Panic Sets in at CBS News as Some Fear New Editor Will Report Anti-Israel Staffers to Owner

CBS News staffers are expressing their fear about the future of the network under the leadership of the newly installed pro-Israel editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss. A veteran media reporter, Matthew Belloni, suggested in an episode of his podcast “The Town” that Ms. Weiss would be a “narc” and report anti-Israel staffers to the owner of CBS, David Ellison. Mr. Belloni said that because of Ms. Weiss’s unusual position at the network, where she reports directly to Mr. Ellison, she has “the leverage in every conversation.” Left-wing media commentators have stoked fears that the new management of CBS News will try to turn the network into a conservative outlet. Despite the concerns that Ms. Weiss will try to make dramatic and controversial changes, Mr. Smith said she “came in with a lot of positive energy and … said, ‘Let’s do the f—ing news.’”Mr. Belloni’s guest, the co-founder of Semafor, Ben Smith, questioned how effectively the network will function with Ms. Weiss as editor-in-chief position.“It’s obviously an incredibly unstable situation,” he said. “I mean, the idea that somebody who reports to your boss’s boss is sitting next to you and kind of directing things, but maybe doesn’t really have line responsibility.”Mr. Belloni chimed in, “She’s like a narc, say something about Palestine and the owner of the company is going to know about it.”The new structure at CBS News has raised questions about how the network will run as Mr. Ellison is creating positions that typically have not existed at broadcast networks. Earlier this year, CBS hired a former president of a right-wing think tank, Kenneth Weinstein, to be an ombudsman and review complaints of bias. When that position was first announced, there was fear that the ombudsman would report to the Trump administration. The president of Paramount, Jeff Shell, sought to alleviate those concerns, telling reporters that the ombudsman is a “transparency vehicle, not an oversight vehicle.”“We’re not being overseen by the FCC or anybody else,” Mr. Shell said. Mr. Belloni speculated that Mr. Ellison made a commitment to the former owner of CBS News, Shari Redstone, to address the anti-Israel bias. Ms. Redstone, who is a supporter of Israel, told the New York Times in an interview that after Hamas’s October 7 attack, she felt that the network needed “more balance” and conceded that she was not able to rein in the anti-Israel coverage. Left-wing outlets published stories with comments from anonymous staffers bemoaning Ms. Weiss’s hiring. One employee told the Guardian that it is “utterly depressing” and another said a “throwing up emoji is not enough of a reflection of the feelings in here.” Meanwhile, another staffer told the Independent that employees feel the addition of Ms. Weiss marked “some sort of doomsday.”Despite the concerns that Ms. Weiss plans to make drastic changes, she sent a memo to staff this week saying she is “profoundly honored” to join the network and wanted to hear from them what they think is working and is not working at CBS News.She also promised to “champion” 10 “core journalistic values,” which drew praise from conservatives and others who feel the media is biased for her commitment to holding Republicans and Democrats to “equal scrutiny” and to embracing “a wide spectrum of views and voices so that the audience can contend with the best arguments on all sides of a debate.”CBS News did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Panic Sets in at CBS News as Some Fear New Editor Will Report Anti-Israel Staffers to Owner

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