CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss sparked backlash this week after declaring that the network needs more “charismatic” voices like disgraced lawyer Alan Dershowitz and former NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch to regain viewers’ trust.
Speaking at the Jewish Leadership Conference earlier this month, Weiss, 41, who assumed the top editorial role at CBS in October, pointed to a recent gun-control debate hosted by her anti-woke outlet The Free Press between Dershowitz, 87, and Loesch as the model for the future of CBS News.
She described the pair as “center left and center right” figures who represent the views of most Americans and can engage in “good faith, very passionate, very charismatic disagreement” while still liking each other.
Acknowledging that traditional “centrist news” has failed because it feels like “force-feeding spinach down someone’s throat” and lacks charisma, Weiss said the goal is to “get back to that normalcy” by “redrawing the lines of what falls into the 40-yard line of acceptable debate” — featuring clearly center-left and center-right voices in spirited conversation rather than censoring or gatekeeping.
She insisted the nostalgia for the Walter Cronkite era when 30 million Americans trusted one anchor is over, adding, “We’re not going back to that.”After a clip of her remarks surfaced online Monday via Drop Site, critics slammed Weiss as out of touch and accused her of normalizing controversial figures like Dershowitz, who has faced widespread discredit over his association with Jeffrey Epstein and other issues.