James Faris headshot

Bari Weiss fielded tough questions from CBS News staffers about political bias and the network’s future at a town hall

by with No Comment Xpandfy

CBS News employees put top editor Bari Weiss in the hot seat during an all-hands meeting on Tuesday, asking about her vision and standards for the nearly century-old broadcast network.

The first question in the Q&A part of her town hall asked how she would respond to criticism that CBS News is turning into “a right-wing network” under her leadership.

“I’m here to do one thing. It’s not to be a mouthpiece for anybody. It’s simply to be a mouthpiece for fairness and the pursuit of truth,” Weiss said at the all-hands meeting, according to a recording obtained by Business Insider.

Weiss, who became the editor in chief of CBS News in October after Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison bought her opinion site The Free Press, asked staffers to examine the coverage since her appointment.

“There’s a lot of noise out there, but I would just urge anyone who suggests that to look at our work and judge for yourself,” she said.

Weiss was then asked how the network’s news-gathering standards had changed since she took over.

“I don’t think our standards have changed,” she said, adding that the network was “in very capable hands” regarding editorial standards.

Weiss said she ‘was not pressured’ to hold the ’60 Minutes’ segment

Weiss caused a stir in December for a late-hour decision to delay a “60 Minutes” segment about the Trump administration deporting migrants to the CECOT prison in El Salvador. Critics questioned her commitment to hard-hitting journalism and wondered whether Paramount leadership was influencing editorial decisions at CBS News — a notion that Weiss strongly denied on Tuesday.

“I want to just say this as plainly and clearly as possible. I was not pressured by David Ellison or anyone else,” Weiss said during the town hall. Weiss acknowledged that delaying the segment after commercials had already run for it was bad timing.

“I didn’t know the screening schedule for every single thing, that specific logistical nightmare,” she said. “That’s never going to happen again. So please rest assured that nothing of that kind is ever going to happen again. You have my promise.”

That said, she added that “asking for more information” and “trying to go back to a source” for a comment was an editorial policy she wanted to prioritize to build trust with audiences, as she explained in a December memo to employees.

“I felt it was important to do our best to try and get a voice from the administration, and I’m always going to be pushing for that,” Weiss said.

Weiss had little experience in traditional TV before joining CBS News. Instead, she became known in 2020 for her dramatic exit from The New York Times, during which she alleged anti-conservative bias. Her next move, starting The Free Press, turned out to be lucrative when Ellison bought it for $150 million in October.

‘Loving America is not about jingoism’

On Tuesday, Weiss was also asked about her core values, including what one of the new guiding principles for CBS Evening News — “We Love America” — means for journalists.

“Loving America is not about jingoism. It’s not about blind patriotism,” Weiss told employees. “It’s about vociferous defense of the principles and values that have made this country exceptional and that allow us to do the work that we do. And so anyone that disagrees with that, I’d love to have a conversation with you.”

When asked whether “CBS Mornings” would undergo another shake-up, Weiss noted that it had already undergone a major change, with longtime anchor Tony Dokoupil moving to the evening show.

“Speculation about Gayle King seems to be a favorite parlor game of a lot of newspapers and people in this building, and I just want everyone here to know that she’s absolutely beloved and see her long into the future here at CBS,” Weiss said.

A shift to a ‘streaming mentality’

In prepared remarks, Weiss said that CBS News needed to “shift to a streaming mentality immediately” and that if the broadcast network stuck mainly to its linear TV strategy, “we’re toast.”

When asked about staffing or potential layoffs at CBS News, Weiss said that she couldn’t make any promises amid a “tsunami of technological change.”

“I can’t stand up here and tell you that in a moment of incredible transformation that that’s not going to mean transformation of our workforce,” Weiss said. She added that CBS News is “also hiring people to suit that.”

On Tuesday, CBS News announced 19 new contributors to the network, including writers and podcasters like Coleman Hughes and Derek Thompson.

Weiss said that if she didn’t believe digital revenue could eventually replace linear TV revenue, she “wouldn’t be standing here.” She said that linear TV wouldn’t go away, but that revenue would “decline sharply, as will the audience.”

“What winning looks like writ large for this company is building incredible journalism for audiences that are so much bigger than the one that we currently have and are maintaining on linear,” Weiss said. “That’s what winning looks like. It’s really simple.”

Have a tip or thoughts on Bari Weiss’ strategy for CBS News? Contact this reporter via email at jfaris@businessinsider.com or Signal at @jamesfaris.01. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.




Source link

The-Pentagon-says-China-has-fielded-a-new-long-range-missile.jpeg

The Pentagon says China has fielded a new long-range missile. Here’s why the DF-27 is unusual.

by with No Comment Xpandfy

China appears to have fielded a new intercontinental ballistic missile, the DF-27, which can range the continental US and, unlike other ICBMs, serve a mix of missions, including targeting ships, a new Pentagon report says.

The Department of Defense’s annual report on the Chinese military, the latest of which came out last week, is the first public assessment that the missile is operational. The missile is said to have a land-attack and anti-ship role.

The latter role is unusual for an intercontinental-range ballistic missile, as is its conventional strike role documented in the new Pentagon report. ICBMs are primarily for nuclear strike.

The latest report offers little on the new missile beyond a map showing China’s “fielded conventional strike.” The DF-27, identified as an ICBM with a range of 5,000 to 8,000 km, shorter than some other systems built for strategic nuclear strike, is a new addition to that map showing Chinese missile ranges.

That range completely covers Hawaii and Alaska, and it also extends into parts of the continental US. The exact reach might vary depending on the launch site, but broadly, the weapon puts naval forces and US military installations across the Pacific at risk in a new way.

A “long-range” DF-27 missile was first mentioned in the 2021 Pentagon report. It said that indications on the range hinted at either an intercontinental- or intermediate-range missile. That uncertainty persisted until the 2025 report identified it as an ICBM.

The 2024 Pentagon report notably offered the most detail, stating that the DF-27 had been “deployed” to the Rocket Force. It added that this weapon likely has an option for an HGV, a hypersonic glide vehicle, “as well as conventional land-attack, conventional antiship, and nuclear capabilities.” The 2025 report, however, did not put the weapon under “fielded nuclear capabilities.”

According to the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, the DF-27 carries potentially significant strategic implications.

In an early assessment of the Chinese missile published two years ago, the group cited a leaked intelligence briefing indicating the missile was tested in February 2023 and warned that it could give China another means to hold targets at risk beyond the second island chain, with a high likelihood of being able to penetrate US ballistic-missile defenses and the potential to serve as a “carrier killer.”

China has not publicly commented on the DF-27, though local media have at times approached the topic indirectly.


A map showing estimated ranges of Chinese missiles outside of the mainland and towards other regions.

The estimated ranges of Chinese missiles across the region and towards the US.

US Department of Defense



Fielding the new DF-27 makes China the first to have an operational, conventionally armed ICBM. The US and Russia have not fielded similar capabilities; however, both have been pursuing new intermediate-range capabilities since the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which the US walked away from in 2019 after accusing Russia of non-compliance.

The DF-27 is the latest example of China’s efforts to develop and field varied, flexible strike options for a potential conflict. The missile branch of its military, called the People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Force, has grown exponentially, and Chinese military doctrine emphasizes the need for it to possess the ability to quickly, precisely, and, in some cases, preemptively strike targets.

With the new DF-27 ICBM, “China became the first to field an analogous capability: a conventional ICBM—with an ASBM variant—that can conduct rapid, long-range precision strikes out to intercontinental distances, including against its ‘strong enemy’s’ homeland and its naval forces at sea,” Andrew Erickson, a professor at the US Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Inistitute, wrote last week.

Since the Pentagon’s annual reports cover only developments from the previous year, the newest one doesn’t include other notable missile developments in China from this year. An important development in September was Beijing’s reveal of the DF-61 and DF-31BJ, both ICBMs, at a military parade.

It’s unclear whether those missiles are operational, but even if they’re still in development, the implications of the presentation in the Chinese capital are that these missiles will eventually be additions to China’s already sizable land-based ICBM arsenal.




Source link