CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has issued her first public response to claims of editorial interference and bias raised weeks ago by former 60 Minutes correspondents Scott Pelley and Cecilia Vega.
Weiss, 42, rejected the characterization in blunt terms, telling The Wall Street Journal on Monday: “What’s being called ‘editorial interference’ is in reality the job description of an editor in chief.”
Her comments mark the first time she has addressed the controversy directly. They come about two weeks after a Status report described Weiss as being “holed up” in a sixth-floor suite at CBS News’ Manhattan headquarters amid continuing fallout from her efforts to reshape the network’s newsroom.
The Journal article focused largely on Tony Dokoupil, the former CBS Mornings host whom Weiss moved to the Evening News anchor desk in January. The change came only months after Weiss was brought in under Paramount’s then-new chief executive, David Ellison.
“When it comes to Bari Weiss, she’s the editor in chief, she runs a 9am meeting and has lots of ideas,” Dokoupil told the newspaper, while also saying he has “never met David Ellison.”
“When we like the idea, we use it. If we don’t and if it doesn’t work for our show, we don’t,” he said.
Dokoupil added that Ellison “has never had a comment about my show” and “has never called me to complain about coverage,” saying that even if he did, “it wouldn’t have an impact.”
The Journal noted that Weiss’s approach to editorial decision-making has fueled internal disputes that have increasingly become public. The story’s headline posed the question: “Can Tony Dokoupil Weather the War at CBS?”
Bari Weiss, 42, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday of claims she and other execs have injected bias into CBS News’ coverage: ‘What’s being called ‘editorial interference’ is in reality the job description of an editor in chief’
Sharyn Alfonsi (far left), Scott Pelley (third from right), and Cecilia Vega (second from right) all took shots at the network before being fired last month. Vega and Pelley both said they had been instructed to input political bias in their stories
A slew of firings hit 60 Minutes, at Weiss’s behest, on May 28.
Vega, Sharyn Alfonsi, Executive Producer Tanya Simon, and Executive Editor Draggan Mihailovich were among many shown the door. Filmmaker and former New York Times columnist Nick Bilton was brought on to be the show’s next executive producer.
In a statement to Instagram that day, Vega claimed she and her teams had ‘experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories’ in recent months.
Alfonsi, in an interview with the Times the day before, blamed her exit on a clash she had with CBS brass back in December over a segment critical of the Trump administration.
Alfonsi tore into the decision to fellow staffers at the time, in an internal email that was promptly leaked to the press. It accused CBS of engaging in ‘censorship.’
Alfonsi reiterated those claims to the Times the May 27 interview, which broke the news of her 60 Minutes contract not being renewed.
She also effectively dared CBS to fire her, leading the network to oblige the following morning.
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The next week, during a Monday meeting that had been meant to introduce the remaining 60 Minutes staffers to Bilton, Pelley accused a not-present Weiss of ‘murdering 60 Minutes’.
Former Executive Producer Tanya Simon, seen here with Vega (middle) and and Alfonsi (far left), was also fired by Weiss in an attempt to rejig the newsmagazine for a more modern audience
He also framed Bilton as being unqualified and loyal to only Weiss, paving the way for a lengthy clash.
A recording of the conversation was promptly leaked to the press, and Pelley was fired the following day. A CBS statement that accused Pelley of ‘misconduct’ made the move known that night.
Weiss went on to tell staffers during a conference call that week: ‘Despite our attempts to engage with Scott Pelley and to find a way back, unfortunately we weren’t able to do so, and so we had to part ways.
‘We did not want that to happen, but that’s the path that he chose,’ she added.
Pelley issued two statements that week. The first claimed that ‘new management ha[d] instructed [him] to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story.’
A second statement to the Times hours after a transcript of Weiss’s editorial call was also leaked to the press insisted he was never told of an ‘effort of any kind to “find a way back,” as Weiss had said in the editorial meeting.’
‘At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution,’ Pelley wrote.
He then accused CBS News of ‘political bias’ ignoring the lineage of Simon by firing her in a filmed interview with The Times. Simon, 55, is the daughter of late 60 Minutes war correspondent Bob Simon.
Pelley was fired after insulting Weiss and her pick to replace Simon during a tense all-hands meeting earlier this month. He went on to accuse CBS of editorial interference and bias in a series of statements and a filmed interview with the New York Times
He also expressed hope CBS would stray from the approach seen since Weiss took the reins.
‘My hope is that the leadership of Paramount will say to themselves, “OK. This isn’t working. We have respected journalists saying that there is a thumb on the scale for one political party over another,”‘ he said, holding back tears.
‘And there’s a subtle political bias I’ve never seen at 60 Minutes before. Or at CBS News before.’
The Daily Mail has approached CBS News for comment.
