Inside Bari Weiss’s Hostile Takeover of CBS News
At the end of October, the channel announced a series of layoffs, the first under its new ownership. Eight on-air personalities were fired, all women. Debora Patta, who had been publicly accused by Mike Huckabee, the American ambassador to Israel, of having poorly edited an interview he had given to her, was fired even though she had recently re-signed her contract. (Patta has denied any inappropriate changes.) Another round of layoffs is expected in the coming months.
In December, Weiss herself hosted an hour-long special: a town hall with Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow. Onlookers who asked questions included the father of a woman who was murdered last May in an anti-Semitic hate crime in Washington, D.C.; the Utah student who was asking Kirk a question when he was shot and killed; and a twenty-six-year-old woman who wanted to know if dating a Christian in New York was worth it. The ratings for the special were poor. The network has since announced it will air more town hall sessions, with guests including Vice Chairman JD Vance and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, but Weiss has no plans to host another special.
Dokoupil, meanwhile, had been promoted to anchor of “CBS Evening News.” “On too many stories, the press missed the story because we took the advocates’ point of view and not the average American’s point of view,” he said in a promotional video for the show. “Or we put too much emphasis on the analysis of academics or elites and not enough on you. » In comments on Instagram, he added that he would be “more accountable and more transparent than Cronkite or anyone else of his era.”
Four days later, Dokoupil’s first official broadcast was marred by technical problems. As he began presenting a segment on Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, images of an article about Arizona Senator Mark Kelly began to flash across the screen. “First day,” Dokoupil said. “First day, big problems here.” Weiss was heavily involved in writing and editing Dokoupil’s screenplays. She and the production team had made last-minute changes to the show, which led to the setback.
“CBS Evening News,” Weiss’s most visible formal experiment to date, has yet to prove more successful or more journalistically sound than what preceded it. On January 6, Dokoupil only briefly mentioned the fifth anniversary of the Capitol riot, towards the end of the program. “President Trump today accused Democrats of failing to prevent the attack on the Capitol,” Dokoupil said, “while House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the president of ‘whitewashing.’” He closed the show with a light-hearted segment on Marco Rubio memes.
On “ABC World News Tonight,” which has about twice as many viewers as “CBS Evening News,” David Muir devoted an entire segment to the pro-Trump marches marking the anniversary in Washington and the White House’s launch of a website celebrating Trump’s blanket pardons for the rioters. A few evenings later, at the Golden Globes, actress Nikki Glaser made fun of CBS in her monologue. “And the award for best editing goes to CBS News,” she said. “Yes, CBS News, America’s last place to see BS news.” Ellison was sitting in the audience.
With Weiss’ help, Dokoupil booked interviews with influential figures in Trump’s orbit, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. Last week, in Dearborn, Michigan, he did a twelve-minute stand-up with Trump at a Ford factory. Dokoupil asked about the possibility of US intervention in Iran; the criminal investigation against Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve; and the murder of Renée Nicole Good by a ICE agent in Minneapolis. (When Dokoupil mentioned that Good’s father was a Trump supporter, the president responded, “And I think that’s great.”)
At one point, as the conversation turned to rising food prices, Trump told Dokoupil that, if Kamala Harris had won the last election, “your boss” – referring to Ellison – “who is an amazing guy, might be out of business.” Trump added: “You wouldn’t have this job, certainly no matter what salary they pay you. » Dokoupil, whose wife, MS NOW presenter Katy Tur, was also the target of Trump’s blows, rejected at the end of the interview. “For the record, I think I would have this job even if the other guys won,” Dokoupil said.
“Yes,” Trump replied, “but with less pay.” ♦
