Out “anti-woke” journalist Bari Weiss will serve as CBS News’ new editor-in-chief, making her a rare out LGBTQ+ leader of a major national broadcast newsroom (despite her having no experience overseeing broadcast TV news). Because Weiss and her Substack publication, The Free Press, gained notoriety for supporting Trump’s pro-Israel and anti-trans stances, media observers worry that her leadership will continue CBS’s rightward political shift.

Weiss famously quit her role as a New York Times opinion columnist in 2020, claiming that the paper had left-leaning editorial policies and an “illiberal environment” where colleagues bullied her as a “racist” “Nazi” in response to her writing ardently pro-Israel columns as a Jewish journalist. She has since made a name for herself criticizing the “woke left” and “cancel culture.”

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JK Rowling & other famous writers signed a “free speech” letter. Trans writers were on the list too.

Weiss founded The Free Press in 2022, positioning it as a publication free from leftist media groupthink. It quickly gained prominent financial backers. The publication co-hosted a 2025 inauguration party for Trump with X (the social media platform owned by billionaire transphobe and Nazi-enthusiast Elon Musk). The inauguration party was attended by transphobic former British Prime Minister Liz Truss and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is now a transphobic Trump administration official.

Under her leadership, The Free Press published a 2023 essay by Jamie Reed, a former case worker at the St. Louis Pediatric Transgender Center, who accused the clinic and medical professionals of rushing young people into gender-affirming care. The essay — which went viral among right-wing, anti-trans publications and influencers — didn’t substantiate any of its claims through additional reporting with the center’s workers, patients, or records. Trans journalist Erin Reed (who has no relation to Jamie Reed) pointed out numerous instances of anti-trans bias in Reed’s essay.

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Additionally, The Free Press has criticized diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs; expressed vaccine skepticism; opposed pro-Palestinian advocates; and aided the Trump administration’s defunding and discrediting of both Columbia University and National Public Radio (NPR) for their alleged antisemitism and liberal bias, respectively.

David Klion criticized Weiss and her publication, writing, “The pattern is clear: if you work at a liberal institution and you want the Trump-controlled federal government to step in and discipline it, Bari Weiss is there to help.”

CBS staffers also told The Independent that its newsroom is “not a welcoming place for outsiders,” and that its workers will see Weiss as somewhat of a “political operative.”

“There are so many people who’ve come in here and been chewed up and spit out that the idea that somebody that we don’t want is going to come in here and somehow manage to survive this is, I think, laughable,” one CBS reporter said. “So she’s in for, I would venture to guess, a rough ride.”

Media observers have noted that Weiss’ elevation to CBS News’ editor-in-chief may just be the latest move rightward by CBS News and its parent companies.

Concerns over CBS crawling ever rightward into Trump’s arms

The decision to make Weiss CBS News’ new editor-in-chief belongs to David Ellison, son of Trump-friendly megabillionaire Larry Ellison. David Ellison is the founder of Skydance Media, which was recently allowed by the Trump administration to conduct a $8.4 billion merger with CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global.

Along with naming Weiss as CBS News’ editor-in-chief, David Ellison paid Weiss up to $150 million to acquire The Free Press, a sum that has garnered scrutiny and criticism, especially considering that only 170,000 of the publication’s 1.5 million subscribers actually pay for its annual $80 to $60 subscription. Combined, the paid subscribers pay a combined annual amount of $13.6 million to $10.2 million, less than a tenth of what Ellison paid for the publication.

Before Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the Paramount Skydance merger, the FCC launched an investigation into Trump’s complaints about CBS News’ alleged “deceptive” editing of a 2024 interview between its 60 Minutes news program and Democratic presidential nominee, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a “meritless” lawsuit over the Harris interview. A few weeks later, CBS cancelled The Late Show With Stephen Colbert after Colbert called the $16 million Paramount settlement a “bribe” to Trump.

To get the merger approved, Skydance promised Trump’s FCC chairman Brendan Carr that the newly merged companies would eliminate all diversity hiring policies and also install an ombudsman to review “complaints of bias” at CBS News. Paramount appointed Kenneth Weinstein as the ombudsman – he’s a former Trump appointee and leader of The Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

The merger resulted in the creation of Paramount Skydance, one of the most powerful global conglomerates in U.S. media, with David Ellison as its chief executive. Under his new leadership, David Ellison is reportedly preparing to slash up to 10% of CBS News’ staff.

Weiss helped launch an anti-trans organization as well

Weiss was given $500,000 by billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow to help launch an “anti-woke” non-profit organization.

The deceptively named organization, The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR), claims to be nonpartisan, but its initial board included transphobic former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, transphobic gay writer Andrew Sullivan, and anti-LGBTQ+ activist Christopher Rufo, The New Yorker reported.

In 2021, FAIR started focusing on so-called “gender ideology,” a right-wing term for acknowledging the existence of transgender people. It hosted a webinar entitled “Gender Ideology: Problems and Pro-Human Solutions,” which featured Abigail Shrier, an anti-trans author who regularly equates trans people with misogynists, child sex predators, and mentally ill people who have succumbed to peer pressure.

While FAIR took stands against “issues of compelled speech and gender stereotypes” — namely, “schools requiring students to state their pronouns, for example, or teaching that boys who gravitate toward dolls and princesses could be girls…. it wasn’t willing to touch other questions, such as whether kids who identify as trans should be allowed to medically transition,” The New Yorker noted.

Though Weiss helped fundraise and attract talent to FAIR, even she eventually distanced herself from the group, saying in June 2021 that she considers the organization “not straightforward” and “not muscular enough,” particularly on issues like trans women in sports.

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