‘Not puff pieces and kid gloves’: why Bari Weiss is hiring British journalists at CBS News

Bari Weiss has been facing bitter internal and external opposition to her leadership of CBC News. Photograph: Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press View image in fullscreen Bari Weiss has been facing bitter internal and external opposition to her leadership of CBC News. Photograph: Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press ‘Not puff pieces and kid gloves’: why Bari Weiss is hiring British journalists at CBS News Editor-in-chief has developed network of UK thinkers she believes reject what she regards as overly ‘woke’ consensus I n the six years since she very publicly resigned from the New York Times , and in her tumultuous eight months as editor-in-chief of one of the US’s most prestigious television networks, Bari Weiss has become renowned as a media disruptor and challenger of what she regards as an overly “woke” journalistic consensus. As Weiss continues to face bitter internal and external opposition to her leadership of CBS News , she has been turning to figures from UK journalism in her attempts to tackle what she sees as US newsroom “groupthink”. Earlier this month, the Guardian reported that Weiss’s CBS News was hiring Trevor Phillips, an influential British broadcaster who has held prominent public positions, as a senior global affairs correspondent. She also recently hired Josh Boswell, a British investigative reporter, from the Daily Mail. Soon after her appointment of Phillips at CBS , it was announced that the British conservative writer Douglas Murray would be writing a regular weekly column for the Free Press, the “anti-woke” outlet Weiss set up after her New York Times exit. Weiss has also met with Justin Webb, a presenter on the BBC’s lead news radio show, Today, though it is understood the pair did not discuss a specific position at CBS. Weiss’s senior executives at CBS News are understood to have reached out to other prominent UK journalists. A CBS News spokesperson declined to comment when asked about Weiss’s interest in British journalists. According to several figures familiar with her thinking, however, the hires are no coincidence. “She’s been looking at various Brits that might add a bit of opinion/attitude diversity to US media, instead of the dominant, predictable Columbia Journalism School uniformity. Not a bad idea,” said Andrew Neil, the former editor of Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times, who supported her hiring of Phillips. View image in fullscreen Trevor Phillips has been hired as a senior global affairs correspondent. Photograph: David Hartley/Rex/Shutterstock Another acquaintance said: “She has very good UK connections … She knows the UK very well. She’s here pretty often.” One of Weiss’ key deputies, Charles Forelle, the CBS News managing editor, also has experience working in the UK and is thought to have aided the process. A CBS News source, describing Weiss’s interest in British journalists, said: “They do the kind of things that Bari is looking for; it’s not puff pieces and kid gloves.” Several allies sa