A union representing CBS News broadcast and digital staffers has cautioned its members against responding to a memo requesting company feedback and workload details from new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
On Friday representatives of the Writers Guild of America East suggested their members refrain from replying until they get more information about the message. “Many of you have expressed concern to us about the purpose of the email, and we share those concerns,” wrote the director of the union’s broadcast/cable/streaming news division and three field representatives.
“That is why we sent the company an immediate demand to provide information about the email by Monday,” the message continued. “We suggest that you refrain from responding until we are able to share the information that we receive so that you can make an informed decision by the Tuesday deadline.” The guidance was first reported by Variety.
The memo in question, sent Friday, asked staffers to detail how they spend their working hours and to offer their thoughts on “what’s working; what’s broken or substandard; and how we can be better” at the legacy news organization.
The note, which prompted some internal confusion and speculation, is yet another sign that Weiss, the former New York Times opinion columnist who left to co-found the upstart news organization The Free Press, aims to shake things up, as THR has reported.
In the wake of an $8 billion merger between Paramount Global and Skydance, which closed in early August, rumors began swirling that Weiss was being courted to take over CBS News. The official announcement that Paramount Global would be expanding its digital media repertoire by acquiring The Free Press and installing Weiss as the CBS News leader came on October 6.
It hasn’t taken long for cages to start being rattled. The WGA East, which represents writers, editors and researchers at CBS News, among other roles, has asked the company a series of questions about her Friday message including whether staffers’ responses could “be the basis for discipline, discharge, or layoff,” who will review responses and what the company intends to do with responses.
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