Paramount bought CBS last year and installed “radical centrist” Bari Weiss as the editor-in-chief of CBS News. Firings and editorial controversies have been grabbing headlines ever since.
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The Questions
How has the editorial direction and bias of CBS News changed since the Paramount acquisition?
Though CBS News has traditionally been known for its moderately liberal bias, many readers suspected the outlet would or did change when Bari Weiss (Center) took over editorial operations in October 2025. Weiss, who was initially known as a liberal legacy media commentator that had grown tired of the mainstream media dogma, went on to found the independent publication The Free Press (Lean Right) in early 2021. She then took over at CBS once Paramount acquired The Free Press for $150 million in October 2025.
Under Weiss’ watch, many shakeups have occurred at the network. Most recently, last week, former 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, a 37-year veteran at the network, was fired along with some of his other team members. In an interview published Sunday by The New York Times (Lean Left), Pelley alleged that Weiss and CBS’s corporate ownership showed strong bias in favor of President Trump and interfered with the editorial process. The media scandal follows several months of concern from media commentators and social media users that CBS is moving rightward since Weiss took over.
What have AllSides analyses discovered?
Claims that CBS had become more right-wing prompted AllSides to take another look at CBS News in December 2025 and January 2026 to see if its Lean Left rating – which it has held since 2017 – needed adjusting.
Read More: AllSides Analysis – Has CBS News’ Bias Moved Right Under Bari Weiss’ Leadership?
While AllSides’ editorial panel didn’t notice a significant change in the outlet’s rating, some team members noticed hints of a more pro-Zionist/pro-Israel bias, a concern several media commentators, such as Glenn Greenwald (Center), Cenk Uygur (Left), and Megyn Kelly (Right), have also voiced.
Before the review, one AllSides team member noticed that when covering the Minnesota Somali fraud story, which dominated mainstream media in the final days of 2025, CBS was often out in front of other outlets with original reporting that seemed to lean in favor of conservative and Trump administration narratives.
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Mainstream Israeli papers such as The Times of Israel (Center) and Haaretz (Lean Left) have also said or implied that Weiss has a pro-Israel bias. And in September 2024, the AllSides team noted that The Free Press had a “strong pro-Israel bias.” In February 2026, after AllSides’ most recent evaluation of CBS, Director of Communications and Bias Services Julie Mastrine (Lean Right) wrote:
Various bias analyses by AllSides have found The Free Press’ news content is very pro-Israel/Zionist, critical of “woke” culture, and has a classical liberal bent. Its coverage largely frames Democrats negatively and right-wing figures more positively, while not falling totally in line with the "MAGA right," or populist right-wing. It has been rated both Right and Lean Left in recent AllSides Blind Bias Surveys, underscoring the difficulty of placing it into one partisan box. As of now, AllSides rates The Free Press Lean Right.
Weiss is Jewish and a Zionist. This week, Weiss announced further shakeups at CBS News, offering buyouts to existing staff and further involving contributors from The Free Press. Some commentators noted that Weiss’ new contributors are also largely Zionists.
Media outlets and commentators on the left may be more likely to see Weiss as right-wing due to her bucking of progressive orthodoxy, pushback against “woke” culture, and Zionist views (though the American right is currently split on this issue).
So all in all, CBS News hasn’t necessarily moved right under Weiss’ leadership, both according to the AllSides staff and the nearly 400 Americans across the spectrum it blindly surveyed.
However, anecdotal evidence suggests that it has become more pro-Israel, which would make sense considering Weiss is largely considered to be pro-Israel by both legacy and anti-establishment commentators, and the network absorbed and promoted many of the content creators involved with The Free Press.
Beyond how the network’s editorial attitude has changed, Weiss also significantly changed it structurally, too – laying off around 100 employees when she first took over in the fall; cutting the radio division, which employed around 60-70 staffers in March of this year; and firing core 60 Minutes personnel like Scott Pelley.
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Other outlets have also experienced major changes recently: the Washington Post (Lean Left) laid off hundreds of journalists over the past year and changed the focus of its Opinion page in February to highlight ideas about “personal liberties and free markets,” and Bari Weiss is likely to take over editorial oversight of CNN if Paramount Skydance acquires Warner Bros. Some late-night shows have shuttered, including Stephen Colbert, while others faced some political backlash but were ultimately brought back to air, such as Jimmy Kimmel.
Part of the problem large media companies are facing is weakening revenues and smaller audiences, as advertising and cable revenues shrink while viewers shift to other platforms, such as streaming services, social media, and podcasts.
However, some believe these changes have political motivations. Before leaving the air, Colbert alleged that his network, CBS, blocked an interview with Texan Democratic Rep. James Talarico to appease the Trump administration, claiming to be following FCC regulations. CEO of Paramount Skydance David Ellison seemingly has a relationship with Trump, including having visited the White House and allegedly hosting Trump at private gatherings. Some critics believe Ellison’s relationship to Trump has influenced decisions at the media companies he owns (or is poised to own).
Others think the shakeups were necessary.
“An intellectually honest fourth estate is an indispensable safeguard of a healthy republic,” wrote Josh Hammer (Lean Right). “Accordingly, it is imperative that Weiss succeed in her quest to refashion CBS News into a genuinely fair and balanced network. And it is equally important that all other organizations seeking to rebalance their biased coverages achieve similar success. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of the mainstream press’s death are greatly exaggerated. Instead, it may just be the case that the mainstream press will begin to look quite a bit different. And that’s not such a bad thing.”
“Independence” in mainstream media is often a myth.
Sources that claim to be independent often fall into one of the following categories, none of which could honestly be described as “independent”:
Corporate Consolidation/Conglomerates: Outlets owned by large parent corporations or private equity firms. While journalists claim “independence,” they are ultimately bound by fiduciary duties to shareholders and corporate boards. Their content is subtly or overtly steered to protect parent company interests and maximize profit margins over hard-hitting journalism.
Vanity Projects: Outlets purchased or funded by ultra-wealthy individuals. Even if the owner promises a “hands-off” approach, the threat of defunding breeds systemic self-censorship. The publication inevitably reflects the broader economic and political worldview of its financial backer.
The Access Journalism Trap: Outlets that rely entirely on high-level political or corporate insiders for scoops. To preserve access to key sources, journalists often water down their reporting or act as mouthpieces for anonymous leaks. True independence is traded for proximity to power.
State-Funded or -Aligned Press: Outlets funded directly by governments (either domestic or foreign) or heavily reliant on state advertising subsidies. While some can maintain a level of editorial freedom, their geopolitical reporting and structural biases almost always match the overarching foreign policy and national security goals of their funding state.
Crowdfunded or subscriber-dependent outlets often claim independence because they don't answer to corporate masters. However, they can become deeply beholden to the biases of their specific donor base. Subscriptions drop if they challenge their audience's preferred narrative. Subsequently, they are forced to feed a specific echo chamber to survive.
Relevance in modern media often requires “playing the game” of clickbait, sensationalism, algorithms, partisan appeasement, and context-stripping. Independent or not, most sources will display these tactics at some point.
True “independence” in journalism often means exactly that: an individual journalist or a privately-owned journalism operation that doesn’t stand to profit from the specific outcomes of the stories they cover, the political success of the subjects they investigate, or the financial interests of the entities funding them.
Their success and survival depend entirely on their credibility with an audience that values uncompromised truth over comfortable narratives.
Read more of AllSides’ coverage of CBS News since Bari Weiss took over:
Headline Roundup: Bari Weiss Reportedly Set For Top CBS Role As Paramount Moves to Acquire The Free Press - September 5
Headline Roundup: Paramount Buys ‘The Free Press,’ Bari Weiss to Lead CBS - October 6
Story Of The Week: Paramount Buys ‘The Free Press’; Bari Weiss Becomes Editor-in-Chief of CBS - October 9
Headline Roundup: Is Bari Weiss a Good Pick to Lead CBS? - October 13
Headline Roundup: Media Criticizes CBS, Trump For Edited ‘60 Minutes’ Interview - November 3
Headline Roundup: CBS Pulls '60 Minutes' Migrant Story Pending 'Additional Reporting' - December 23
Headline Roundup: Was CBS' Decision on ‘60 Minutes’ Segment Editorial or Political? - December 23
Headline Roundup: Bari Weiss Adds 19 New Contributors to CBS, Says Network is 'Toast' Without New Strategy - January 29
AllSides Analysis: Has CBS News’ Bias Moved Right Under Bari Weiss’ Leadership? - February 2
Headline Roundup: Colbert Criticizes CBS, Says His Bosses Blocked a Scheduled Interview - February 18
Headline Roundup: Did CBS Block the Colbert-Talarico Interview? - February 18
Headline Roundup: CBS News Fires Correspondents In '60 Minutes' Overhaul - May 29
Headline Roundup: Scott Pelley Accuses CBS, Bari Weiss of Political Bias After Being Fired - June 8
Headline Roundup: Paramount-Warner Bros Merger Could Put Bari Weiss In Charge of CNN - June 9
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What’s behind the rise in corporate media shakeups?
What does an “independent” media outlet look like today?
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