CBS News May Take a Pro-Trump Turn
Paramount is shaking up the media world with the announcement that they acquired The Free Press from Bari Weiss and appointed her Editor-in-Chief of the news division sending shivers down the spine of reporters and editors as they await news of what this will mean for the network considering Weiss’ Trump-friendly bent.
Weiss issued a memo to the staff to give them an idea of what her vision is.
Dear Colleagues:
I am thrilled and humbled to be writing to you as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News.
Growing up, CBS was a deep family tradition. Whenever I hear that tick, tick, tick or that trumpet fanfare, it sends me right back to our den in Pittsburgh. The opportunity to build on that legacy with you—and to renew it in an era that so desperately needs it—is an extraordinary privilege.
Right now, I imagine you have some questions. I do, too.
My goal in the coming days and weeks is to get to know you. I want to hear from you about what’s working, what isn’t, and your thoughts on how we an make CBS News the most trusted news organization in America and the world. I’ll approach it the way any reporter would—with an open mind, a fresh notebook, and an urgent deadline.
What I can tell you on day one is that I stand for the same core journalistic values that have defined this profession sine the beginning, and I will continued to champion them alongside you:
- Journalism that reports on the world as it actually is.
- Journalism that is fair, fearless, and factual.
- Journalism that respects our audience enough to tell the truth plainly—wherever it leads.
- Journalism that makes sense of a noisy, confusing world.
- Journalism that explains things clearly, without pretension or jargon.
- Journalism that holds both American political parties to equal scrutiny.
- Journalism that embraces a wide spectrum of views and voices so that the audience can contend with the best arguments on all sides of a debate.
- Journalism that rushes toward the most interesting and important stories, regardless of their unpopularity.
- Journalism that uses all of the tools of the digital era.
- Journalism that understands that the best way to serve America is to endeavor to present the public with the facts, first and foremost.
I look forward to meeting many of you in the days ahead and to listening and learning from you. I am profoundly honored to join you—and I can’t wait to get started.
With gratitude and excitement,
Bari
How much power Weiss will have isn’t exactly clear at the moment, but one thing is for sure and that is that the old liberalism of CBS News will be replaced by more even-handed reporting and may even become a non-cable competitor to Fox News in the long run.
Don Irvine
Donald Irvine is the chairman of of Accuracy in Academia (AIA), a non-profit research group reporting on bias in education. Irvine follows his father’s legacy, Reed Irvine, to critically analyze the liberal media’s bias and brings over thirty years of media analysis experience. He has published countless blog posts and articles on media bias, in context of current events, and he has been interviewed by many news media outlets during his professional career. He currently hosts a livestream weekly show on AIA’s Facebook page which discusses current events.
Irvine graduated from the University of Maryland and rose up the ranks to become chairman of Accuracy in Media until his transition to AIA.
He resides in the suburbs around the nation’s capital and is a proud father and grandfather.
