CBS Staffer Comments On Layoffs

By
Mark Stevens
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The latest wave of layoffs at CBS News—reportedly impacting nearly 100 employees—has ignited predictable finger-pointing across media circles. But let’s be clear: blaming new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is missing the mark entirely. The real culprit isn’t editorial change. It’s corporate bloat, institutional redundancy, and the unsustainable structure of a legacy media network desperately trying to justify its relevance in a landscape it no longer controls.

The numbers are staggering. CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, has announced it will cut more than 2,000 jobs company-wide, with CBS News absorbing a significant portion of that hit. According to multiple reports, nearly 1,000 positions were on the chopping block Wednesday, with another 1,000 to follow. For CBS News specifically, insiders told CNN that nearly 100 staffers will be let go—and that the decision was made long before Weiss officially stepped into her role.


If anything, Weiss walked into a storm already brewing. Her acknowledgment of the layoffs as an “enormously difficult day” on the network’s editorial call speaks more to realism than responsibility. She didn’t swing the axe—Paramount did, and they did so in response to systemic issues that go far beyond any one editor’s vision.

Among the more telling casualties? CBS’s race and culture team—a once high-profile initiative that has now been entirely disbanded. A few years ago, that team was celebrated as part of a new era of socially conscious journalism. But in a moment of financial reckoning, it’s the first to go. That’s not just a shift in strategy—it’s a signal. When a newsroom is faced with hard decisions, identity-based content without strong ratings or reach becomes expendable.


Still, the layoffs are being described by insiders as a “bloodbath.” And here we arrive at the irony. That term—when used by Donald Trump on the campaign trail to describe economic devastation under Biden—was met with pearl-clutching hysteria by the very class of pundits and press staffers who now deploy it to describe their own professional turmoil. At the time, Rep. Dan Goldman feigned confusion, asking, “Since when does anybody use the term ‘bloodbath’ to describe economic problems?” The answer, evidently, is: since it started affecting them.

In truth, CBS News—like many other mainstream media operations—is facing the consequences of years of editorial overreach, political monotony, and structural excess. A generation of viewers has tuned out. Revenue has dried up. Digital competitors have outpaced them in speed and authenticity. And perhaps most damning: the average American can no longer distinguish one network’s talking heads from the next. There’s simply too much overlap, too much sameness—and too little trust.


So no, this isn’t Bari Weiss’s fault. If anything, she’s a Hail Mary attempt at reintroducing viewpoint diversity, relevance, and sharp editorial direction to a brand that has coasted on its historic reputation far too long. Whether she succeeds or not, CBS News was overdue for a reckoning. And now, it’s here.

The harsh truth? Much of the “talent” let go will have to face the same reality their audiences have faced for years: adapt, downsize, or become obsolete. Whether that means pivoting to agriculture or learning to code may be said in jest—but the market message is serious. Legacy media no longer has a monopoly on the microphone, and the audience is voting with its attention.

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