Weiss and Shine

The Bari Weiss era has begun at CBS News, and David Ellison’s push to reshape the storied network has staffers holding their breath about the future of the outlet—especially as the mogul's talking points show fractures under scrutiny.

Oliver Darcy
October 06, 2025

Bari Weiss. (Photo by Leigh Vogel_Getty Images for Uber, X and The Free Press)

On Monday morning, CBS News staffers were greeted with an email announcing that their parent company, Paramount, had acquired Bari Weiss’ The Free Press. The news from Paramount boss David Ellison, of course, was hardly a surprise. We first reported earlier this year that Ellison had been recruiting the anti-woke, anti-D.E.I., and staunchly pro-Israel opinion writer for a senior role at CBS News, and we reported last week that her appointment as editor in chief was imminent, just days away.

On her first day, Weiss performed the choreography everyone expected. I’m told she met with senior leadership in the morning and later with the executive producers of all the shows. She was absent from the network’s daily morning editorial meeting, but I’m told is set to make her debut there Tuesday.

For the most part, staffers had long accepted Weiss’ appointment as inevitable. Most everyone I’ve spoken to over the last week described a mood of…

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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. (Photo by Brendan Smilowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Status Scoop | Hegseth's Safe Space: The Pentagon on Monday evening distributed its revised rules for reporters seeking building access—rules that, if anything, make the situation worse. The Pete Hegseth–led department had already delayed implementation of its controversial new policy last week after widespread backlash from journalists who said it amounted to government pre-censorship, requiring reporters to submit even unclassified material for review. But after feigning good-faith engagement with news organizations and press-freedom groups, Hegseth’s Pentagon has doubled down.

The updated rules—which we first reported—explicitly declared that soliciting information from Defense Department personnel is not protected by the First Amendment. “There is a critical distinction between lawfully requesting information from the government and actively soliciting or encouraging government employees to break the law,” the document stated. Translation: journalists are only permitted to ask the government for the approved narrative, and anyone who dares to commit the act of reporting will likely lose their credentials. The rules went on to…

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