Dear Bari, 

We’ve never met but I assure you we share many common experiences in founding a digital media start-up. Long nights, rough edits, tech frustrations. The uphill climb to recruit talent. The endless, demanding maw of the Internet. And the need for a laser focus that shuts out the noise. There will be more noise. 

As I started reporting on what people might expect of you at CBS News, I heard some adjectives: Ferocious. Demanding. Mega-ambitious. Charming.

I heard: “An extraordinary newsroom leader” (from a current editor). And saw: A “professional rightwing attention seeker” (The Guardian). A “free speech martyr” (The Financial Times.). Some martyr. You just closed a deal to sell your three-year-old media company for $150 million in cash and stock to Paramount. 

“Never, ever underestimate Bari Weiss,” said an individual who has been close to you and is no longer. “She is a force.”

All that said, I’d never have anticipated – and maybe you didn’t either – your extraordinary journey, starting at niche Jewish publications like “The Forward” and “Tablet” to the op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal and then the New York Times, founding The Free Press and now landing at the very top of CBS News as its editor-in-chief at the age of 41. 

It’s a heartstopping moment. It’s your date with destiny. It’s the chance of a lifetime as a journalist, a millennial, a Jew, a lesbian — and all and none of those things, since hey, you’re the soul of “anti-woke” — to make a difference.

You are in a historic position to lead CBS News into a new era of 21st century journalism, to repair damaged credibility, to find new audiences and re-establish relationships with existing ones. 

To do that not only do you need to appeal to the scattered and divided public, you will also need to win over a justifiably skeptical CBS News organization, 2,500 strong, including some of the most talented newsmen and women in the profession. 

I know you believe you are dedicated to telling the truth whatever the cost (your podcast is “Honestly With Bari Weiss”), shining light on the dark places and speaking truth to power. I have some issues with that, particularly your fawning interview with the mysterious and powerful Peter Thiel. 

But it’s a new road before you. You were previously focused on speaking truth to institutional media power. Now you are institutional media, and your job must be to hold government power to account, to shed light on dark corners of business, culture and all other institutions. And to harness the incredible skill, knowledge and experience at CBS News for the good our society needs. 

I spoke to several experienced people who had some good advice. 

Know what you don’t know. Broadcast television news is something you’ve never done. I presume you will be wise enough to step back and listen and learn. CBS News President Tom Cibrowski needs to be your ally not your rival. 

You may not know what you think you know. Your experience is as a news commentator, not as a news gatherer. The paths do cross, and you’ve done some great interviews, but the two are not the same. The Free Press is not a news-gathering organization when compared to a juggernaut like CBS News. Your success will lean on learning from the people on the ground, in the trenches, facing challenges every day to gather facts. 

Micromanaging works on a small scale, but it won’t work here. Even your friends say that you are a ferocious line-editor, a stickler for words, but that doesn’t function at scale. CBS Morning News rolls 125 pieces of video tape every day, I am reliably told. Not workable. Pick your highest function. 

Find your allies on the inside. There are plenty of silent allies at CBS News who want you to succeed, and who may agree that the network has been off-kilter. Take your time. Let people get to know you. Embrace them so they feel you will have their back. You will build support from within not by imposing your will but by listening. 

Claim your superpower – asking hard questions and challenging norms. You’ve got fairy dust, use it. Do interviews on “60 Minutes.” (I’ll take a re-do on the Peter Thiel one please.) 

Admit past mistakes if you’ve made them. To wit, your episode with Elon Musk and the Twitter Files is a stain on your reputation as a journalist. Own it. Learn from it. And move on. 

Don’t spike the football. You may well find yourself in the cross-hairs of the Trump administration no matter how nice you’ve been to his friends. Your job is to serve the public, and never to be drawn in to the corrupt world of crony capitalism, tech bros and Trumpland, just as the siren song of the New York intellectual, media elite is worth resisting.  

If you are scared s–tless, and I rather doubt you are, you’ll just have to get over it. This is very simply the chance to perform in the biggest arena imaginable and make a difference for news, for journalism and for democracy.  

If you can navigate all of this, you will confound your critics, blaze a stunning trail and years from now leave a legacy. As one of your critics privately said to me: “I wouldn’t rule out that she’s a roaring success.”