Bari Weiss, the editor-in-chief of CBS News known for her anti-woke stance, recently surprised the 60 Minutes team with a provocative question about perceived bias in their reporting. During a confidential meeting on Tuesday, Weiss, who champions political neutrality, asked the group to ponder why viewers might see their coverage as biased. This inquiry, reported by The New York Times, left the team momentarily speechless.

Sources familiar with the meeting described Weiss’s question as awkward and unexpected, as it caught the journalists, including prominent figures like Anderson Cooper and Lesley Stahl, off guard. Cooper, a well-known CNN anchor, and Stahl, a veteran correspondent, along with the rest of the team, pride themselves on their objectivity. They firmly deny claims, often voiced by Donald Trump and other conservatives, that their reporting leans to the left.

The 60 Minutes reporters – including standouts Anderson Cooper, who doubles as a long-time CNN anchor, and Lesley Stahl – see themselves as impartial, the insiders said. They have fiercely rejected the idea perpetuated by Donald Trump and other conservatives that their coverage is left-leaning.

Weiss has already caused a stir in her first two weeks filling the network’s top position, in which she vowed to provide news for the American ‘mainstream’ who have been ‘ill-served’ by the media. Her background as a vocal opinion journalist with no previous broadcast experience has made her a controversial pick for editor-in-chief. She co-founded The Free Press, which Paramount Skydance is acquiring, and formerly worked as a NY Times opinion editor, but left the role due to the company’s ‘illiberal environment’ in 2020.

While her official start date at CBS News was October 6, an insider previously told the Daily Mail she had been ‘informally consulting’ the company for ‘a while.’ Her hiring by new Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison, made waves within the CBS newsroom after a tumultuous year. In October last year, Donald Trump sued the network over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that he claimed was deceptively edited.

Paramount ultimately agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle the lawsuit. That settlement paved the way for the administration’s approval of an $8billion merger between Skydance Media and Paramount in August. CBS News – specifically 60 Minutes – was also heavily criticized for its coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.

Network veteran Stahl specifically came under fire over her treatment of a Hamas hostage, with conservatives accusing her of being sympathetic towards the terrorist group in a damning April interview. Stahl was slammed after she asked former hostage Keith Siegel if Hamas terrorists starved him on purpose or if they just did not have any food to hand out. Seigel, who spent 484 days in captivity, replied: ‘No, I think they starved me, and they would often eat in front of me and not offer me food.’

Not long after, 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens and CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon both resigned over concerns with the company’s direction. Despite his previous run-ins with CBS, Trump recently told CNN the network will be ‘fairer’ with Weiss and Ellison in charge. ‘CBS has great potential,’ he said.