Paramount is on the verge of acquiring Bari Weiss’ right-leaning Free Press news organization, with Weiss set for a top role in running CBS News, TheWrap has learned.
The deal, which is being finalized by Paramount’s lawyers and was first reported by Puck on Wednesday, sets CBS News on a course for a more conservative approach in line with CEO David Ellison’s vision. TheWrap’s reporting suggests it’s likely that Weiss will run CBS News.
Weiss, who founded Free Press in 2022 after leaving the New York Times where she was an opinion columnist, is respected by some for her independent approach and her critique of mainstream media as too woke, but criticized by others for giving a pass to powerful people with whom she agrees such as Elon Musk when he bought Twitter in 2022 and Peter Thiel who she interviewed sympathetically earlier this year on her podcast, declining to push back on non-answers.
Paramount declined to comment. Weiss did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
CBS News has been the subject of a political tug-of-war and a target of the Trump administration, which extracted a $16 million settlement from a lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. As part of the Skydance merger, Paramount agreed to place an internal ombudsman to ensure that the news organization was even-handed as part of its negotiations with the Trump administration.
In one of its first moves after taking over Paramount, the Ellison-led leadership eliminated DEI initiatives at Paramount altogether.
The tug of war with the Trump administration continued just this week when Kristi Noem, who heads the Department of Homeland Security, accused the network of a “whitewash” when it chose not to air her full remarks on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an undocumented immigrant who the Trump administration wrongly deported in March and has since tried to remove from the country.
Noem disparaged Abrego Garcia as a “known human smuggler” and “MS-13 gang member,” allegations unproven in court. The network defended the interview on “Face the Nation.”
CBS News has long been one of the most respected brands in journalism, with veterans from Walter Cronkite to Edward R. Murrow as part of the network’s esteemed legacy. A stable of star journalists at “60 Minutes” include Anderson Cooper, Bill Whitaker and Lesley Stahl among others.
As a journalist who comes from the opinion columns rather than the trenches of news-gathering, Weiss is sure to raise opposition within the newsroom ranks of CBS News as a top decision-maker, especially in the wake of the departure of venerated “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens and CBS News chief Wendy McMahon, both of whom cited corporate meddling in the news division as the reason for their resignations.
An individual with knowledge of the deal said that Paramount did expect there to be resignations as a result of Weiss’ acquisition.
Weiss has been reported as seeking $200 million for the sale of The Free Press, but the individual with knowledge said the sale price was expected to be lower than that.
Weiss resigned from The New York Times in July 2020, citing what she described as a hostile work environment to ideological diversity. In her resignation letter, which she posted publicly, Weiss accused the paper of fostering an “illiberal environment” where dissenting views were met with open hostility from colleagues. She said she had been subjected to bullying, both in person and on internal Slack channels, and alleged that the newsroom’s editorial decisions were increasingly shaped by Twitter and the opinions of its most vocal online critics, rather than by journalistic independence.
She went on to found the Free Press, which has rapidly grown into a robust media platform that consistently criticizes left-leaning cultural and social views. It is seen as a successful response to progressive media and mainstream outlets that lean to the left. The site consistently publishes pro-Israel writers and also showcases journalists who abandon mainstream media, such as Ari Berliner, a former senior business editor for NPR who left over alleged left-wing bias.
In a 2024 essay, Berliner argued that NPR had shifted from an “open-minded, curious culture” to one dominated by a progressive worldview—claiming that a lack of diverse views had undermined public trust in the outlet.
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