The internal rumblings within the CBS newsroom come as the head of Standards and Practices announced her resignation<\/a> and the network disbanded<\/a> its vaunted Race and Culture unit during parent company Paramount\u2019s brutal and morale-crushing layoffs<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n Sources explained to The Independent that the Race and Culture team \u2013 which advised on \u201ccontext, tone and intention\u201d of news programming \u2013 was initially supposed to be folded into the standards unit<\/a> and largely survive the sweeping layoffs. Instead, only the unit’s head \u2013 executive producer Alvin Patrick \u2013 was retained, and the rest of the team was let go.<\/p>\n \u201cThe team is responsible for ensuring editorial standards are met on scripts and provides daily reporting guidance. They literally uphold journalistic standards,\u201d one CBS News reporter said, adding that it would be \u201ccrazy\u201d for the network to dissolve Standards and Practices.<\/p>\n The Independent has reached out to CBS News for comment.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Multiple sources said that Bari Weiss has groused within the CBS newsroom that the network\u2019s standards and practices unit has \u201ctoo much power.\u201d (Getty)<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been hearing that standards will be eliminated or severely cut back. Bari has told people that she wants to get rid of standards and is shocked that they have so much power. She also asked openly, \u2018What\u2019s the point of standards?\u2019\u201d one CBS News insider claimed.<\/p>\n Weiss did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n According to the insider, Weiss had wondered aloud about why the network even had the Standards and Practices unit in a meeting with other network leaders, and had expressed concern about how powerful the team is to individuals in the newsroom.<\/p>\n The network reporter added that Weiss has been heard telling other employees that she\u2019d like to get rid of the Standards and Practices unit because they \u201chave too much power.\u201d Another senior staffer also said that Weiss had mentioned this to an executive producer on one of the network\u2019s news programs. <\/p>\n Weiss, a former New York Times columnist and the founder of the \u201canti-woke\u201d digital outlet The Free Press, was hired by new Paramount chief David Ellison last month to lead the newsroom. Besides installing Weiss, who describes herself as \u201cpolitically homeless\u201d and a \u201cradical centrist\u201d as the top editor, Ellison also paid $150 million<\/a> to purchase The Free Press.<\/p>\n Last year, Weiss and The Free Press \u2013 which is stridently pro-Israel \u2013 pointedly took aim at CBS News for reprimanding CBS Mornings anchor Tony Dokoupil for his combative interview with celebrated author Ta-Nehisi Coates. <\/p>\n Following the interview, which saw Dokoupil claim Coates\u2019 book on Israel\u2019s treatment of Palestinians \u201cwould not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,\u201d the anchor met with the standards and race and culture units<\/a> to discuss his tone, body language and phrasing. In a follow-up editorial meeting, Adrienne Roark \u2013 then the president of news gathering and editorial \u2013 said that Dokoupil\u2019s interview did not meet editorial standards.<\/p>\n Weiss, who labels herself a \u201cZionist fanatic,\u201d<\/a> published leaked audio recordings<\/a> from the meeting, vehemently defended Dokoupil<\/a>, and blasted the network as having an anti-Israel bias in multiple articles<\/a> for The Free Press. At the same time, she was also broadly critical of how the network\u2019s editorial standards and practices were applied.<\/p>\n \u201cOne last thing: Let\u2019s just say we have pattern recognition around stories like these. So when two sources at CBS told The Free Press that this whole dustup involved the network\u2019s \u2018Race and Culture Unit,\u2019 we weren\u2019t shocked,\u201d she wrote last year.<\/a> Weiss also cited a CBS News source who complained that this \u201callowed greater bias to creep into editorial decisions at the network.\u201d<\/p>\n Sources said that the year-old admonishment of Dokoupil, who admitted to violating CBS standards and practices<\/a> but defended his aggressive questioning of Coates, is behind much of Weiss\u2019 desire to defang or even eliminate the S&P team altogether.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is all coming from the Coates interview, where standards and race\/culture were the ones pushing back on Tony,\u201d the network insider claimed.<\/p>\n Another factor behind the potential dismantling of the Standards and Practices unit, according to the insider, is that they gave \u201cthe green light on the Gaza\/Trump coverage on 60 Minutes,\u201d referring to former Paramount chief Shari Redstone’s consternation over certain stories on the newsmagazine. (Previously, she had publicly backed Dokoupil<\/a> amid the Coates interview backlash.)<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n \u2018This is all coming from the Coates interview, where standards and race\/culture were the ones pushing back on Tony,\u2019 one source told The Independent. (CBS)<\/p>\n Months before Paramount paid Donald Trump $16 million to settle a \u201cmeritless\u201d lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, which Redstone pushed for in order to secure an $8 billion merger with Ellison\u2019s Skydance Media, she had grown increasingly critical<\/a> of the Sunday night program.<\/p>\n Following a 60 Minutes segment in January about the war in Gaza, Redstone \u2013 a passionate supporter of pro-Israeli causes \u2013 complained to CBS News executives that she found the story to be antisemitic. The following day, the company brought in former CBS head Susan Zirinsky to oversee the news division\u2019s standards. <\/p>\n A few months later, after Trump publicly called for CBS to be punished over a 60 Minutes story on Greenland and Ukraine, Redstone and other network executives asked the show to provide a list<\/a> of Trump-related segments going forward.<\/p>\n \u201cRedstone asked whether stories that could irritate Trump were correct and balanced, and inquired whether multiple stories that might draw Trump\u2019s ire had to run on the same night, this person says,\u201d Variety reported<\/a> this past spring. \u201cTwo other people familiar with the \u201860 Minutes\u2019 editorial process say Zirinsky and her team were specifically tasked with examining stories concerning the Middle East and politics.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid ongoing tensions surrounding both the Trump settlement negotiations and increased corporate scrutiny of the program, longtime 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens abruptly resigned<\/a> in April. He would soon be followed by CBS News chief Wendy McMahon. <\/p>\n Shortly after Weiss was hired by Ellison, whom staffers have criticized<\/a> for seemingly shifting the newsroom to the right in order to curry favor with Trump, Claudia Milne \u2013 CBS News\u2019 head of standards \u2013 handed in her resignation.<\/p>\n![\"Multiple](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-2194604196.jpeg\")
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