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Tuccille: Americans no longer trust the news media. Bari Weiss is here to save itThe institutional backlash may prove to be too much, but she deserves credit for tryingLast updated 25 minutes ago You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free PressAs amusing as former “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley’s public tantrum was after his firing from CBS News, it’s impossible to know whether the network’s editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, will succeed in her mission to remake and revive the once-respected media colossus. Even less clear is whether she could help CNN, which rumour has it she may also soon run. What’s obvious, though, is that somebody needs to make changes at America’s news operations or they’ll continue to cater to a dwindling and increasingly distrustful audience. Weiss deserves credit for at least trying.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an Accountor“She’s murdering 60 Minutes,” Pelley, who to all appearances is the embodiment of pomposity in a suit, allegedly said of Weiss. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.” Pelley also accused the recently hired chief editor of inserting political spin into the network’s reporting — a curious accusation given that by his own telling, as well as that of his former colleagues, Weiss is concerned that political opinions already permeate CBS News.This newsletter from NP Comment tackles the topics you care about. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again“Why do you think so? Do you have a poll? Is there market research? What are you talking about?” Pelley sniffed in response to Weiss’s claim of a public perception of bias at the network’s newsroom.Pelley should get out more. It’s no secret that much of the media is not only seen as leaning ideologically to the left, but that independent monitors rank CBS News as left of centre. Last June, the Pew Research Center found that of the major U.S. TV news operations, only Fox News was trusted by a majority (56 per cent) of Republicans. CBS News was trusted by a majority (56 per cent) of Democrats and just 23 per cent of Republicans. Similar results were reported for ABC News, NBC News and CNN.Importantly, Allsides, which assesses the political leanings of news operations, tags CBS News as “lean left,” with “high confidence in this bias rating.” The organization notes that “AllSides moved CBS News’ bias rating slightly leftward, from -1.5 to -1.69, still in the Lean Left category, after conducting two in-depth bias reviews in Dec. 2025 and Jan. 2026.”That’s not inherently a problem, as many media outlets embrace overt ideological leanings and win audiences by doing so. But CBS News has been losing ground for years. In 1980, “CBS Evening News” averaged 15.9-million viewers. That was down to 7.1 million in 2000, 4.7 million in 2014 and just over 4.2-million viewers in the first quarter of this year. To be fair, most big news operations are shedding audience. But Bari Weiss, who built the Free Press into a media force, is responsible for CBS News.“We are not producing a product that enough people want,” Weiss told CBS News staffers in January. “Not enough people trust us. Not you. Us. As in: the mainstream media. We can debate why that is, but the numbers tell the story.”She added: “To cover America as it is, we in this building need to reflect more of the political friction that animates our national conversation. That means recruiting and hiring editors, reporters, producers and correspondents about whom our viewers will say, ‘They understand me. They will give me a fair shake. They respect me.’ ”The idea that reporters should at least understand the people they cover and seek as an audience seems like a fair one. But it’s a difficult ask of an industry that has become ever-more isolated from mainstream American culture. Modern journalists not only think differently about important issues than many of the people to whom they preach, they rarely have much interaction with the public beyond their selective enclaves.“The national media really does work in a bubble, something that wasn’t true as recently as 2008,” Jack Shafer, then a senior media writer for Politico, wrote in 2017 after crunching the numbers about where news jobs are increasingly concentrated. “And the bubble is growing more extreme. Concentrated heavily along the coasts, the bubble is both geographic and political.”Shafer blamed much of the cultural shift on the transition from local print and broadcast media to internet businesses that could be based anywhere and mostly chose the same small set of coastal cities. Operations in New York or San Francisco naturally hire people comfortable with living in those places and quickly widen the divide between the media and the bulk of the country. In many cases, coastal journalists don’t think much of the people inhabiting fly-over country. The feeling is reciprocated.Last October, Gallup reported that “Americans’ confidence in the mass media has edged down to a new low, with just 28 per cent expressing a ‘great deal’ or ‘fair amount’ of trust in newspapers, television and radio to report the news fully, accurately and fairly. This is down from 31 per cent last year and 40 per cent five years ago.”Thirty-six per cent of Americans said they have “not very much” confidence in the media in that poll. Thirty-four per cent said they have “none at all.”Again, this might not be a problem for news outlets if journalists were happy with their lot and content with the limited audience still interested in what they’re doing. But when the 2022 American Journalist study asked about the “most important problem facing journalism today,” the most common response was: “Declining public trust in the news media.”It turns out that no matter what Scott Pelley wants, most of his former colleagues would likely prefer not to spend the rest of their careers speaking to a diminishing circle of friends and family.So, is Bari Weiss the right person for the job at CBS News? Is anybody?In 2023, Chris Licht was ousted from CNN after spending a year trying to depoliticize the cable operation’s troubled news coverage and return to its hard-journalism roots. At the time, NPR reported that his “drumbeat of criticism about CNN’s past journalistic performance led to deep resentment of Licht.” CNN struggles with viewership, but internal resistance doomed reform efforts. Weiss may face the same fate at CBS if staffers prefer decline to the harsh reality of a reboot.Bari Weiss may or may not succeed at remaking CBS News, let alone in resuming Chris Licht’s thankless assignment at CNN. But if Weiss fails in her task, it won’t be a victory for the likes of Scott Pelley, but rather a triumph for smug irrelevancy in America’s newsrooms.National Post Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.