “veiled critique of the newsroom” she’s inheriting. Paramount Skydance announced on Monday that it had acquired The Free Press, the digital media outlet Weiss founded in 2021 with her wife, journalist Nellie Bowles, and her sister, Suzy Weiss. Axios described the acquisition of The Free Press as the latest in a string of moves by Paramount Skydance chair and CEO David Ellison to shift CBS News’ coverage to the right.“My goal in the coming days and weeks is to get to know you. I want to hear from you about what’s working, what isn’t, and your thoughts on how we can make CBS News the most trusted news organization in America and the world,” she wrote before laying out her 10-point values.
- Journalism that reports on the world as it actually is.
- Journalism that is fair, fearless and factual.
- Journalism that respects our audience enough to tell the truth plainly — wherever it leads.
- Journalism that makes sense of a noisy, confusing world.
- Journalism that explains things clearly, without pretension or jargon.
- Journalism that holds both American political parties to equal scrutiny.
- Journalism that embraces a wide spectrum of views and voices so that the audience can contend with the best arguments on all sides of a debate.
- Journalism that rushes toward the most interesting and important stories, regardless of their unpopularity.
- Journalism that uses all of the tools of the digital era.
- Journalism that understands that the best way to serve America is to endeavor to present.
Is Bari Weiss a Conservative?
Bari Weiss, who once described herself as a Jewish lesbian from Pittsburgh, believes she’s a centrist. But she also believes that mainstream newsrooms have succumbed to left-wing influence. Weiss worked as an op-ed and book review editor at The Wall Street Journal from 2013 to 2017 and later as an op-ed editor and writer at The New York Times before starting The Free Press. She walked out of the Times in 2020, blaming an “illiberal environment.”