‘Woke’ CBS News standards chief is Bari Weiss’ – Business News
The head of CBS News’ standards and practices unit — who presided over some of the community’s current controversial, woke reporting — is out as new boss Bari Weiss appears to deliver more stability to the left-leaning community.
Claudia Milne, who ran the division liable for the ethical, moral and legal implications of CBS programming, is the primary senior government to go away the community since Weiss arrived as editor in chief earlier this month.
Although Milne’s job had been “slowly phased out,” a CBS source referred to as her departure “significant.”
Standards & Practices boss Claudia Milne exited CBS News on Thursday. CBS News
“She was part of the woke mob at CBS News. It shows an editorial shift in how CBS will operate,” the particular person stated, speculating that “this is Bari’s first scalp.”
“We live in complicated times. For our company, for our industry and for our country. And it’s times like this that what we do matters most,” Milne stated Thursday in a farewell observe to colleagues, which was first reported by Variety. “I believe our role as journalists is to hold the powerful to account.”
Milne, who oversaw her unit since 2021, performed a pivotal position in a host of eyebrow-raising choices. Those ranged from protection of the transgender Nashville, Tenn., shooter and spiking an Elon Musk interview to the community’s current reporting on the Israel-Hamas battle, amongst different points.
CBS declined to remark.
As beforehand reported by The Post, in 2023, Milne and then-news division president Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews banned staffers from utilizing the phrase “transgender” when reporting on the Nashville shooter.
The resolution sparked outrage on the community as a result of police working the case had recognized the killer, Audrey Hale, as a transgender lady. Sources stated Ciprian-Matthews and Milne spent quarter-hour telling staffers to not report Hale’s id as a result of it will not be related to the shooter’s motive.
Milne is the primary senior government to depart since CBS News named Bari Weiss (above) as editor in chief. AFP through Getty Images
“This is absurd because the police identified Hale as transgender,” a CBS insider stated on the time “If the cops didn’t address it, maybe you could avoid it, but withholding information is not journalism.”
Milne was additionally one of the executives who blocked former CBS News correspondent Catherine Herridge from interviewing Musk in 2023, The Post has discovered. Herridge declined to remark.
Herridge stated on X that she’d had the uncommon alternative to interview Musk after his high-profile buy of the social media platform. He was within the information in late 2022 for his release of the “Twitter Files” to a handful of tech and media journalists.
Milne performed a position in spiking a 2023 interview with Elon Musk, in keeping with a source with data. Getty Images
But the interview alternative landed with a thud, Herridge recounted on X, as a result of Musk wished to do it reside. CBS execs stated they might somewhat move on the session than maintain it reside as a result of they had been anxious about what Musk was going to say, in keeping with the previous investigative reporter.
“I’m thinking, ‘Isn’t that the point of journalism?’ You don’t know what the person’s going to say,” an exasperated Herridge stated.
Another shocking second wherein Milne performed a half was final 12 months’s criticism of “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil after he grilled writer Ta-Nehisi Coates over his one-sided polemic in opposition to Israel, which the author in comparison with an “apartheid” state.
Redstone publicly backed “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil (proper) after he engaged in a tense interview with writer Ta-Nehisi Coates over Israel final 12 months. CBS Mornings
Then-news division President Wendy McMahon and her quantity two Adrienne Roark stated Dokoupil’s interview didn’t meet the “editorial standards” of the community during a employees assembly final 12 months, citing a lack of neutrality and objectivity.
Shari Redstone, then the proprietor of CBS, ripped prime brass and stated Dokoupil “did a great job.” Redstone has additionally been vocal in regards to the slanted protection at “60 Minutes” over its reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Milne’s exit comes as new proprietor David Ellison, whose Skydance merged with CBS-parent Paramount in August, is seeking to assuage the Federal Communications Commission’s issues about liberal bias after the community settled a lawsuit with President Trump over “60 Minutes’” Kamala Harris sitdown.
The FCC has been vocal about its issues over alleged liberal bias at CBS News. REUTERS
In current weeks, Ellison employed Weiss, acquired her right-of-center information website, The Free Press, and put in former Trump adviser Keneth Weinstein as an ombudsman.
While these strikes undermined the authority of the standards unit, Milne had already been shedding her grip over the community.
In 2025, Susan Zirinsky, a veteran CBS exec, was tapped to steer the standards division on an interim foundation amid issues of bias. Al Ortiz, a former CBS News standards exec, was later introduced on to supervise “60 Minutes” tales.
