Paramount reportedly set to announce Bari Weiss CBS News deal Monday

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Paramount is reportedly set to announce a deal for Bari Weiss to join CBS News, according to Puck News on Thursday.

Correspondent Dylan Byers reported on X that Paramount will announce the deal to acquire the Free Press, Weiss’ media company, on Monday. Weiss will allegedly join CBS News as “editor in chief” and report directly to new Paramount CEO David Ellison.

Byers also wrote that Tom Cibrowski will stay on as CBS News President after reports suggested he was pushing an “editorial shift” to some of the network’s programming.

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New Paramount owner David Ellison is reportedly on the “one-yard line” in striking a deal with Bari Weiss, involving a multi-million buyout of The Free Press and giving her a prominent position at CBS News. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images; James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images; Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press)

Fox News Digital reached out to Paramount, CBS News and the Free Press for comment.

Ellison has long been rumored to covet Weiss and The Free Press, which she founded after leaving The New York Times in 2020. Byers reported last month that “the two sides have agreed in principle to a deal” with a price tag between $100 million and $200 million, and Weiss would take on a role guiding “the editorial direction” of CBS News.

Puck News reported the move “would inevitably inspire blowback from various corners of the newsroom,” but not everyone at CBS News was alarmed.

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Bari Weiss speaks onstage during Book Club Event With Peggy Noonan on Nov. 19, 2024 in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press)

“Maybe more free thought, free expression is on the way. Nothing to fear here,” one CBS News staffer told Fox News Digital in September.

Left-wing commentators, however, fumed at the idea, claiming that hiring “one of the most polarizing figures in media” would only further erode media trust and amount to a “right-wing grift.”

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Weiss, a classical liberal who famously exited The New York Times in 2020 after bullying from far-left colleagues, has largely been ostracized by the cultural left for The Free Press’ reporting that challenges DEI, gender ideology and media narratives against Israel during its ongoing war with Hamas.