Bari Weiss ‘Blindsided’ by Anderson Cooper’s Subtle Jab in ‘60 Minutes’ Interview: Report

CBS News’s editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, was reportedly “blindsided” when the network published an interview with an outgoing “60 Minutes” correspondent, Anderson Cooper, in which he seemed to take a jab at her leadership. Mr. Cooper said earlier this week that “independence” is “crucial” to the program. He also said that the person who oversees the show “requires an appreciation of the history and the sacrifices and the hard work of the people here.”His remarks came during an interview marking the end of his roughly two decades as a correspondent for the newsmagazine program — and contributed to more scrutiny of Ms. Weiss’s leadership. The Independent wrote of Mr. Cooper’s comments, “Anderson Cooper gives emotional farewell to 60 Minutes with veiled swipe at Bari Weiss.” The headlines about Mr. Cooper’s comments came after Puck’s Dylan Byers reported that her bosses had grown frustrated with what they viewed as a “ceaseless barrage” of criticism of the network. A spokesman for CBS’s parent company, Paramount, said Ms. Weiss has the “full support” of her bosses. A media reporter, Oliver Darcy, wrote in his newsletter, Status, that Ms. Weiss “had not been given advance notice of Cooper’s remarks and was effectively blindsided by them.” “The 42-year-old editor was also not especially pleased by Cooper using the CBS News platform to take a thinly veiled swipe at her,” he added.He also said that Ms. Weiss did not speak to the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” Tanya Simon, but that “her displeasure ultimately made its way” to Ms. Simon.Mr. Cooper’s comment comes amid reports that Ms. Weiss has been planning to overhaul the storied program now that its season has ended. Earlier this year, CBS launched its latest iteration of the “Evening News.” Ms. Weiss was involved in the revamp and the decision to elevate former morning show co-host Tony Dokoupil to the anchor chair. Ahead of the relaunch, Mr. Dokoupil promised that the “Evening News” would focus more on the perspectives of average Americans instead of those of academics. Liberals have criticized the new format, especially after it spent just 17 seconds focused on the fifth anniversary of the January 6 riot. Ms. Weiss was named the editor-in-chief of CBS after the network was acquired by Skydance Media, whose chief executive officer, David Ellison, has sought to shift the network toward the center. Lawyers for Skydance told the Trump Administration, as it was reviewing the Skydance deal, that CBS News would produce fair journalism if the acquisition was approved. Mr. Ellison tasked Ms. Weiss, the founder of the anti-woke outlet, the Free Press, with enacting changes at the network to shift its editorial voice. However, staffers at the network — especially at “60 Minutes,” which has historically operated with a high level of independence — have balked at the notion that there is something wrong with their work. While the new management has tried to make the network’s journalism fairer, “60 Minutes” has repeatedly produced stories that have irked Mr. Trump and conservatives. In December, after the show interviewed a former ally turned critic, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, he fumed on Truth Social that the program had “treated me far worse since the so-called ‘takeover.’”And in April, a conservative law firm, the Center for American Rights, filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission after the show aired a story focused on Catholic leaders’ criticism of the war in Iran that did not include any clergy members who held favorable views of the administration.While “60 Minutes” has been able to get such stories to air, tensions with CBS bosses have been simmering. The strained relations were put on display after the network temporarily held a segment on the Trump Administration’s policy of sending Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador. Ms. Weiss pulled the story two days before it was set to air, even as the “60 Minutes” team believed the story was complete and started to advertise it.The correspondent behind the story, Sharyn Alfonsi, said in a memo that the decision to pull the story was political. Ms. Weiss defended the decision, saying a memo to staff that the original story did not “advance the ball,” as she noted it did not include any interview with the administration officials behind the policy or a comment from the White House. The story eventually aired about a month later and was largely unchanged. Earlier this month, Ms. Alfonsi criticized CBS News’s leadership after she received the Ridenhour prize for courage.“I will not linger on the internal mechanics of the dust-up at CBS that led to our Cecot story being pulled, but we have to be honest about what it represents,” she said. “It wasn’t an isolated editorial argument. In my view, it was the result of a more aggressive contagion: the spread of corporate meddling and editorial fear. It’s hard to watch.”CBS News did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Bari Weiss ‘Blindsided’ by Anderson Cooper’s Subtle Jab in ‘60 Minutes’ Interview: Report

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