Bari Weiss. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
On Friday, the Department of Justice released millions of new pages from the Epstein Files, ensnaring some of the world’s wealthiest and most well-known men in the ever-growing scandal. Much of the coverage has deservedly focused on figures like Elon Musk and Bill Gates, whose relationships with Jeffrey Epstein were laid bare for the public to see. But over at CBS News, another name quickly caught the eye of staffers: Peter Attia, the YouTube wellness influencer whom Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss just proudly named as a network contributor.
Attia, it turns out, had exchanged dozens of emails with the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. The messages revealed a cozy relationship between the two, and some, as Attia himself acknowledged in a lengthy statement on Monday, were “embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible.” In one 2016 message, for example, Attia wrote to Epstein that “pussy is, indeed, low carb,” but that he was “still awaiting results on gluten content.” In another, Attia stated he would go into Epstein “withdrawal when I don’t see him.” In yet another, Attia volunteered that he couldn’t “wait to actually fly” on Epstein’s infamous plane someday. And in one more, Attia confided the “biggest problem with becoming friends” with Epstein was that the life he led was “so outrageous, and yet” he couldn’t “tell a soul.”
A number of staffers at CBS News and parent company Paramount, across all levels of the organization, were appalled by the emails and expected the network to swiftly cut ties with Attia, according to people familiar with the matter. Of course, that is what would happen at any normal news organization. But CBS News is no longer a news organization helmed by a normal editor in chief. And as I reported last night, Paramount has made it clear that this is Weiss’ decision to make.
While some believed that a decision to pull a re-airing of a “60 Minutes” segment featuring Attia this Sunday signaled the network was distancing itself from the embattled contributor, Status has learned that…
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The Washington Post building. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Post Preps Pink Slips: Despite public pleas to billionaire owner Jeff Bezos, The WaPo is expected to swing the axe on Wednesday, multiple people familiar with the matter told our Natalie Korach, implementing a dreaded round of layoffs anticipated to hit as many as 300 employees company-wide. As Status has previously reported, upwards of 100 newsroom staffers could be impacted, with the layoffs expected to hit sports, metro, and foreign reporting teams hardest. Multiple Post journalists told Korach that there is a growing concern…
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