Phillips acknowledged that Weiss, who took over CBS News less than a year ago, has quite a challenge ahead of her. “Bari and her team have a huge tanker of a network news organisation to turn around, and they are assembling a little team on the bridge, Phillips said. He added that “The great thing about her is that she’s one of those people who will either change the world or crash and burn. But when they crash and burn, it’s in technicolour.”
Crash and burn sure is one way to phrase everything that has gone down at the network over the past few months alone, from pulled news segments and trying to fashion CBS as some sort of startup to awful ratings, layoffs, and the staff staging a walkout. The downfall is already here, and Phillips is coming aboard what is likely a sinking ship.
Still, the former Sky News reporter was reportedly handpicked by Weiss herself, which explains Phillips’ words: “In the U.S., the controversy has been framed as, ‘CBS News is becoming anti-woke’. But that’s not what Bari is about. She has her own views, some of which I’m sympathetic to, some of which I’m not, but her point is that the media should be heterodox. There should be a variety of voices.” Right, that’s why CBS has only tried to bring more and more conservatives to its roster lately.
In the same Telegraph interview, Phillips espoused some of the views that might have landed him the job, like saying that liberals are hated in London and that “not all cultures are equally desirable or legitimate.” He also said there was a “need to return to the business of reporting,” a strategy that Weiss hasn’t figured out yet.
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