CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss met with several CNN executives ahead of the merger between their parent companies, Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Details of the meeting were revealed in Tuesday’s edition of Status, including the fact that Weiss was joined by CBS President Tom Cibrowski at the meeting, with CNN CEO Mark Thompson, COO Alex MacCallum, and executive editor Virginia Moseley representing the rival network. Executives from both networks’ parent companies were also in attendance.
In the meeting, CNN executives detailed the network’s strategy, particularly its digital ambitions, including its online subscription streaming service. According to Status, Moseley described how CNN publishes its reporting across its various platforms, including television, its website, and other digital properties.
Spokespeople for CBS, CNN and Paramount declined to comment when contacted by Status.
The meeting was conducted as part of a get-to-know-you process between the networks and their parent companies, ahead of Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
On Friday, the Justice Department cleared the way for billionaire nepo baby and Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison to buy Warner by shutting down an antitrust investigation into the merger.
The Wall Street Journal reported that lawyers in the DOJ’s antitrust division had been inclined to recommend a lawsuit to prevent the merger on the grounds that allowing the two media giants to merge would be anticompetitive and violate antitrust laws.
Instead, the department’s senior leadership shut down the investigation before lawyers could make a final recommendation, effectively greenlighting the deal at the federal level.
Ellison, son of billionaire Trump pal Larry Ellison, acquired Paramount in June 2025. He installed Weiss as editor-in-chief at CBS News in October, after buying her anti-woke news outlet The Free Press.
Weiss’s tenure as editor-in-chief has been marked by controversy, including layoffs, departures of high-profile stars, and explosive, highly publicized blowups with network veterans.
60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley, who worked at CBS for 37 years, was fired after criticizing Weiss and her handpicked executive editor for the celebrated news program at a staff meeting, accusing Weiss of “murdering” the show and telling newly hired Nick Bilton that he would “never be welcome.”
Pelley later accused CBS leadership of instructing him to insert falsehoods into a story and of tilting coverage in favor of President Donald Trump.
“The collapse of values at the top has become untenable,” Pelley wrote in a statement following his departure. “The leadership of 60 Minutes is no longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I must leave as well.”
“I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion—a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again—a day when sanity, competence, and courage return.”
Weiss responded to the turmoil by hiding in her office and isolating herself from all but her closest allies, according to a report from Status. The sixth-floor office in which the 42-year-old has reportedly “bunkered down” is locked, and visitors must use a special key card to gain access.
