Paramount Considering Yanking Some Control From Bari Weiss to Give To ‘More Experienced’ Executive: Report

Daniel Paik via AP

Paramount seems to be running out of patience with how Bari Weiss is running CBS News, with the parent company considering taking some control away from her to hand over to a “more experienced” television executive, according to a report by Puck’s Dylan Byers.

Skydance CEO and founder David Ellison was reportedly courting Weiss for a key role even before his company’s merger with Paramount was completed, and quickly bought her media company and named her CBS News editor-in-chief. Weiss had written for The New York Times for years before launching The Free Press, but had no broadcast journalism experience.

Many observers have characterized Weiss’ tenure so far as rocky.

Weiss has thus far “endured her role as media punching bag with relative aplomb,” Byers wrote, and has had the support of Ellison and other top Paramount execs.

“But there are signs that the dynamics are starting to shift,” Byers added, sharing conversations he had had about people on Paramount’s senior leadership team having “informal discussions about changing Bari’s mandate at CBS News—and, eventually, CNN—in ways that would give her less control over the linear product.”

Instead, wrote Byers, “Paramount would look to bring in an executive who could manage that business.”

Nothing has been decided or formalized yet, but “sources with knowledge of the conversations” told Byers that Weiss “would likely cede day-to-day control over Evening News, CBS Mornings, and 60 Minutes to this more experienced, as-yet-unnamed executive, shifting her focus to the news division’s digital growth while maintaining broad editorial influence across all the company’s platforms.”

The motivation, reported Byers, is a sense among Paramount’s top brass that Weiss “was given too broad a mandate for someone without previous experience in television, as well as some irritation with the ceaseless barrage of negative press,” and sources inside CBS News “complain[ing] that Bari is drastically overstretched, and lacks the experience and managerial skills necessary to run the network.”

Byers commented that it was “entirely unfair to pin this misadventure” of CBS News’ woes totally on Weiss, as the merger created an “unprecedented situation” and Ellison “may have been working through his own learning curve during this experiment.”

“In this sort of dynamic environment, big decisions have been made quickly, even if they need to be undone relatively quickly too,” wrote Byers, and “this potential new role could be a gift for Bari.”

“Despite all the headaches she’s had to manage, the next person is going to have to deal with much worse,” he concluded.

Weiss tapped Tony Dokoupil to anchor CBS Evening News, but his turn in the anchor chair kicked off in January with tech problems. He was criticized for being overly unctuous with a shoutout for Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the end of a broadcast from Miami, and critics pounced even quicker on coverage of President Donald Trump. Reports soon emerged that Weiss was viewed as having a heavy thumb on the scale of the show’s journalism to satisfy Ellison, causing problems ranging from the teleprompter gaffe to internal turmoil at the network. More troubles during Trump’s trip to China — including Dokoupil having to broadcast from Taiwan due to visa snafus — did not help improve perceptions.

60 Minutes alone has sparked numerous negative headlines for Weiss, including the departure of several longtime top staffers and Weiss’ decision to delay airing a segment on the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, abbreviated CECOT, a notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration sent some undocumented immigrants in contravention of court orders.

Anderson Cooper was reportedly on Weiss’s short list for the next anchor to helm CBS Evening News, but he not only turned her down for the anchor spot, he declined an offer to renew his contract with 60 Minutes. He had been a correspondent at the television news magazine for nearly two decades, winning four Emmys and numerous other accolades for his reporting. Status’ Oliver Darcy quoted an industry observer source as calling Cooper’s exit “another black eye for Bari.”

This past Sunday was Cooper’s last 60 Minutes appearance, and he took the opportunity during his “elegant and emotional retrospective” to “subtly critique the show’s direction” under Ellison and Weiss, reported Byers.

“I hope 60 Minutes remains 60 Minutes,” said Cooper. “There’s very few things that have been around for as long as 60 Minutes has and maintain the quality that it has. Things can always evolve and change, and I think that’s awesome, and things should evolve and change. But I hope the core of what 60 Minutes is always remains.”

Cooper may end up on the Paramount payroll again in the near future, since the media conglomerate has set its eyes on CNN as the next acquisition target — but Weiss may find herself in a different or reduced role, according to Byers’ sources.

A Paramount spokesperson sent the following statement to Mediaite: “Bari has the full support of Paramount and David Ellison as the editorial leader overseeing CBS News and 60 Minutes. Reports suggesting otherwise are inaccurate.”

This article has been updated to add a statement from the Paramount spokesperson.

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