CBS News chief Bari Weiss tells staff 'we're toast' if they continue on current path

[highplainsdem]

Source: Independent

Addressing her staff three months into her job as CBS News boss, Bari Weiss on Tuesday invoked legendary newsman Walter Cronkite as a symbol of old thinking and said that if the network continues with its current strategy, “we're toast.”

-snip-

No CBS News figure is revered quite as much as Cronkite, the “CBS Evening News” anchor dubbed “the most trusted man in America” during the 1960s and 1970s. Weiss said she understood the nostalgia.

“We can't reverse time's arrow,” she said, according to the copy her remarks. “He had two competitors. We have two billion, give or take.”

-snip-

Weiss said that “we in this building need to reflect more of the political friction that animates our national conversation” and “widen the aperture” of stories that CBS tells and voices that the network speaks to. CBS has notably had interviews with several Trump administration figures, and Trump was interviewed on “60 Minutes” on Nov. 2 and by evening news anchor Tony Dokoupil on Jan. 13.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/cbs-news-donald-trump-charlie-kirk-masih-alinejad-hr-mcmaster-b2908958.html

[RandySF]

1. She's hastening its demise.

[Sessuch]

23. CBS is already "toast"

I have removed CBS from my list of channels,

[NewHendoLib]

2. She has no fucking clue.

[tanyev]

3. So she's gonna double down for burnt toast. 🤨

[C_U_L8R]

4. She can't attract an audience that advertisers give a hoot about.

In fact, it seems she’s so incompetent that she can’t attract hardly any audience at all.
But please, proceed. We won’t watch.

[samsingh]

27. love it

[Kid Berwyn]

5. "The Story"

No matter what Bari does to or for Ellison and his oligarchical brethren, it won't save Corporate McPravda.

[Whyisthisstillclose]

6. If it heads the direction Weiss wants, let it die

[Bluetus]

46. Let the entire legacy media die. They have refused to do the duty of the 4th estate

We need to be putting 100% of our efforts into where younger people are getting their information. F the legacy media. They are dying as their audience literally dies. There is nothing worth saving.

[Nasruddin]

7. "widen the aperture"

How about another interview with President Trump?
Probably Russell Vought hasn't had enough attention yet. That should get the aperture wide as a church door, 'twill serve.

[Prairie Gates]

11. Why don't they have radical left academics and Portland anarchists on?

You know, widen the aperture?

It's always only one way these supposed free speech absolutists. When they say "More voices," they never mean a critique of capitalism, or a radical argument for reparations. they always mean more capitalist propaganda, more oligarchs having a say, more abusers abusing with impunity.

It's a lie, and it's always been a lie.

[Seinan Sensei]

54. In photography, a larger lens aperture results in a shallower depth of field

[SergeStorms]

57. Cronkite didn't "widen the aperture"......

He narrowed it, so Americans could see through the government propaganda about the Vietnam "conflict."

You're a corporate shill, Bari.

[Lonestarblue]

8. Turns out that becoming Trump's lying media propaganda network is not so successful.

We already have Fox and Newsmax. The category of fake news is full, especially with the Washington Post piling on. They’ve lost so many subscribers that they're now offering subscriptions for 50 cents.

[Prairie Gates]

9. Nobody wants to see goofy internet discourse on their evening news

Just like people could distinguish between the evening news and the shock jocks of the 80s-90s. Weis thinks it's all one thing: 2 billion competitors. That's simply bullshit.

Walter Cronkite had tens of thousands by that count: every crackpot pamphleteer would be one, every backwoods-ass preacher.

[CrispyQ]

10. I'm not sure what her message is.

CBS News is going to put a huge emphasis on producing scoops, she said.

“Not scoops that expire minutes later. But investigative scoops. And, crucially, scoops of ideas. Scoops of explanation. This is where we can soar — and where we'll be investing," she said.

Scoops of ice cream, too?

"Political friction." What does that mean? Stories that focus more on conflict? For ratings?

"Widen the aperture?" Does that include more liberal/leftist/democratic guests & voices? Or more extreme right wing ones?

[highplainsdem]

41. Her message is RW gibberish and ego.

[tanyev]

50. My guess: "Scoops" means instant regurgitation of anything her buds at the White House want disseminated.

[pat_k]

12. Catering to Christian Nationalist and other immoral and deeply Un-American factions is the suicidal course.

She's got it completely assed-backwards.

[Mz Pip]

13. Why watch Fox-Lite?

If those are the viewers she’s trying to attract, it’s not going to happen. Those viewers will stick with Fox and Newsmax.

[dalton99a]

14. +1.

[byronius]

34. +2.

[hvn_nbr_2]

35. Why watch "Faux Faux" when you can get real Faux?

I think I'll start calling CBS News "Faux Faux".

[BaronChocula]

15. How's this for "a symbol of old thinking"

Just prior to the 1972 election CBS News anchored by Cronkite devoted a large chunk of time to the growing Watergate scandal in one broadcast. The White House complained to CBS head honcho Bill Paley and he had the next follow-up segment on Watergate set for a later date truncated.

This is history repeating at a higher volume.

[Bluestocking]

16. She is trying to turn CBS into Fox

It will only help nbc and abc.

[paleotn]

17. Bari Weiss, cofounder of Jews for Hitler.

That piece of shit shouldn't be allowed to even utter Walter's name.

[niyad]

18. How DARE she even speak his name???

[Keepthesoulalive]

19. The woman is a

Dumbass, throwing out buzzwords with nothing behind them sort of like her brain.

[Barbegazi]

55. Who was the idiot that hired her? WTH

[DownriverDem]

20. Well, CBS

is dead to me. So this is great news. Walter Cronkite is spinning in his grave.

[haryn]

21. Wasn't

it her freaking path????

[MW67]

22. See B S News

Is already toast as far as I'm concerned,who needs um? A waste of time

[BidenRocks]

24. Without Colbert, all they have left is football for me.

That's over now.

Tiffany to Trash!

[eppur_se_muova]

25. Extra dark, please. nt

[UpInArms]

26. Stupid person

She has no one freaking clue how to report the truth…she only has her bias

[bucolic_frolic]

28. News without truth and integrity has no future

[turbinetree]

29. Hey trump lackey what do you think Cronkite would say to you/CBS .......maybe something on the line I quit go pound sand

And that's the News for January 27, 2026...................bet you don't even know that do you Weiss, that was his signature sign--off.................

[unblock]

30. for over a decade now, they've been telling us "we need to hear more from" the bigots in america

because if there's one group of people that's been ignored throughout american history, yeah, it's the bigots and the sexists, and gosh, they deserve to finally be heard.

"widen the aperture" sounds like more of the same justification for the same crap, right-wing propaganda.

more of the "political friction" is exactly what the right wing wants. political friction is fundamentally a part of white nationalist agenda. because minorities and woman are supposed to howl and cry and complain about being treated as second class citizens or worse because that's how these white nationalists know white men are first class citizens.

here's an idea, how about we hear more from the *majority* of americans who are saying *WHAT THE F*CK IS GOING ON AND WHY ARE YOU REPORTING ON IT IN A WAY THAT NORMALIZES IT AND SUPPORTS IT AND PROPAGATES THE LIES AND HATE??"

[damifino10]

31. Bari(barely)

There was no black on that toast until you arrived
A perfect example of the "Peter Principle" if I have ever seen one.

[Mike Nelson]

32. She must think she's so smart...

... coming up with all that quotable verbiage. I think we should call her Bari T Weiss (the T is for toast).

[Crowman2009]

33. Oh how cute, she thinks she's a news legend.

She's more like the Jar Jar Binks of TV news.

[struggle4progress]

36. "We should showcase more racism, more authoritarian anger and violence, more eliminationism"

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

37. Bari Weiss is 700 Club material, not serious news.

[Puppyjive]

38. Do they have a board that can fire her?

She has caused CBS to lose viewership because she is navigating towards conservatism. Conservatives have a problem with the truth and it's been on display for the world to see.

[Zambero]

39. Bari has been an outstanding Toastess

Not motivated by any journalistic principles. All bottom line.

[relayerbob]

40. Too late. The toast is already burned beyond recognition

Weiss needs to understand that facts and truth are what news is about, not 2 billion podcasters screaming bullshit out of every orifice. But, she doesn't care, and is getting paid well to not care.

And "time' arrow"? Really? Is she in second fucking grade?

[Skittles]

42. SHE is "the current path"

HELLO!!!

[wolfie001]

43. A gay "news" executive working for and licking the shoes of an anti-gay President

She makes me want to vomit. Since she's wealthy, hate doesn't affect her. Or Tim Apple

[Martin68]

44. The MAGA movement is losing on all fronts. The nation has rebuked fasscism.

[LudwigPastorius]

45. "He had two competitors. We have two billion, give or take."

That she considers YouTube and TikTok posters and influencers as competition pretty much says it all concerning her idea of what the news division of a major network should be.

[dem4decades]

47. Keep the greatest news anchor's name out of your fucking mouth.

[Old Crank]

48. No one wants Fox lite.

She has turned it into a dumpster fire.

[KPN]

49. My wife and I have already stopped viewing CBS news since Barri Weiss took the helm. The changes have been clear and

are clearly biased toward -- at a minimum -- bothsides-ism, i.e., the two parties are equally misguided, wrong, cruel and corrupt. Smells like strong bias against Dems to us -- putrid.

[hatrack]

51. An amubulatory bundle of shitty business cliches, with that extra dash of extra-stupid.

Bari Weiss -

[thought crime]

52. This is Vichy News

Avoid Trump law suits, collaborate, play nice. Oh, and appoint a fascist management team.

[cstanleytech]

53. CBS News was thrown upon the altar as a sacrifice to close a merger that the corporate headquarters wanted.

There are now only two ways back now for them and the first is for the ones that bribed Trump is for them to be held criminally liable and be sentenced to prison or for the corporation to sell the network itself to someone that actually has a decent reputation and is willing to work to save the brand.

Odds of either happening? Zero.

[Hassler]

56. Dumb fk Bari figures out that she was brought in to take the fall.

[Bengus81]

58. Those Paramount+ cancellations rolling in? I did,hope others do to. Had that service for over a decade

It will be gone in August..........

[muriel_volestrangler]

59. Celebrating that CBS booked right-wing radio host and former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch for CBS Mornings

Wow. Dana Loesch was unhinged before almost anyone in the public eye.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Loesch

This brought her to the announcement of 18 new contributors to the network, many of whom are already Free Press writers, such as Patrick McGee, Coleman Hughes and conservative historian Niall Ferguson. Others she named are well-known podcasters, journalists and political figures – though some have also courted controversy throughout their careers.

Mark Hyman, a “functional medicine” adherent and close ally of HHS director and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who has become a leading face of the MAHA movement, is one of the new contributors. So is popular science and health podcaster Andrew Huberman, who has faced criticism for peddling misinformation.

I haven't heard of one far-left, or even centre-left, "contributor" in her list. Patrick McGee may be apolitical (but I'm not sure), and that's as good as it gets. This is basically "jobs for Bari's friends".