When Donald Trump sat down with Norah O'Donnell at Mar-a-Lago for a "60 Minutes" interview this past Halloween, the moment carried unusual weight. It marked the former president's first CBS appearance since launching legal action against the network, alleging that the program had manipulated an interview with then-candidate Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign. Though legal experts largely dismissed the lawsuit's foundation, CBS parent company Paramount—then under Redstone family control—agreed to a $16 million settlement. The timing proved significant, as media entrepreneur David Ellison was finalizing his $8 billion acquisition of Paramount, a transaction requiring federal approval.
Trump's praise for the network's new direction was effusive. "I see good things happening in the news," he told O'Donnell. "I think one of the best things to happen is this show and new ownership—CBS and new ownership. I think it's the greatest thing that's happened in a long time to a free and open and good press."
Observing from off-camera was Bari Weiss, the newly installed editor-in-chief of CBS News. Her presence represented a stunning turn in American journalism. Only a few years prior, Weiss had dramatically resigned from The New York Times, publishing a public letter that excoriated the paper as ideologically rigid and disconnected from mainstream America. She accused the Times of capitulating to progressive orthodoxy and failing to serve a broad national audience.
Following her departure, Weiss built The Free Press, initially as a Substack newsletter that evolved into a full-fledged media operation positioned as an alternative to what she termed the "woke" mainstream press. She argued that outlets like Fox News and MSNBC were delivering "political heroin" to polarized audiences, while countless Americans felt politically homeless—unmoored from traditional party labels and ideological categories that no longer reflected their values.
David Ellison's decision to purchase The Free Press for $150 million in early October, immediately installing Weiss as CBS News chief, sent shockwaves through the media industry. The move came just weeks before his Paramount deal closed, leading many insiders to view it as a strategic political calculation rather than a pure editorial decision.
Industry veterans saw the transaction as a direct overture to the Trump administration. "They just wanted to hire Bari as a symbolic gesture to Donald Trump to make sure they got that deal through," one longtime media executive explained. "Don't think about it as David Ellison paying a hundred and fifty million dollars for The Free Press. Think about it as a hundred and fifty million dollars on top of the price they paid for Paramount. It was basically the cost to get it to go through."
This perception of transactional journalism raises profound questions about editorial independence in an era of media consolidation. When corporate mergers depend on regulatory approval from politically active administrations, the line between business strategy and journalistic integrity becomes dangerously blurred. The settlement, while financially modest for a company of Paramount's size, carried enormous symbolic weight, suggesting that editorial decisions could be influenced by legal threats from powerful political figures.
Weiss's appointment arrives as broadcast news faces an existential crisis. Traditional networks are hemorrhaging viewers while confronting unprecedented levels of public distrust. CBS News employs approximately 1,200 journalists—a massive operation compared to The Free Press's modest staff of around sixty. Yet the network's potential reach dwarfs anything Weiss could have built independently.
For Weiss, the CBS platform offers an opportunity to test her thesis that audiences crave heterodox perspectives and politically nuanced coverage. She has long argued that mainstream media serves an elite bubble increasingly "turning against America," while ignoring the complex, often contradictory views of ordinary citizens.
The challenge is immense. Transforming a century-old news institution with entrenched cultures and unionized staff requires more than ideological conviction. It demands managerial skill, political acumen, and the ability to maintain journalistic standards while pursuing editorial change. Weiss must navigate internal resistance from journalists skeptical of her anti-woke reputation while simultaneously delivering the ratings growth that justifies her appointment.
Critics worry that Weiss's anti-woke positioning could turn CBS News into a vehicle for culture war politics rather than objective reporting. Supporters counter that mainstream journalism desperately needs disruption and that Weiss's brand of intellectual diversity could re-engage disaffected viewers.
The Paramount acquisition itself reflects broader trends in media ownership. As tech billionaires and entertainment moguls consolidate control of news organizations, editorial decisions increasingly intersect with personal politics and business interests. Ellison's relationship with the Trump administration, combined with his willingness to settle meritless lawsuits, suggests a pragmatic approach to navigating Washington's power structures.
This pragmatism may serve shareholders but potentially undermines the credibility of the news division. When audiences perceive that coverage decisions are influenced by corporate deal-making, trust—already in short supply—erodes further. The challenge for Weiss is to establish genuine editorial independence despite the circumstances of her hiring, a task that requires transparent decision-making and clear boundaries between business and journalism.
Weiss now faces the task of proving that her vision for CBS can transcend the circumstances of her appointment. Can she build a newsroom that serves what she calls the "politically homeless" while operating within a corporate structure that appears to have made major editorial decisions for political convenience?
The early signs are mixed. Trump's settlement and subsequent praise created an appearance of quid pro quo journalism. Yet Weiss's track record at The Free Press demonstrates an ability to build an audience around unconventional storytelling and willingness to challenge orthodoxies across the political spectrum.
The fundamental question is whether broadcast news can be reformed from within. Weiss's experiment at CBS represents perhaps the most ambitious attempt to answer that question. If successful, it could provide a roadmap for revitalizing legacy media. If it fails, it may confirm suspicions that institutional journalism has become too compromised by commercial and political pressures to serve its democratic function.
For now, the industry watches closely. The convergence of Trump's lawsuit, Ellison's acquisition, and Weiss's appointment has created a perfect storm of media, money, and politics. What emerges from this turbulence may define the future of American broadcast journalism.