Dan Rather says Bari Weiss Hire represents a “dark day” at CBS News
former CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather has commented on David Ellison’s appointment of Barry Weiss as editor-in-chief at CBS News, warning that it portends a culture of fear in the news department where employees worry about their jobs.
on Its substackSteadily, instead, he placed Weiss’ appointment in the context of the Skydance-Paramount merger, noting that the two companies bowed to pressure from the Trump administration in order to gain FCC approval for the deal.
“This deal and the appointment of Weiss signal to everyone, especially to the man in the Oval Office, that CBS is no longer independent, but under the guardianship of a conservative billionaire with more than one thumb on the scale,” Rather wrote.
He wrote instead about the pending layoffs across Paramount, where CBS News journalists were concerned about their futures yet would report to Weiss, an opinion writer and “not a reporter.”
“Instead of doing their jobs as guardians of democracy, reporting independently and holding the powerful to account, they now have to worry about how their ideas, stories, and texts will be received by someone with a clear political agenda,” Rather wrote. “They will be haunted by the worry that anything they do, or any question they ask, will be scrutinized to make sure it suits the political forces.
“Anything that conflicts with Trump’s agenda may be flagged and is unlikely to be broadcast unchanged, if at all. No journalist or his work can remain unaffected by toiling in such an environment.”
Rather also warned that “it is a dark day in the halls of CBS News, where images of the pioneers of television news once hung—Cronkite, Murrow, Sevareid, Collingwood. They were journalists who made television a reliable source of information. Who and what should we believe today?”
Ellison announced Monday that Paramount will acquire Vice’s website, The Free Press, known for its pro-Israel and anti-woke commentary and analysis, while she will take on the title of editor-in-chief of CBS News, despite her lack of broadcast journalistic experience.
On the day her appointment was announced, Weiss wrote to Free Press subscribers: “If anti-liberalism in our institutions has been the story of the past decade, we now face a different form of anti-liberalism emerging from our fringes. On the one hand, there is a far left that hates America. On the other, a far right that is erasing history. These extremists do not represent the majority of the country, but they have increasing power in our politics.” And our culture and our culture. Our media system.”
However, he wrote, such a statement “portrays a push toward ‘both sides’ and arguments that rely on false equivalences. There can be no parity between the two political extremes in this country, especially when one party is led by a man who rarely speaks without lying. But Weiss’ modus operandi gives the illusory illusion of fair and balanced coverage through such mechanisms.”
A Paramount spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Instead, 93, serves as CBS Evening News Broadcaster from 1981 to 2005. He resigned after broadcasting A 60 minutes ii Report on President George W. Bush’s service in the National Guard. The network pulled the story after it became clear that the authenticity of the documents used in the piece could not be verified. But after he left CBS News, instead Defend the report He pointed out that no one has proven that the documents are forged.