Bari Weiss argues that CBS News has not been "producing a product that enough people want"

“We have to start by looking honestly at ourselves. We are not producing a product that enough people want,” she said during the meeting, per THR. “We can blame demographics or technology or fractured attention spans or ‘news avoidance’ but these are all copes.” Ahead of the meeting, Weiss unveiled a slate of new contributors for CBS News, including podcasters like Andrew Huberman and Peter Attia, per Deadline. Weiss reiterated during the meeting her stance that not enough people trust the mainstream media. “We can debate why that is, but the numbers tell the story. According to a recent Gallup poll, just 28 percent of people say we have their trust. Second: We are not doing enough to meet audiences where they are. So they are leaving us. They are not tuning out, far from it. In fact, Americans spend twice as much time consuming news today as they did 50 years ago,” she claimed. “They are going to the vast universe of podcasts and YouTube and Twitch and newsletters and, yes, sometimes to our nimbler competitors.” 

“We are going to put huge emphasis on scoops,” Weiss continued of her plans. “Not scoops that expire minutes later. But investigative scoops. And, crucially, scoops of ideas. Scoops of explanation. This is where we can soar, and where we’ll be investing.” Per THR, she described CBS News as “the best-capitalized media startup in the world,” but added, “But startups aren’t for everyone. They’re places that move at a rapid speed. They experiment. They try new things. They sometimes create noise and, yes, bad press. If that’s not your bag, that’s ok. It’s a free country and I completely respect if you decide this is just not the right place at the right time for you.”

It is certainly true that more traditional forms of media have struggled to earn money, and some of these ideas may even sound like they have potential in a vacuum. But Weiss is not operating in a vacuum, and some of the actions of CBS News within just the past month seem to, at the very least, complicate these principles. In late December, Weiss delayed airing what was described as a rigorously vetted story about the infamous Salvadorian prison CECOT because the Trump administration wouldn’t offer on-the-record comment. The network ultimately aired the segment a month later with no additional comment. 

Meanwhile, after ICE agents executed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis two weeks ago, CBS News published an “exclusive” report, citing only anonymous U.S. officials and Department of Homeland Security officials, that the officer who shot her suffered internal bleeding. Per The Guardian, that report was one of many instances at the outlet that caused internal backlash from staff, with one anonymous staffer telling that outlet that the report “felt to many here like we were carrying water for the admin’s justifying of the shooting to keep our access to our sources.” Whether or not a story like that can win the public’s trust back, it certainly is a product that some people want.