CBS News has adopted a new term and an old dog whistle to address sex assigned at birth: “biological sex at birth” — but without the quotes.

On Tuesday, after a months-long internal debate at the network over how to address transgender people in its coverage and the terminology associated with them, Tom Burke, senior director of standards and practices at CBS News, issued a memo to staff about the change, The Wrap reports.

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Queer “anti-woke” journalist Bari Weiss is now CBS News’ editor-in-chief. That’s troubling.

Effective immediately, the news division “will use the term biological sex at birth” with “no quotes needed.” CBS Evening News used the term in its coverage of oral arguments the same day at the Supreme Court in two cases challenging bans on trans student-athletes in school sports.

It’s a switch overseen by Bari Weiss, the queer and controversial new editor-in-chief at CBS News installed by Trump ally David Ellison, following his purchase of Paramount Studios last year. CBS is owned by Paramount.

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Weiss has a history of transphobic public stances, which she describes as “moderation.” The editorial change is an about-face for CBS News’ standards department.

In November, Burke recommended following style guidance from the Trans Journalists Association (TJA) in an email conversation about a story covering the Trump administration’s efforts to erase trans identity from U.S. passports.

The TJA style guide states, “outside of medical literature, ‘assigned sex at birth’ is preferable over ‘biological sex’” when describing a person’s anatomy at birth.

Burke agreed with that terminology, with exceptions for quoting individuals or documents in a story. “We should not alter what they say or write,” he wrote in an email chain reported by The Guardian.

Jan Crawford, the network’s chief legal correspondent, disagreed with the TJA’s guidance.

“We have had this discussion multiple times before, and I continue to believe we should refrain from adopting terminology advocated by the movement and continue to use ‘biological sex’ without putting it in quotes,” she wrote.

“Setting aside the question of whether we as a news organization should be adopting TJA style,” she claimed use of the term by the U.S. court system, including the Supreme Court, was justification enough.

Nicole Cutrona, a CBS Evening News producer, took issue with the use of “biological sex,” previously describing it as a “transphobic dog whistle.” 

“I continue to believe our continued use of the term ‘biological sex’ illustrates our organization’s ignorance about topics involving sex and gender,” she wrote.

Burke then responded that the standards team would “review the guidance” and “determine what, if any changes need to be addressed.”

Tuesday’s memo was the result.

Weiss, who has no television news experience, quit The New York Times in 2020 claiming left-leaning bias at the publication, then started a Substack newsletter called The Free Press to counter what she called progressive “groupthink.” She earned millions in funding from libertarian Silicon Valley investors in the process.

She’s had a bumpy first few months in her new role as legacy media Trump stalking horse, taking hits from both sides of the media echo chamber.

Weiss hosted a December 13, 2025, town hall with Charlie Kirk’s widow Erica Kirk, who has taken over her deceased husband’s role leading Turning Point USA. The interview and Erica Kirk’s takeover of the organization earned derision from both the left and the right.

“Bari doesn’t know anything about Erika. Bari Weiss has never been to a Turning Point event,” Megyn Kelly said of the televised event. Kelly accused Weiss of trying to play “both super-important VIP executive and super-fabulous star anchor at her new network, CBS.”

Weiss earned bipartisan derision for her rollout of new CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, with a 10-day tour reporting from red and blue states that was plagued with technical difficulties and burdened with a statement by Weiss of five “simple values” delivered by her new anchor and mocked by critics.

Most notoriously, Weiss pulled a segment from CBS’ investigative news program 60 Minutes just hours before air that examined torture at the CECOT prison in El Salvador, where the Trump administration has sent hundreds of detainees rounded up in the administration’s immigration sweep.

While the “biological sex” change aligns with Weiss’ transphobic history and tenure, CBS staffers say she hasn’t been around much in the newsroom, and that’s fine with them.

“We don’t hear from her very often,” one said. “She rubs people the wrong way,” said another person in the “liberally biased” newsroom.

There was agreement on that point from the other, antisemitic side of the political spectrum.

“I’m not too worried about Bari Weiss taking over the world,”  Tucker Carlson said on a recent episode of his streaming show, criticizing her support for Israel. “I don’t care how many billionaires hand her news organizations because she’s obedient to their preferred country. She’s still an idiot – sorry.”  

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