‘Please Be Blunt’: Bari Weiss Asks CBS News Staff to Explain Exactly What They Do In Memos

Daniel Paik via AP

Bari Weiss, the newly appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News, emailed staff on Friday, asking each employee to submit a memo by the end of Tuesday describing how they spend their working hours, urging them to “please be blunt.”

“I want to understand how you spend your working hours,” she wrote, “and, ideally, what you’ve made (or are making) that you’re most proud of. I’m also interested in hearing your views on what’s working; what’s broken or substandard; and how we can be better.”

“Please be blunt,” she continued in the email obtained by Business Insider. “It will help me greatly,” adding that the memos will be held “in the strictest of confidence,” and used for one-on-one conversations with staff in the upcoming weeks.

“I want to familiarize myself with you — and I want you to do the same with me,” Weiss said in summary, “to know that we are aligned on achieving a shared vision for CBS News.” Her memo comes just days after Paramount Skydance acquired her media venture, The Free Press, reportedly for about $150 million, as part of the deal giving her editorial control at CBS News.

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather spoke out Thursday against the decision to appoint Weiss as EIC on his Substack, noting that CBS is now led by Skydance Media CEO David Ellison, whose father, Larry Ellison, is an ally of President Donald Trump. He described Weiss as an “anti-woke” journalist and warned that the network’s new leadership could steer its coverage to favor the Trump administration.

Notably, earlier this year, Paramount paid Trump $16 million to settle a defamation lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris that the president claimed was deceptively edited.