Details Leak From Explosive Meeting Where Bari Weiss’s ‘Handpicked’ Editor Threatened CBS Staff: ‘Legal Grounds for Firing’

AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File

A top CBS News editor appointed by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss reportedly threatened staffers with termination during a tense meeting Tuesday morning that erupted into a confrontation over the network’s coverage of Israel and Gaza.

According to a Tuesday evening report from Oliver Darcy, the network’s foreign editor, Shayndi Raice — described by Status as “handpicked” by Weiss — addressed CBS News’ foreign bureau following the newsletter’s Monday reporting. In that piece, Darcy shed light on internal disputes over Middle East coverage, including Weiss’ contentious discussions with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl and Raice’s handling of a report by CBS News correspondent Holly Williams.

Status obtained audio of the virtual meeting, during which the editor spent roughly 15 minutes defending her editorial authority and rejecting accusations of “interference.”

“This is not your publishing platform,” she warned. “This is a company that we all work for, and there’s a hierarchy in place. And at the end of the day, you have to answer to that hierarchy. If you can’t answer to that hierarchy, and you don’t listen to what we say, that is called insubordination, and it’s legal grounds for firing.”

Although Raice insisted her remarks were not directed at Williams, she appeared to criticize the correspondent’s Oct. 7 coverage, questioning the decision to open an anniversary report with footage of Israeli strikes in Gaza.

Williams challenged Raice, though, over the editorial changes imposed on her separate Evening News report, including a dispute over whether to include the Palestinian death toll in Gaza.

Raice said to prompt the correspondent’s pushback, “If you think that deciding on October 7 that the way to open up an anniversary story about the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust is to show a montage of Israeli bombs falling on countries in the Middle East, you have an opinion.”

Williams said she had been informed that the revisions were mandatory and not open to negotiation, which Raice acknowledged.

The exchange grew even more contentious at another point when Raice referred to the Palestinian death toll as a “magic number,” arguing that repeatedly citing it amounted to “posturing.”

Williams also revealed that her primary objection concerned the removal of allegations involving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and warnings preceding the Oct. 7 attack.

Raice defended her exclusion, arguing that Netanyahu had denied those reports and CBS had not independently verified them.

“Those allegations are a sideshow,” Raice said. “It’s not important, and I just think you got it wrong. And you probably got it wrong because you don’t know the story as well as I do.”

She went on to mention a recent trip to Israel where she observed that “nobody really cares” about that story.

The editor also announced forthcoming changes to the foreign desk’s editorial workflow.

A CBS News spokesperson did not immediately respond to Status‘ request for comment, but one attendee told Darcy that Raice’s remarks left “jaws on the floor.”

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