There's a saying that when you're taking flak, you're right over the target. And right now, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss is taking a lot of flak. She is everything that modern journalists hate: someone who isn't blindly partisan and tries to be objective, fair, and balanced in her reporting.
I don't doubt that the entrenched staff at CBS is making things tough for Weiss. When Weiss spiked a story on the CECOT, the El Salvador prison where the Trump administration is sending some deportees, "60 Minutes" correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said she did it for political reasons, even though Weiss issued a memo with very clear requests for the story (it also turned out that "60 Minutes" lied about being unable to get members of the Trump administration on the record, too).
Now Variety is back and attacking Weiss, warning that CBS News is "veering towards dysfunction" under Weiss.
Ten people familiar with the workings of CBS News say the Paramount Skydance unit is veering toward dysfunction, with a management team led by Bari Weiss that doesn’t value the standards held by veteran journalists — and a staff that views its editor-in-chief and her hand-picked… pic.twitter.com/0x7oL2bMzC
— Variety (@Variety) January 20, 2026
Here's more (emphasis added):
Ten people familiar with the workings of CBS News say the Paramount Skydance unit is veering toward dysfunction, with a management team led by Bari Weiss that doesn’t value the standards held by veteran journalists — and a staff that views its editor-in-chief and her hand-picked senior staff with great skepticism, owing to her lack of experience managing mainstream media assets.
These people suggest a cascade of recent errors at CBS News — rushing incoming “Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil into his job without a longer period to promote his arrival, airing a town hall with Erika Kirk without mainstream ad support, pulling a “60 Minutes’” segment after it had already been announced — have eroded CBS News’ value and credibility, and can only be fixed if producers and reporters challenge Weiss more regularly.
Such stuff augurs a quick-moving “degradation of CBS News,” says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management, who fears the dynamic could lead to a “death spiral” that is “hard to reverse.”
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. For starters, Weiss worked at The New York Times, where she was an editor. She then started her own company, which grew and did so well that CBS/Paramount bought it. Yet Variety has the audacity to say she has no experience managing "mainstream media assets."
I've seen how those mainstream media assets have been managed, and fresh blood is exactly what's needed.
Going back 20-plus years, it was CBS News and "60 Minutes" that ran the Killian documents that raised questions about then-President Bush's time with the National Guard. The story featured documents allegedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, Bush's late squadron leader, and purportedly said he was pressured into "sugarcoating" Bush's performance ratings and that Bush "failed to follow orders and take a physical." CBS was forced to apologize after it was revealed the documents were "not genuine." Dan Rather later apologized.
More recently, it was "60 Minutes" that selectively edited an interview with presidential candidate Kamala Harris, taking her rambling word salad response on the war in Israel and turning it into something less embarrassing. President Trump sued the network over it, and they later settled.
The fact that Weiss doesn't "value the standards held by veteran journalists" is to her advantage. I've already pointed out three issues with CBS, but here's a picture of what those "standards held by veteran journalists" look like:
The standards held by veteran journalists: https://t.co/6fWgLoNtTS pic.twitter.com/BmJJGr9vLW
— Amy Curtis (@RantyAmyCurtis) January 21, 2026
That's not some random YouTube channel. That's CNN. And things are no different at CBS.
As for the attacks on Tony Dokoupil, I wrote about his promise to do better for CBS viewers not too long ago.
"So here's my promise to you today, and every time you see me in this chair. You come first. Not advertisers, not politicians, not corporate interests. And yes, that does include the corporate owners of CBS," Dokoupil said in a promotional video for the rebranded CBS Evening News. "I report for you. Which means I tell you what I know, when I know it, and how I know it. And when I get it wrong, I'll tell you that, too."
"It also means I'm going to talk to everybody, and hold everyone in public life to the very same standard. After all, I became a journalist to talk to people. I love talking to people about what works in this country, what doesn't," Dokoupil said.
"And not only what should change, but the good ideas that should never change. I think telling the truth is one of them."
Curtis Houck of Newsbusters praised Dokoupil, writing on X, "Tony's track record the last few years has been better than anyone at the big three networks."
Which is why Variety is also attacking him. They've made no claims of wrongdoing. Just that he was rushed into the job. Had Dokoupil come out and said he would be anti-Trump all the time, Variety would probably not have complained about his abrupt debut. And here I'll be honest: I don't regularly watch mainstream news. I haven't for most of my adult life. I get the info I want and need from social media without having to wade through the garbage that passes for the "standards held by veteran journalists." But I hope Dokoupil does well and keeps his promises.
For far too long, the mainstream media have been stenographers and propagandists for the DNC. That is what's eroded their credibility and value, and that was a problem that long predates Bari Weiss. Like Dokoupil, I hope she succeeds. Much to the dismay of that Yale Professor, Weiss' success absolutely requires the "death spiral" that will be "hard to reverse."
Anyone who has a vested interest in keeping legacy media going — looking at you, Leftists — should want this objectivity. It's the only thing that will keep CBS from pulling the plug permanently. Unfortunately, I've been around long enough to know the Left isn't capable of such objective, forward-looking thinking.
They want control, and they're mad they've lost their stranglehold over a handful of media outlets, including CBS and X, because the idea that news and information exist that contradict their preferred narratives is anathema to them. That's why they attack Weiss.
