What to know about CBS' Bari Weiss amid "60 Minutes" censorship allegations

• Paramount Skydance faced scrutiny for naming as head of CBS News Weiss, a self-described centrist who has espoused conservative stances — such as her staunch support for Israel and criticism of Black Lives Matter.

Driving the news: CBS News pulled a "60 Minutes" segment on the Trump administration deporting Venezuelan immigrants to the El Salvador prison CECOT, which rights organizations have flagged for human rights abuses.

• It yanked the segment days after Trump publicly complained that "60 Minutes" was treating him "far worse" since CBS' parent company was acquired earlier this year.
• "60 Minutes" announced on social media Sunday afternoon that it was dropping the segment from that evening's broadcast lineup, but said it would air at a later date.

What they're saying: Sharyn Alfonsi, the segment's correspondent, alleged in an email to colleagues that she learned Saturday that Weiss "spiked our story" after Trump officials declined to be interviewed.

• Alfonsi said the story was "factually correct" and it had undergone a legal review.

The other side: Weiss told the New York Times Sunday that her "job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be."

• Weiss told top "60 Minutes" producers that the team didn't do enough to get administration officials on the record and data presented in the piece "paints an incongruent picture," Axios' Sara Fischer reports.

Here's what to know about Weiss:

CBS News

Catch up quick: Paramount Skydance acquired The Free Press in October at the same time it hired Weiss to run CBS News.

• She remains CEO and editor-in-chief of The Free Press.

The intrigue: Weiss reports directly to Paramount Skydance chair and CEO David Ellison, instead of CBS News president and executive editor Tom Cibrowski or Paramount TV media chair George Cheeks.

• "We believe the majority of the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based, and we want CBS to be their home," Ellison told staff in October.

Between the lines: Joining forces with Weiss was the latest in a string of moves by Ellison to shift CBS News' coverage to the right.

The New York Times

The New York Times hired Weiss as an opinion writer and editor in 2017. She resigned in 2020 to start a Substack newsletter.

Flashback: In a public letter resigning from the Times, she said she "was hired with the goal of bringing in voices that would not otherwise appear in your pages: first-time writers, centrists, conservatives and others who would not naturally think of The Times as their home."

• Colleagues "have called me a Nazi and a racist," but she had "learned to brush off comments about how I'm 'writing about the Jews again,'" she wrote, alleging "unlawful discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge."
• "Self-censorship has become the norm," she said, claiming "new McCarthyism" has "taken root at the paper of record."

Context: While Weiss doesn't specify the views she considered to be threatened at the Times, she resigned days after her section's publication of an op-ed calling for the military to respond to Black Lives Matter protests with an "overwhelming show of force."

• Hundreds of Times staffers signed a letter protesting the piece, which an editor's note later said "should not have been published."

Of note: Some of Weiss' other controversial Times work includes a 2017 defense of cultural appropriation, and a column arguing that sexual assault allegations against then-Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh shouldn't be disqualifying.

• Journalists including The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald have accused her of engaging in "campaigns to vilify and ruin the careers of several Arab and Muslim professors due to their criticisms of Israel." Weiss called the clams "baseless."

The Free Press

• At the Free Press, Weiss has frequently written and overseen articles attacking trans rights and DEI programs.

Zoom out: Weiss' appointment at CBS created speculation that she might push the network's coverage in a right-wing direction, specifically, a more pro-Israel direction.

• Weiss is a proud recipient of the label "Zionist fanatic," and support of Israel is a driving principle of The Free Press as a publication.
• In a 2024 TED Talk, she characterized her views as pro-choice, pro-Israel and pro-gay marriage, "so much so that I'm actually in one myself."
• In that talk, Weiss said she voted for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in one election, and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in others.

By the numbers: The Free Press has grown its subscriber base by 86% over the past year to about 1.5 million people, per Paramount.

• The outlet is funded by prominent, wealthy figures including former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

Go deeper: Yanked "60 Minutes" episode aired in Canada