Insiders have accused the MAGA-friendly editor-in-chief at CBS News of interfering in a report on a key Donald Trump ally abroad.
Conservative Bari Weiss, 42, took the reins at the network last October after she was installed by Paramount Skydance’s Trump-friendly owner, nepo billionaire David Ellison, despite having never worked in television news before.
Weiss has faced repeated allegations of steering CBS coverage, and in particular reports by the network’s flagship investigative show 60 Minutes, away from anything that might upset the Trump administration.
The chaos culminated in a raft of firings in late May, on a day dubbed “Black Thursday” by staff, that saw Weiss ax veterans Tanya Simon, Draggan Mihailovich, Cecilia Vega, and Sharyn Alfonsi from the program. Anchor Scott Pelley, who had similarly pushed back against changes implemented by Weiss, soon followed.
The latest accusations come only weeks after the new 60 Minutes executive producer, Nick Bilton, a Weiss pick, sought to steady the newsroom with a memo promising to shield its editorial autonomy.
“The foundation of 60 Minutes is its journalistic independence,” the former New York Times and Vanity Fair writer told staff—insisting that the story would always come before politics or relationships.
Weiss has reportedly already punctured that pledge, multiple people briefed on the matter told Breaker. The contested segment focuses on Nigel Farage, the Trump ally who leads Britain’s far-right Reform UK party.
Senior foreign correspondent Holly Williams, who joined the network in 2012, and producer Erin Lyall first pitched the story in May. It was approved by Simon prior to her departure at the end of that month.
Weiss has since pulled the assignment off William and instead handed it to Trevor Phillips, a U.K. Sky News veteran she recruited to the network in June, Breaker’s sources say.
Phillips arrived at CBS trailing controversy, given that he has faced allegations of Islamophobia and that he defended Peter Mandelson, a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, following his ouster as Uthe U.K. ambassador to Washington last year over his ties to the late pedophile.
Williams apparently learned she’d been booted from the story on a call with Weiss while the correspondent was reporting from Lebanon. Phillips has since struggled to staff the piece. Almost none of the program’s seasoned producers will touch it, citing his checkered record, Breaker reported on Wednesday.
Trump ally Farage has meanwhile faced mounting scrutiny at home over eye-watering undisclosed payments from high-net-worth individuals and, in at least one case, a convicted criminal. The politician announced Tuesday he’d be resigning in the face of backlash to those donations—if only, bizarrely, to run again for exactly the same seat he’s now vacated.
Behind the scenes, Bilton has apparently shown far less bravado than he did upon arriving at the network in May, when a batch of his early remarks about editorial direction deeply unsettled his colleagues, according to Breaker. Associates say that Bilton knows the relaunch of 60 Minutes in September will draw close scrutiny—not just from viewers, but from rivals across the industry.
A CBS News spokesperson declined to provide Breaker with a statement on the claims about the Farage report. The Daily Beast has contacted the network for comment.
