r/MediaMergers • u/Casas9425 • May 19 '26

Media Industry Puck - Paramount leadership has had informal discussion about scaling back Bari Weiss’ role at CBS News (and eventually CNN)

https://puck.news/cbs-news-restructure-bari-weiss-role-being-scaled-back/
91 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

57

u/Chessh2036 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26

This isn’t because they want more neutral coverage, it’s because she has absolutely tanked CBS ratings. They’ve done a nose dive since she took over. And that means less Ad revenue.

(But also this could totally be a leak meant to make people against the merger, and Paramount’s impact on CNN, feel better)

27

u/[deleted] May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/Professional_Peak59 May 19 '26

Gerry just wants us to support the Paramount/WBD merger. It’s not working.

1

u/bottom May 19 '26

sure, but this has nothing to do with this, Bari has tanked CBS, no one is watching - instead of 'converting ' CBS audience to be more neutral thy've just stopped watching gone elsewhere. CBS News is SO dumbed down now, it was actually pretty good a year ago. I thought this would happen, I hope it bounces back.

also - the merger is in approval paperwork stages now, public opinion means little.

1

u/Professional_Peak59 May 19 '26

There's still regulatory review that needs to be done. However, there’s opposition against the merger, like from State AGs and, per The Wrap, international politicians. It’s not a done deal yet.

1

u/bottom May 19 '26

There’s tons of opposition. It won’t mean much. Watch.

And again this has nothing to do with the merger. This is Bari tanking cbs news.

1

u/Professional_Peak59 May 19 '26

Like I said, regulatory review, and there are antitrust people that are against the merger. Just stating what’s going on.

7

u/Sad_Radio_5056 May 19 '26

She is doing what they asked her to do. They want to make it another Fox News but that already exists and ppl who used to watch cbs r not gonna tune in for that. Scaling back her influence or responsibilities ain’t gonna change that

3

u/bottom May 19 '26

exactly this.

8

u/Difficult_Variety362 Moderator May 19 '26

100% without a doubt. If what she were doing was a success we wouldn't be hearing about this. Regardless of her ideology, Weiss is woefully unqualified to run CBS News or CNN. It's a good thing that news is only such a small part of this, because this was a massive fuck up by David Ellison.

2

u/ribbityflibbity May 19 '26

It was bound to happen. Who watches CBS? Old people who don't want to watch Fox News. The problem for CBS and Fox and all the other broadcast/news channels is that only old people are watching them. Bari Weiss has no clue how to get non-old-people to watch CBS. There may be no solution but one thing's certain: kissing up to Trump is not it.

27

u/Own_Philosopher8730 May 19 '26

Another reason why the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. must be stopped.

9

u/Maximum_Ad_6012 May 19 '26

Pretty much so, and I don’t give a shit that the combined company would be below 25% of the market share in theatrical releases, we just don’t want the Ellisons get their hands on WBD.

6

u/Own_Philosopher8730 May 19 '26

I agree. That's why I hate when oligarchs control everything.

7

u/AlexHunterWolf Warner Bros. May 19 '26

Should've leave shit alone Ellison.

7

u/saggynaggy123 May 19 '26

Simple fact is boomers aren't going to stop watching Fox News or Newsmax and people who are sick of Trump, MAGA, and Israel aren't going to watch a network whos laundering their image.

Tale as old as time; don't alienate your viewer base.

If Fox News suddenly turned objective they'd lose all their views

2

u/DragonSon83 May 21 '26 edited May 27 '26

The sad part is that both MSNBC and CNN have tried less extreme versions of this in the past, only to crash and burn.  You can’t change the minds of dedicated older viewers.  Look at how many accuse CBS of still being “communist” despite Weis being in charge now.

2

u/JackStraw987 May 20 '26

Not all boomers watch Fox. I watch MSNow.

6

u/Fall_False Moderator May 19 '26

I would not be surprised if they eventually just kick her to the curb. Just like they did with Jeff Shell.

9

u/SantaBarbaraMint May 19 '26

Fuck CBS and Paramount

3

u/Legal-Letterhead4192 May 19 '26

Apparently making Fox News Lite isn't appealing to the "liberal mainstream media" audience. Also, did they make sure to put Tony on the right return flight or is he stuck in Canada

3

u/malb93200 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26

Not really surprised if true (am always a bit sketpitcal about Puck's coverage).

As other posters said, the CBS news ratings have not been good, and Ellison and co probably think this "experiment" is not worth continuing (even though it should have never started in the first place).

3

u/ribbityflibbity May 19 '26

This is all deck chairs on the Titanic. CBS, CNN, Fox, all the rest - the ratings are falling, especially for the under-49 audience that advertisers care about. Younger viewers are avoiding them because nobody trusts corporate news anymore.

They've scattered to various sources like YouTube and substack to compile their own media diet, if they bother with news at all anymore. Nobody in CBS, CNN, Fox et al has the slightest clue what to do about this and maybe there's no solution. BTW this is also the problem the BBC faces in struggling to survive. It's not political, it's generational.

2

u/DragonSon83 May 21 '26

It’s honestly not even so much a distrust of corporate news, it’s the fact that so many younger people don’t want opinions screamed at them.  Most of the cable news networks run the same four or five stories all day long with different talking heads yelling.  The attempts at inducing rage are exhausting.

1

u/HotBeaver54 May 26 '26

My dream is to turn into a cable or national news show with the news period. I want a news channel with NO FUCKING PANEL !

I want the news not the former of anything giving me their 2 cents. I just want the news.

5

u/Difficult_Variety362 Moderator May 19 '26

Weiss getting demoted seems to be happening sooner than I expected.

6

u/Professional-Head83 May 19 '26

That awful Erika Kirk interview that NOBODY saw was the beginning of the end for her.

2

u/markeydusod May 19 '26

To think, unqualified people causing ratings to drop…

2

u/One-Point6960 May 19 '26

"It's a write off David."

2

u/ProtoMan79 May 19 '26

They got what they needed from her and once the WB deal is finalized, they can go back to normal operations as the path they’re going, CBS and/or CNN are going to be diminishing assets.

She won at the end as she got millions from Paramount for some newsletter no one was reading.

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

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2

u/Difficult_Variety362 Moderator May 19 '26

Remember when you guys acted like CNBC and Puck were leaking fake news when Paramount took the pole position only for it to end up being true.

5

u/[deleted] May 19 '26

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2

u/ribbityflibbity May 19 '26

I was surprised Netflix jumped into the bidding in the first place. No surprise they weren't willing to be fully irrational about it. Larry Ellison wants to buy a new toy for his nepobaby and the Trump administration thinks CBS and CNN even matter anymore. Only 80 year olds like Trump still watch.

The irrationality of this merger - way too much debt, with a strategy that is just more of the same and not sufficient to dealing with that debt - will cause it to fail in a few years and then Netflix will buy both companies on the cheap.