Bari Weiss, the polarizing editor and founder of conservative outlet The Free Press, may soon have one of the most powerful perches in American media.
Paramount, now a part of Skydance Media, is reportedly close to acquiring Weiss’s outlet. Per those reports, CEO David Ellison plans on installing her in a top role at CBS News.
According to Dyaln Byers of Puck, who first broke the news, Weiss and Ellison have been in talks for more than a year, with negotiations accelerating after Paramount and Skydance completed their merger this summer. Sources told Puck that the acquisition deal is “on the 1-yard line.” The report says the deal will likely fall somewhere between $100 million and $200 million.
Byers, speaking on info from his sources, said that Ellison “plans to give Bari a role at CBS News that would… task his fellow Millennial with guiding the editorial direction of the division.”
Weiss is a controversial figure, having gained national prominence after leaving the New York Times in 2020 with a viral resignation letter. Her outlet has drawn criticism for its unflinching support of Israel, including for a recent article that claims that media coverage of the famine in Gaza was misleading, because the children who had died of hunger also suffered from other medical conditions.
Media reporter Oliver Darcy took the temperature of the CBS newsroom after the news broke for his Status newsletter. Anonymous insiders asked about the mood at the Tiffany Network shared that staff were “apopleptic” and “not happy at all” about the potential new boss.
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Hiring Weiss wouldn’t be the first controversial decision CBS has made during the second Trump term. The network recently canceled “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” citing financial pressures. Opponents charged that the move was politically motivated, noting Colbert had long been one of President Donald Trump’s most prominent late-night critics.
Weeks before, the network’s parent company agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump over an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris aired by CBS’ “60 Minutes.” Trump accused the program of deceptively editing Harris’s answers and stuck by those claims even after the show released all of its recorded material from the day’s shoot.
Paramount’s then-pending merger required approval from Trump’s FCC. Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to bring the case to an end. That approval came through shortly after Colbert’s cancellation was announced.
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