Everyone get your popcorn, sit back, and watch Bari Weiss calmly announce that she is now editor-in-chief of CBS News.

For those who have been paying attention to Bari Weiss and her work over the last five years, you remember that she resigned from the New York Times in 2020 with a scathing indictment of how mainstream media was failing, so she went on to create her own media company, The Free Press. With the purchase of CBS by the new Paramount Skydance media corporation, new CEO David Ellison is making some changes. And the biggest change is buying The Free Press (which will continue on as its own separate entity, with Weiss as CEO), and making Bari Weiss the new editor-in-chief of CBS News.

This deal had been reported to be in the works for over a month, but the ink is now dry and the deal is official, coming from Weiss’s own mouth to her readers and viewers.

This move is a testament to many things: The Free Press team; the vision of Paramount’s new leaders; the luck of starting an independent media company at the right moment; and the courage of my colleagues to leave behind old worlds to build a new one.

But, above all, it’s a testament to you, our subscribers.

From day one, the promise—and the business proposition—of this publication was simple: We would marry the quality of the old world to the freedom of the new. We would seek the truth and tell it plainly. And we would treat readers like adults capable of making their own choices.

So many people told us this was no longer possible. That the premise of a media company built on trust rather than partisanship was, at best, a relic from the past—and, at worst, a fantasy that never was. That the internet killed journalism. That there simply weren’t enough Americans out there in search of media driven by honesty, independence, and integrity.

You proved them wrong. You demonstrated that there’s a market for honest journalism. And you’ve given us a mandate to pursue that mission from an even bigger platform.

I’ll continue to lead this incredible community alongside my tireless team, remaining CEO and editor-in-chief. But I’ll be taking on another title, too.

As of today, I am editor-in-chief of CBS News, working with new colleagues on the programs that have impacted American culture for generations—shows like 60 Minutes and Sunday Morning—and shaping how millions of Americans read, listen, watch, and, most importantly, understand the news in the 21st century.

In her new role, Bari Weiss sent a letter to the CBS newsroom. She has big goals, and the newsroom is going to have to fall in line with her vision.

Here's the letter Bari Weiss sent just now to all CBS News employees: pic.twitter.com/7paieEFVvC

— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) October 6, 2025

The post partially reads:

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 can 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 since the beginning, and I will continue to champion them alongside you:

1. Journalism that reports on the world as it actually is.

2. Journalism that is fair, fearless, and factual.

3. Journalism that respects our audience enough to tell the truth plainly—wherever it leads.

4. Journalism that makes sense of a noisy, confusing world.

5. Journalism that explains things clearly, without pretension or jargon.

6. Journalism that holds both American political parties to equal scrutiny.

7. 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.

8. Journalism that rushes toward the most interesting and important stories, regardless of their unpopularity.

9. Journalism that uses all of the tools of the digital era.

10. 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.

Obviously, this announcement of re-dedication to honesty and truth in journalism caused a freakout among the mainstream media, and within the ranks of CBS itself.
https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/1975235614426759312
MSNBC announced “Bari Weiss brings her Trump-friendly sensibilities to CBS News” – a very rational and reasoned headline, demonstrating how well the media is taking it. (Also that they’ve never actually read a word that Bari Weiss has written.) The bitterness and “confusion” coming off the media is quite telling.

NY Times: Bari Weiss "is known more for wanting to rid the world of so-called wokeness than for promoting journalistic traditions."

"Journalistic traditions" = heavy-handed leftist bias. The kind that writes "so-called wokeness." https://t.co/hv95XMvIx9

— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) October 6, 2025

CBS News desperately needs someone to supercharge its digital strategy. Maybe The Free Press can help. But staffers reading this morning's memos are left to wonder: What exactly do the new bosses think we're doing wrong?

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 6, 2025

Apparently the CBS newsroom is “encouraging” Bari Weiss to not mess with “60 Minutes” or “CBS News Sunday Morning” by claiming those shows are the “golden goose.” Yeah, CBS News just chose to settle with Donald Trump over “60 Minutes” editing that Kamala Harris interview instead of going through discovery. And let’s not forget Lesley Stahl asking a former Hamas hostage if he was REALLY starving or if Hamas just didn’t have food to give him, or the slobbering by the show over German internet censorship, or the hit job done on Ron DeSantis because they saw him as the next threat after Donald Trump. Why does this “golden goose” lay such rotten eggs?

The coping is going exceptionally well.
https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/1975309185090003129
I’m going to run out of popcorn watching these elitist hacks throw their temper tantrums because Bari Weiss wants to reform CBS News into an actual journalism outlet, instead of a propaganda machine for the left. She dared question the leftist orthodoxy of woke, built her own media company, and now she is in charge of one of their sacred cows. Either those who work at CBS News will have to get in line behind Weiss’s stated principles, or get in the unemployment line while launching their own personal Substack (that sounds like all the other Substacks by unemployed journalists). This is a sea change for the mainstream media, and they know it. That’s why Bari Weiss was brought in – and that’s why they are freaking out. Enjoy watching the dust settle, everyone – this overhaul is LONG overdue.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click