Has there been a much bigger media story in 2026 than the upheaval at CBS News?
CBS has a brand new proprietor who has a comfy relationship with President Donald Trump. The information division is being run by somebody who had no significant TV information expertise earlier than she was employed. The night information has a brand new anchor whose tenure is off to an uneven begin. And even the community’s most reliable and revered product — the venerable “60 Minutes” — has been besieged by controversy, huge adjustments and unpopular firings.
On high of all this, the mother or father firm, Paramount, is within the course of of shopping for Warner Bros. Discovery, which means it would quickly take over NCS.
Got all that?
The adjustments at CBS News and what lies forward for “60 Minutes” and NCS had been the main target of my dialog with Wall Street Journal media reporter Isabella Simonetti within the newest episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast,” out as we speak.
Last week, Simonetti wrote a superb profile of new “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, which we additionally talked about at size within the podcast. Putting Dokoupil within the anchor chair for night information at the beginning of this 12 months was the primary actually massive transfer made by Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News.
Simonetti advised me, “He’s sort of become the involuntary poster boy of Bari Weiss’s takeover of CBS News. … So, what he does — for at least the public and media watchers — people are looking to read the tea leaves for what that means about her strategy and what she wants to do.”
Now people are studying the tea leaves to see what Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery means for NCS.
Simonetti stated, “I think we’re all just speculating. I can name all the questions I want the answers to, which are — what role is Bari going to have? Is she going to oversee both (CBS News and NCS)? Will they bring in someone else? Will Mark Thompson, the CEO of NCS right now, stay? … I think people are also curious — they’ll probably have to cut jobs in some way. There are probably some redundancies between CBS and NCS. How intertwined will the two newsrooms be?”
This is all coming to a head, and quickly. So take a look at the podcast for extra of Simonetti’s perception into these questions, in addition to all of the controversy at “60 Minutes.”
Aside from watching on YouTube, you may as well discover the present on Apple, Spotify, and most locations the place you discover podcasts.
As Simonetti advised me on “The Poynter Report Podcast,” the query everyone seems to be interested by is how a lot Weiss will likely be concerned in NCS as soon as Paramount takes over Warner Bros. Discovery.
Late final week, The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin wrote: “Chaos Came to CBS News. What’s in Store for NCS?”
Grynbaum and Mullin famous that David Ellison, the person who runs Paramount, has not publicly commented on what NCS will appear like as soon as the acquisition is full. They added, “Mr. Ellison and his deputies are weighing whether to put Ms. Weiss in charge of NCS, which is far larger than CBS News and is a major profit center, two people familiar with their thinking said. He has remained supportive of Ms. Weiss, despite grumbling from journalists.”
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By all accounts, most journalists and different workers at NCS respect chief government Mark Thompson and would like he stay in cost.
That makes this nugget from Grynbaum and Mullin noteworthy: “Mark Thompson, NCS’s chief executive, has not yet heard from Mr. Ellison’s team about what role he will play after the merger, two people briefed on discussions between the companies said. He recently told Paramount officials that he would not share oversight of NCS with another executive, the people said. He declined to comment.”
The Times additionally reported that Anderson Cooper, arguably NCS’s greatest star, has advised colleagues that he doesn’t need to work for Weiss. Cooper stepped away from his position as a correspondent at “60 Minutes” earlier this 12 months. He stated he wished to clear his schedule to spend extra time together with his household, however there have been stories that he was involved in regards to the route of CBS News below Weiss’ management.
Weiss gave a few quotes to Simonetti for the Wall Street Journal story, however in any other case, the CBS News boss actually hasn’t talked to the media since her controversial hiring. She has but to take a seat down for a prolonged interview.
That might quickly change.
Status’ Oliver Darcy writes Weiss has had talks about sitting down with The New York Times podcast “The Daily” for an interview with host Michael Barbaro.
Darcy writes, “Weiss’ camp has been in conversations with ‘The Daily’ about a possible interview, in which the CBS News boss would presumably defend the many controversial decisions she has made since David Ellison tapped her to take over the network last fall. The interview would also be notable, given Weiss previously worked in The Times’ opinion section and famously quit in 2020 via an open-letter to publisher A.G. Sulzberger that accused the newspaper of harboring a liberal bias.”
However, Darcy added that such an interview doubtless isn’t imminent, writing that “with a $111 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery pending, it’s likely that Ellison & Co. want to avoid as much media scrutiny as possible — and such a media appearance would not help.”
Darcy added another attention-grabbing word: “Behind the scenes, Weiss has also tried to engage with media reporters over the last several months. As Status reported, she held a series of off-the-record phone calls with some journalists earlier this year. She has also met privately with others.”
President Donald Trump, proper, touring a golf course on Sunday in Washington, D.C. with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
“Regime Change,” the brand new guide about President Donald Trump, continues to attract headlines. The authors — New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan — have been making the media rounds, sharing their outstanding reporting, together with conversations that befell within the Situation Room relating to delicate matters. Some of their reporting contains how the White House freaked out over the Epstein recordsdata, and how the administration thought of suspending habeas corpus for immigrants dwelling within the nation illegally.
One individual, nonetheless, shouldn’t be a fan of the guide: Donald Trump.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump attacked Haberman and stated the guide is “mostly made up, Fake News and largely fiction.”
For their guide, Haberman and Swan carried out 1,000 interviews, together with with Trump himself, in addition to marketing campaign officers, White House workers members, officers serving in authorities departments and companies, former aides, donors, lawmakers, pals and enterprise associates.
Haberman and Swan appeared on Sunday’s “Meet the Press” and advised moderator Ryan Nobles — filling in for Kristen Welker — that Vice President JD Vance was actually the one individual contained in the Trump administration who overtly challenged Trump over going to struggle with Iran.
In their guide, Haberman and Swan wrote that Vance thought it will be a catastrophe and that it’d anger supporters who trusted Trump when he campaigned in opposition to new wars.
Haberman stated others within the administration thought it was a nasty concept. “But,” she stated, “Vance was the only one who really vocally took issue with this with Trump. And it irritated Trump, it cost Vance with Trump, but he was the only person who was really sort of rattling the cages.”
Vance appeared on Bill Maher’s HBO present final week, the place Maher blasted the Trump administration for its repeated conspiracy theories about election fraud.
Maher advised Vance, “Under Trump, you guys have two outcomes in an election: Either we win, or they cheated. That (expletive) has to stop.”
Vance awkwardly smiled because the viewers applauded, however then he continued to solid doubt on the election course of, saying, “The biggest criticism I had of the 2020 election is that you had technology companies that were quite literally censoring negative information about the left and promoting negative information about the right. You had technology companies that were putting their thumb on the scale in a way that completely obliterated the real open exchange of ideas.”
Maher advised Vance, “Well, you’re going to get a big pat on the back when you go back to the White House.”
As far as the general interview, Variety’s Marlow Stern wrote, “Throughout their interview, Maher seemed outmatched, with Vance talking circles around him. And, for someone who spends every Friday night railing against the Trump administration, he treated its vice president with kid gloves.”
Despite his criticism of Trump, Maher stated he would contemplate voting for Vance or Marco Rubio in 2028 over a Democratic nominee, saying, “If this is where the Democratic Party is going, with the Democratic Socialist — this obsession with Israel, with the Jew-hating, with they don’t believe in capitalism, no prisons — if this is where they’re going, my vote is in play.”
MS NOW’s Alex Witt, proven right here in 2017. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
On Friday, we realized that MS NOW is shifting away from stay, hosted programming after 6 p.m. on weekends. Instead, the community will fill these weekend night hours with taped video podcasts. And that can result in extra weekend programming shifts.
As a outcome, Alex Witt, one of many community’s longest-serving anchors, is leaving MS NOW. Witt joined MSNBC in 1999 and has been a constant weekend host for almost 15 years. Witt’s weekend afternoon slot will likely be crammed by Antonia Hylton beginning later this summer season.
Hylton had been a co-host on “The Weekend: Primetime,” however the present is ending after operating since final fall. The Los Angeles Times’ Stephen Battaglio writes, “Hylton’s co-hosts Ayman Mohyeldin, Catherine Rampell and Elise Jordan will remain with MS NOW and continue to appear on other programs.”
Witt’s departure marks the top of an period.
Rebecca Kutler, president of MS NOW, stated in an announcement, “A beloved longtime member of our MS NOW family, Alex has been a continued, trusted and steady presence for our audiences. … Having anchored more hours on MS NOW than any other anchor in our network’s history, Alex has guided our viewers through many of the most significant stories that have defined a generation, including the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, reporting from Ground Zero immediately following the tragic 9/11 terrorist attacks, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina, the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and more.”
Kutler added, “Throughout the summer, we will expand our taped strategy and announce new content partnerships.”
News of Witt’s departure prompted an outpouring of tributes. Mediaite’s Jennifer Bowers Bahney has extra with “Colleagues Shower Alex Witt With Accolades After Anchor Announces MS NOW Departure.”
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