Weiss makes first major CBS moves

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Less than a week into her tenure as CBS News’ editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss is already making her editorial presence felt at the network.

On Monday, Paramount announced that it had purchased the center-right, pro-Israel digital news publication The Free Press for $150 million, and would install Weiss, its founder, atop the storied newsroom.

During CBS News’ editorial meeting on Thursday, Weiss said the network should lean heavily into the news of a major hostage and prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, per two people who were in attendance. Weiss proposed an idea: a roundtable panel with former secretaries of state Hillary Clinton, Mike Pompeo, and Antony Blinken.

She said she was happy to use her contacts to book the panel herself and began texting sources during the meeting to try and set it up. Her idea was met with some initial skepticism among CBS News staff; Clinton, Pompeo, and Blinken are not easy guest bookings. And the network does not typically run roundtable political discussion panels.

Still, by Thursday afternoon, the three panelists had initially agreed to sit down with the network, four people with knowledge confirmed to Semafor. The likely interview will be hosted by Norah O’Donnell, the former CBS Evening News anchor, and is expected to air in segments over several days.

The New York Times’ Michael Grynbaum was the first to report that Weiss had proposed the idea.