Bari Weiss, the CBS News boss, has ousted a veteran bureau chief following tensions over coverage of the Middle East and brought in a new foreign editor who, according to sources, is more aligned with Weiss’s pro-Israel agenda.
Paramount, which owns CBS, announced on Wednesday that it had hired Shayndi Raice, a Wall Street Journal editor who most recently served as the paper’s deputy bureau chief for the Middle East and north Africa, based in Israel. Raice will move to London, where she will oversee the network’s international coverage in a newly created position, the company said. In a social media post, Weiss called Raice “a scoophound reporter, a brilliant editor, and a clear-eyed leader”.
The announcement followed reports that CBS News had ousted Claire Day, the London bureau chief and a 25-year veteran of the network, reportedly over clashes about the network’s coverage of Israel’s wars in Gaza and Iran.
At the journal, Raice had a reputation as “much more sympathetic to the Israeli perspective than the Palestinian [one]”, a former colleague said. Her approach often led to “friction” with colleagues, they added. Other sources said colleagues concerned with what they saw as a pro-Israel slant repeatedly flagged concerns to the paper’s standards team. Journal leadership, for instance, learned that Raice’s sister-in-law was a settler living in the West Bank, but concluded that it created no conflict. They also said that a review of the paper’s coverage of the conflict under her leadership found an overreliance on Israeli sources and analysts.
The journal and Raice did not provide comment. A spokesperson for CBS did not answer questions for this story but in an email sent after publication referred back to the company’s announcement of Raice’s hiring. In that press release Raice said: “It’s a huge honor to join the exceptional team at CBS News, and I’m excited to get to work telling more great stories.”
The move is the latest effort by Weiss, who was hired to lead the storied network in the fall despite having no broadcast experience, to overhaul CBS News. Her seven-month tenure has been marred by staff pushback and plunging morale, including after her decision late last year to pull a segment about abuses at the Cecot prison in El Salvador shortly before it aired. The segment aired several weeks later, after Weiss was engulfed by accusations that she had compromised the network’s reputation for independence by carrying water for the Trump administration. She has overseen several rounds of layoffs at the network and several high-profile departures, as well as falling ratings.
Weiss, a self-declared “Zionist fanatic” and vocal supporter of the administration’s war in Iran, has long accused the media of an anti-Israel bias. The publication she founded, the Free Press, which was bought by Paramount last year for around $150m, frequently publishes articles and opinions with a marked pro-Israel slant.
CBS is hardly the only media organisation dealing with tensions over Israel. Earlier this week, Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Politico’s parent company, Berlin-based Axel Springer, said on a call with staff that anyone who did not share the company’s views – including its support for “Israel’s right to exist” – should “work for other companies”.
