It’s been a season of upheaval for CBS News, and the latest twist has the media world buzzing. In a move that’s set to reshape the network’s editorial direction, sources from Puck, The Daily Mail, and other outlets confirm that CBS News’ new parent company, Skydance Media, is on the verge of acquiring The Free Press, the right-leaning publication founded by Bari Weiss. The price tag? Somewhere north of $100 million, possibly approaching $200 million. But the real shockwave is the plan to bring Weiss herself into a major leadership role at CBS News—a development that has already sent ripples of anxiety through the storied newsroom.
This drama comes on the heels of a transformative merger. Just last month, David Ellison’s Skydance Media completed its $8 billion deal with Paramount Global, ending decades of Redstone family control and putting CBS News under new, decidedly different management. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave the green light, but only after Ellison agreed to a set of controversial conditions: install an ombudsman to monitor bias, dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and promote what regulators called “viewpoint diversity.” According to Fox Business, these changes have already stirred unrest inside CBS News, with one insider likening the ombudsman’s presence to a “hall monitor.”
Bari Weiss, the 41-year-old former New York Times opinion editor who launched The Free Press in 2022, is no stranger to controversy. She left the Times in 2020, citing its “illiberal environment,” and quickly built a reputation as a sharp critic of both legacy media and progressive orthodoxy. With over 1.25 million subscribers, as Axios reported, her new venture carved out a niche as a platform that, according to CNN media reporter Brian Stelter, “wants to excoriate liberals but not fold fully into the MAGA wing.”
Still, The Free Press has become known for provocative, click-generating headlines—recent examples include “How Zohran Mamdani Could Kill New York’s Schools” and “Is There a Dumber Housing Policy Than Rent Control?”—and for publishing polemics like former NPR editor Uri Berliner’s much-discussed critique of his old employer. Critics, such as media reporter Oliver Darcy, have called the pending deal “absurd,” questioning both the valuation and the wisdom of trying to steer CBS News toward a more Trump-friendly stance. “Ellison appears determined to replicate the John Malone playbook at CNN: nudge the newsroom into a posture more deferential to Trump, launder that shift as ‘balance,’ and hope the MAGA crowd will suddenly reward him,” Darcy wrote on September 3, 2025. “But this formula is already tired and simply doesn’t work.”
For CBS News, these developments cap a tumultuous year. In October 2024, Donald Trump sued the network over a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, claiming it was deceptively edited. Paramount settled the lawsuit for $16 million earlier this year, a move widely seen as clearing the way for the Skydance-Paramount merger. That settlement, according to Puck and The Daily Mail, was just the beginning. In the spring of 2025, both 60 Minutes Executive Producer Bill Owens and CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon resigned, reportedly over concerns about the company’s direction.
The anticipated arrival of Weiss as a top editorial executive has only deepened the uncertainty. According to The Daily Mail, Weiss has been “informally consulting” for CBS for some time, but her new role would put her firmly at the helm. Staffers, some of whom have spent decades at CBS News, are now “whispering about whether they’ll still have a job by the end of the year,” one source told the paper. Another insider predicted a wave of resignations, saying, “Staff morale is at an all-time low. People are scared, plain and simple. Everyone knows a news boss means big changes, and no one feels secure.”
The anxiety isn’t limited to the rank and file. Former anchors have warned that CBS News’ tradition of independent reporting could be at risk under the new regime. The ombudsman, intended to monitor bias and ensure viewpoint diversity, has been criticized as a potential cudgel to enforce a more conservative editorial line. “There’s real fear in the building right now,” said one veteran CBS journalist, echoing a sentiment that’s reportedly widespread.
Meanwhile, the business side of the deal has raised its own questions. Media analysts have openly doubted whether The Free Press, a two-year-old digital publication, is really worth the $100 million to $200 million reportedly on the table. “These audiences celebrate the destabilization of news institutions, not because they will ever turn to them for information, but because they despise them and want to see them burn to ash,” Darcy wrote, noting that attempts to lure conservative viewers to legacy brands have repeatedly failed.
Yet for David Ellison and Skydance, the acquisition of The Free Press and the installation of Weiss as CBS News’ new leader appear to be key parts of a strategy to modernize the network and reverse years of ratings decline. The merger was billed as a way to revitalize Paramount’s content pipeline, but CBS News quickly became a focal point during regulatory review. The FCC’s insistence on eliminating DEI mandates and appointing an ombudsman reflects broader debates over media bias and the future of American journalism.
Paramount and Weiss have so far declined to comment publicly on the negotiations, which are said to be in their final stages. But the outlines of the new order are already clear. As Puck reported, Weiss’ hiring by Ellison—himself the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison—is “set to make waves within the CBS newsroom after a tumultuous year.”
It’s a remarkable turn for CBS News, a network once known as the “Tiffany network” and the home of legends like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. As Dan Rather, the former anchor, was famously sidelined in the aftermath of the 2004 60 Minutes II controversy, so too does the current generation face a crossroads. The prospect of a right-leaning editorial shift, led by a figure as polarizing as Weiss, has left many inside and outside CBS News wondering what comes next—and whether the network’s storied legacy can survive the latest round of corporate and political turbulence.
For now, as the dust settles on one of the most consequential media shakeups in years, the only certainty is that CBS News—and the broader landscape of American journalism—will never be quite the same.
