Gilberto Tadday\/TED<\/p>\n
CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss is reportedly kicking off the reboot of the CBS Evening News with a 10-city tour, on which she will accompany the program\u2019s staff and bring her five-person armed security detail.<\/p>\n
On Friday, The Independent published a revelatory piece<\/a> by Justin Baragona about the internal turmoil at CBS News, which Weiss was tapped to lead by Skydance CEO David Ellison after the media mogul bought Weiss\u2019s Free Press for $150 million<\/a> in October. Last month, Weiss named<\/a> Tony Dokoupil as the new anchor of CBS Evening News.<\/p>\n In a video<\/a> posted by CBS on Thursday, Dokoupil pledged he would not be beholden to the network\u2019s corporate overlords.<\/p>\n \u201cAs long as I sit in this chair, you come first,\u201d he said. \u201cNot advertisers. Not politicians. Not corporate interests. And, yes, that does include the corporate owners of CBS. I report for you.\u201d<\/p>\n Dokoupil\u2019s first show is on Monday, and over the next two weeks, The Independent reported that the program will broadcast from 10 cities across the U.S., including Miami, Dallas, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. Weiss is reportedly chartering a private jet to each location:<\/p>\n According to three sources with knowledge of the matter, Weiss is planning on chartering a private plane to fly to each location for the \u201cLive From America\u201d tour this month. Besides taking Dokoupil and CBS Evening News executive producer Kim Harvey on the flights, Weiss\u2019 personal security detail of five armed bodyguards will also be on board.<\/p>\n The increased involvement from Weiss on the CBS Evening News reboot in recent days has raised eyebrows over her desire to be on location for each telecast.<\/p>\n One CBS News staffer told The Independent, \u201cNothing says \u2018meeting Americans where they are\u2019 by flying around the country on a private jet costing millions of dollars.\u201d The remark was an apparent allusion to Weiss\u2019s critique of the network, which Dokoupil said<\/a> had been overreliant on \u201celites\u201d to offer expertise at the expense of the views of \u201cthe average American.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if her security detail is such a huge concern, why is she going? She could watch from the control room or on an actual TV like everyone else,\u201d the staffer added. \u201cInstead CBS News has to foot the bill for her five security guards, private jet, and more guards with heavy weapons. Does she not understand how much journalism could be made with the money we\u2019re instead spending on perks for her?\u201d<\/p>\n Network employees told The Independent that \u201cmorale is really bad\u201d at CBS Evening News. CBS News and Weiss did not respond to the publication\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n \u201cThis really feels like the end of CBS Evening News,\u201d one staffer said. \u201dHonestly, it\u2019s so depressing.\u201d<\/p>\n The Independent obtained a call sheet showing that among the segments pitched for Monday\u2019s show in Miami were an interview with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis about the state\u2019s ban on phones in schools, people\u2019s \u201closs of trust\u201d in the press, and Miami\u2019s Venezuelan community souring on President Donald Trump over deportations.<\/p>\n Baragona further reported that the program is planning light-hearted segments called \u201cbon bons\u201d:<\/p>\n In a dizzying array of options,\u00a0Dokoupil will either play soccer with\u00a0Inter Miami CF co-owner David Beckham; ask locals if they call it the \u201cGulf of America\u201d or \u201cGulf of Mexico,\u201d after the Trump administration\u2019s name change; party at one of the city\u2019s exclusive nightclubs (either Club Space or LIV) or join a boat party that will see the anchor jet skiing with rapper DJ Khaled.<\/p>\n Another move that raised eyebrows was the network posting a video<\/a> of Dokoupil at New York\u2019s Grand Central Station, where he asked random travelers if they knew how to pronounce his name.<\/p>\n \u201cQuite the humiliating ritual,\u201d a CBS News employee told The Independent. \u201cThis is just embarrassing. Bari went from wanting Anderson Cooper to sending her handpicked Evening News anchor \u2014 who has no name recognition \u2014 to do man-on-the-street interviews about the fact that he has no name recognition? Make it make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest internal uproar at CBS News comes after Weiss spiked<\/a> a 60 Minutes segment about the Trump administration\u2019s deportations of more than 250 Venezuelans to a torture camp in El Salvador.<\/p>\n The post \u2018Feels Like the End of CBS Evening News\u2019: Staffers Reportedly Up in Arms Amid Bari Weiss\u2019s Reboot of Legendary News Program<\/a> first appeared on Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n