Fox News anchor John Roberts lamented how CBS employees will be left behind by Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss’s shuttering of the network’s long-running radio program.
Weiss, 41, announced Friday that not only would CBS News Radio, which had been around for nearly a century, end in May, but that six percent of the company would be laid off immediately.
Roberts, a former CBS anchor and chief White House correspondent who is now the co-anchor of America Reports on Fox, extended his best wishes to all those who would be losing their jobs once the network’s radio platform shuts down.
“End of an era,” 69-year-old Roberts, who was with CBS from 1992 to 2006, wrote on X. “I recall doing the 3pm network radio headlines every Sunday before anchoring the CBS Sunday Evening News... My very best wishes to all who will be left behind by the shuttering of this venerable institution...”
CBS News Radio, which provided coverage to 700 affiliates nationwide, was home to broadcasters such as Edward R. Murrow, who reported from Europe during World War II. It was launched in 1927.
Reps for CBS and Weiss did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Weiss and CBS President Tom Cibrowski offered an explanation for the “necessary” layoffs and the end of the network’s radio program in a note to staff.
“It’s no secret that the news business is changing radically, and that we need to change along with it,” they wrote. “New audiences are burgeoning in new places, and we are pressing forward with ambitious plans to grow and invest so that we can be there for them. That means some parts of our newsroom must get smaller to make room for the things we must build to remain competitive.”
The layoffs are expected to affect about 60 to 70 CBS employees.
Weiss, the anti-woke opinion journalist who had no prior television news experience before being installed by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, has attempted to broaden the network’s appeal to conservative audiences.
In January, when buyouts were offered to some staff members, Weiss didn’t have a problem with those who considered quitting over the company’s rightward shift, telling them, “it’s a free country.”
“If that’s not your bag, that’s ok,” she said in an all-hands meeting. “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.”
Weiss’s editorial direction reportedly led to 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper and Justice Department correspondent Scott MacFarlane deciding to leave. Additionally, a CBS Evening News producer told colleagues in a farewell letter that journalists there were being forced to “self-censor.”
