Exclusive | Speculation about Bari Weiss future is coming to a head heres what well-placed sources say
Paramount’s mega-merger with Warner Bros.Discovery is finally in the clear — and hopes and fears that Bari Weiss is now poised to become the queen of TV news broadcasting are coming to a head.It’s no secret that the 42-year-old editor-in-chief of CBS News has been eyeing a takeover of the left-leaning CNN as Paramount’s $81 billion acquisition of the cable network’s owner WBD is getting cleared in a truce with 12 state attorneys general led by California AG Rob Bonta.“Bari is large and in charge,” one media industry executive told me this week, recounting the Tuesday-morning chatter in media circles.A well-placed source close to the situation, however, countered just hours later that speculation that Weiss is about to take control of CNN “couldn’t be further from the truth.” The question of Weiss’ future has been a constant source of speculation in the media business since David Ellison appointed the former opinion columnist to run CBS ahead of his hard-fought purchase of Warner Bros Discovery.Driving all of this has been Ellison’s conviction that the news business needs to reflect less progressive media bias.
Ellison hired Weiss to provide more centrist coverage of the news at the famously woke Tiffany Network. It’s notable that Ellison has stuck by Weiss throughout her controversial reign at CBS, including the turmoil at “60 Minutes” where he has supported her recent, unorthodox hires to change the face of the famed news magazine.After California’s Bonta finally cut a deal backing away from the tough structural reforms he initially demanded, it seemed like a given that Ellison would flex his power by giving Weiss more clout.So what’s going to happen? A spokeswoman declined to comment, but just connecting the dots, you can see why Ellison might be hesitant to give Weiss the gargantuan task of running two major news divisions.Weiss is no dummy, of course.She created the successful news website “The Free Press,” which Ellison...