The Patriot Post® · Bari Weiss Tackles '60 Minutes'
Bari Weiss is continuing her overhaul of CBS News to the loud chagrin of Leftmedia pundits, who apparently view the purpose of the media organization as pumping leftist propaganda under the veneer of fair and balanced journalism.
Weiss, who was hired as CBS News’s editor-in-chief last year, has gone about the task of cleaning up and reorienting the broadcast news organization to once again provide more balanced, centrist reporting.
In this vein, Weiss and CBS News President Tom Cibrowski targeted the long-running news magazine program “60 Minutes” for a revamp. This included the firing of veteran journalist Sharyn Alfonsi, who had been on the program for a decade, as well as the program’s executive producer, Tanya Simon.
Weiss and Cibrowski explained in a staff memo that the motivation behind the change was “building a show that thrives in the 21st century.” How so? “That requires a new approach,” the two wrote, which means “expanding ‘60 Minutes’ beyond a one-hour television broadcast, deepening its role across CBS News, and holding everything we produce to the ambition, fairness, and fearlessness that have defined ‘60 Minutes’ at its best.”
To replace Simon, Weiss is bringing in an outsider and longtime technology journalist, Nick Bilton, whom Weiss and Cibrowski assert “embodies the energy and ambition that animated the founders of the show. We cannot imagine a better fit.”
As noted above, Weiss’s changes have caused consternation among the old guard, as well as accusations of infringement on journalistic independence.
The show’s longtime producer, Bill Owens, who left last year, is a typical example of the leftist journo. “Over the past months, it has also become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it,” Owen explained regarding his reason for leaving. “To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience.”
Cecilia Vega, among the show’s fired correspondents, expressed similar sentiments. “In recent months,” she claimed, “my producing teams and I have experienced efforts to insert political bias into our stories. Reporting teams have held back on submitting story pitches about important news topics out of fear of the internal repercussions. Let’s call this what it is: censorship, both imposed and self-driven. It is dangerous for the show and dangerous for democracy.”
Please. These people think way too highly of themselves and their biased opinions.
Indeed, CBS said as much, as a spokesman for the news media company pushed back, “We respect Ms. Vega and her contributions, but her claims are not based in reality.”
Weiss is attempting to turn around the sinking fortunes and eventual irrelevancy of a news media organization that has long lost the trust of the majority of the American public. Furthermore, Weiss, who created the highly successful Free Press media outlet following her departure from The New York Times, clearly understands the media landscape and what the American public desires.
Weiss is not a right-wing, Donald Trump supporter. Far from it. She is best described as someone on the center-left of the political spectrum. That said, she strongly believes in allowing for a balanced, more careful approach to avoid presenting a biased view to readers and viewers. In a sense, Weiss holds to the old-school view of journalism that it should be about informing the public of the news, not about directing the public on how to think about it.
And that is the rub for CBS’s recently fired journalists. They saw their job not as informing the public but as influencing public opinion.
For the American people, the changes that Weiss is bringing about at CBS News are a good thing. Her aim is to rebuild trust, which is no easy nor small task, and it will likely require even more firings in the future.