Remember when CBS News was the gold standard of American journalism? Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, 60 Minutes investigations that actually changed things?
Yeah, those days are looking increasingly distant.
According to a Variety report citing ten insiders, CBS News is "veering toward dysfunction" under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, with one expert warning the organization faces a potential "death spiral." And honestly? I believe it.
Weiss - who made her name as a contrarian opinion writer and founder of the Substack The Free Press - took over CBS News in October 2024. Less than six months later, the cracks are showing.
The problems are both specific and systemic. Weiss initially blocked a 60 Minutes segment by reporter Sharyn Alfonsi about Venezuelan deportees being sent to a brutal El Salvador prison - demanding on-camera responses from Trump administration officials despite the reporting team having made good-faith outreach efforts. The segment eventually aired with additional commentary, though sources say "timing was inopportune."
Then there's CBS Evening News, which cycled to its fifth anchor since 2017 with Tony Dokoupil's rushed onboarding. Segments have included awkward celebrations of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and downplaying of vaccine protocol changes and January 6th severity - editorial choices that feel more aligned with Weiss's ideological brand than CBS News's institutional standards.
Staff morale is reportedly cratering. Employees say Weiss "fiddles" with editorial decisions, changing course unexpectedly. As one staffer told Variety: "We're doing our damn jobs and doing them well," but feel exhausted by constant directional shifts. Veterans perceive her lacking mainstream media management experience, creating widespread skepticism about her oversight of flagship programs.
Here's the broader issue: Bari Weiss is a talented writer and media entrepreneur. She built The Free Press into a successful Substack publication by offering heterodox takes and challenging progressive orthodoxy. Those skills don't automatically translate to running a legacy news operation with institutional norms, union staff, and a reputation built over decades.
This is the same pattern we've seen repeatedly in recent years: media organizations, desperate to seem "balanced" or attract new audiences, hire people whose entire brand is critiquing traditional journalism - then act surprised when those people don't respect the institution they've been hired to lead.
Weiss's management style reportedly prioritizes Trump administration access over traditional journalistic standards - hardly surprising given her political evolution, but devastating for an organization that's supposed to hold power accountable regardless of party.
Compare CBS's instability to its competitors: NBC Nightly News has had Lester Holt for a decade. ABC World News Tonight has had David Muir for nearly as long. Meanwhile, CBS can't keep an anchor for more than a few years and is now cycling through editorial leadership that seems fundamentally at odds with what made CBS News valuable in the first place.
The tragic part is that CBS News still employs incredibly talented journalists doing important work. But great reporting doesn't matter if leadership is "fiddling" with editorial standards, prioritizing access over accountability, and creating a workplace where veteran journalists feel their work isn't valued.
Legacy media is struggling everywhere. But hiring someone whose career has been built on criticizing mainstream journalism to run mainstream journalism is like hiring an arsonist as fire chief. You might get interesting results, but don't be surprised when things burn down.
One industry expert quoted in the Variety piece warned CBS News faces a "death spiral." That might be hyperbolic - institutions this old and well-resourced rarely die quickly.
But they can absolutely become irrelevant. And right now, CBS News is speedrunning that process.
In Hollywood, nobody knows anything - but apparently, that now includes people running newsrooms.
