In August, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, was acquired by Skydance Media, owned by David Ellison and primarily funded by Larry Ellison, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump. In October, CBS announced that Weiss — a vocal critic of mainstream news who founded right-leaning online publication The Free Press, known for its “anti-woke” perspectives — had been named editor in chief.
Since her takeover, CBS News has undergone layoffs and has seen departures of multiple high-profile journalists, as concerns rise about editorial interference within the company.
In July, just a week before the FCC approved Skydance’s $8 billion deal to purchase Paramount, CBS late night host Stephen Colbert, who’s often criticized Trump, announced that his show had been cancelled. In December, amid Paramount Skydance’s push to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery, CBS sparked more controversy after it pulled a 60 Minutes segment hours before it was supposed to air. The segment on the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has deported hundreds of people, was apparently cut after Weiss expressed concerns that the piece didn’t include an interview with a White House representative.
“Members are fighting to protect their livelihoods during a period of uncertainty in broadcast news,” WGAE said in a statement. “Layoffs, editorial interference and political pressure have all become existential threats following the Paramount Skydance merger, and those same concerns have escalated with a possible merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery.”
Lape said he was confident that the union and company would be able to come to a deal.
“We’re trying to meet them in the middle. I think we’re slowly getting there,” he told KQED. “We love what we do. Especially with as much as is constantly happening and changing in the world with breaking news, there’s a lot of pressure on that. We just want to reach a fair contract for both sides.”