{"id":552249,"date":"2026-01-29T19:32:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/552249\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:32:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:32:19","slug":"cbs-staffers-turn-on-network-star-over-shameless-suck-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/552249\/","title":{"rendered":"CBS Staffers Turn on Network Star Over Shameless Suck-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

CBS News staffers are not happy with celebrity journalist Gayle King after she offered her full-throated support for newly installed MAGA-curious CBS boss Bari Weiss. <\/p>\n

During an \u201call-hands\u201d meeting at CBS earlier this week, King stood in defense of Weiss\u2019s leadership at the network, calling Weiss \u201cbeloved\u201d and saying she would be at the network \u201clong into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Bari, that you laid out a vision,\u201d King said. \u201cFor many people, they\u2019ve never even heard your freakin\u2019 voice. So it\u2019s good for them to hear \u2014 to see you\u2019re a real person, and this is what you want, and how you feel about us, and how you feel about this job.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her speech, she also complained that the contents of the meeting would be leaked to other news outlets. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be curious to see how long it takes for this to get out. \u2018Cause it\u2019ll be somebody in this room,\u201d King said during the meeting. <\/p>\n

One CBS employee told The Independent<\/a> that \u201cGayle instead made it about her not liking the fact that people are talking to the press about her future at CBS News. Forget the substance of people\u2019s grievances and fears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"King\"King has been a fixture at CBS Mornings for over a decade. CBS Photo Archive\/CBS via Getty Images <\/p>\n

A CBS News insider told the outlet that King\u2019s statement during the meeting may have been a last-ditch effort to keep her job on CBS Mornings and \u201cstay relevant.\u201d The staffer said King has \u201cnever been a leader\u201d at the network, and \u201cis in dire need of someone the staff can rally around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not going to say anything against the person who will determine her job status. This was her only play,\u201d the insider said.<\/p>\n

Another staffer at CBS said that much of the newsroom was \u201cpretty salty\u201d over King\u2019s statement during the meeting. They said that King \u201cstarted off almost protective\u201d of the CBS News staff, but that her speech devolved into such an \u201cutter disappointment\u201d as she made it \u201cabout her not liking the fact that people are talking to the press about her future at CBS News.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some employees felt differently, with one telling the outlet that King received applause from staff throughout the speech. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nothing but positive feelings at the end of the town hall yesterday,\u201d one staffer said.<\/p>\n

The Daily Beast reached out to CBS News for comment.<\/p>\n

CBS News has been in turmoil since the network bought Weiss\u2019s news and opinion blog, The Free Press, for $150 million and installed Weiss, who had no TV news experience before this role, as editor-in-chief. <\/p>\n

\"Weiss\"Weiss has had no experience in television news before taking over as editor-in-chief of CBS. Noam Galai\/Getty Images for The Free Press <\/p>\n

Ratings<\/a> for the network\u2019s signature programming, including 60 Minutes and CBS Evening News, have taken a nosedive under Weiss as she continues to make the network more Trump-friendly. <\/p>\n

Weiss told staffers on the Tuesday call that if they did not agree with her vision for CBS News, they were free to quit. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a free country, and I completely respect if you decide this is just not the right place at the right time for you,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Weiss\u2019s all-hands meeting came as NPR reported<\/a> ahead of the meeting that layoffs were expected at the network. Newly installed CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil and the show\u2019s executive producer Kim Harvey had \u201ctried to dissuade management from making any cuts,\u201d according to a Variety report<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Despite that, one day after the meeting, the network began offering buyouts to employees at CBS Evening News. <\/p>\n

\"CBS\"CBS has been riddled with controversy since Weiss took over the network. Spencer Platt\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cAt yesterday\u2019s All-Hands, Bari charted a course for CBS News that\u2019s very different from the one we\u2019re now on. The Evening News has a new host and a new direction, and there will be more change coming,\u201d an email to Evening News staff reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope you are excited about this vision, but we understand that some of you may not be, and we want to provide support. As such, we are offering an extraordinary chance to leave CBS News with an enhanced separation payment,\u201d the email continued.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Staff have been given until Monday to respond. <\/p>\n

During the all-hands meeting, one staffer confronted Weiss about changes at CBS Evening News.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertain decisions and editorial choices have scared us. At Evening News, people are afraid for their jobs and afraid to even speak for fear of retaliation,\u201d the staffer said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been a chilling effect within our newsroom,\u201d they continued. \u201cIt feels right now like if we offer feedback, alternatives, or constructive criticism, that we are asking for targets on our backs\u2014or the answer is simply no.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CBS News staffers are not happy with celebrity journalist Gayle King after she offered her full-throated support for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":552250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[26871,171,19807,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-552249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-cbs-news","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-gayle-king","11":"tag-tv","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115980058455982204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}