J.D. Tuccille: Americans no longer trust the news media. Bari Weiss is here to save it

Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press

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As amusing as former “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley’s public tantrum was after his firing from CBS News, it’s impossible to know whether the network’s editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, will succeed in her mission to remake and revive the once-respected media colossus. Even less clear is whether she could help CNN, which rumour has it she may also soon run. What’s obvious, though, is that somebody needs to make changes at America’s news operations or they’ll continue to cater to a dwindling and increasingly distrustful audience. Weiss deserves credit for at least trying.

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“She’s murdering 60 Minutes,” Pelley, who to all appearances is the embodiment of pomposity in a suit, allegedly said of Weiss. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.” Pelley also accused the recently hired chief editor of inserting political spin into the network’s reporting — a curious accusation given that by his own telling, as well as that of his former colleagues, Weiss is concerned that political opinions already permeate CBS News.

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“Why do you think so? Do you have a poll? Is there market research? What are you talking about?” Pelley sniffed in response to Weiss’s claim of a public perception of bias at the network’s newsroom.

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Pelley should get out more. It’s no secret that much of the media is not only seen as leaning ideologically to the left, but that independent monitors rank CBS News as left of centre. Last June, the Pew Research Center found that of the major U.S. TV news operations, only Fox News was trusted by a majority (56 per cent) of Republicans. CBS News was trusted by a majority (56 per cent) of Democrats and just 23 per cent of Republicans. Similar results were reported for ABC News, NBC News and CNN.

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Importantly, Allsides, which assesses the political leanings of news operations, tags CBS News as “lean left,” with “high confidence in this bias rating.” The organization notes that “AllSides moved CBS News’ bias rating slightly leftward, from -1.5 to -1.69, still in the Lean Left category, after conducting two in-depth bias reviews in Dec. 2025 and Jan. 2026.”

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That’s not inherently a problem, as many media outlets embrace overt ideological leanings and win audiences by doing so. But CBS News has been losing ground for years. In 1980, “CBS Evening News” averaged 15.9-million viewers. That was down to 7.1 million in 2000, 4.7 million in 2014 and just over 4.2-million viewers in the first quarter of this year. To be fair, most big news operations are shedding audience. But Bari Weiss, who built the Free Press into a media force, is responsible for CBS News.

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“We are not producing a product that enough people want,” Weiss told CBS News staffers in January. “Not enough people trust us. Not you. Us. As in: the mainstream media. We can debate why that is, but the numbers tell the story.”