Bari Weiss wants ‘MAGA-coded’ CBS News anchor for 60 Minutes shake-up in latest network overhaul: report

CBS News boss Bari Weiss wants the ratings-challenged anchor of her flagship news broadcast to start contributing to 60 Minutes as part of her latest reported plan to exert greater control over the storied show.

Weiss is "opening up 60 Minutes to the news division," with CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil expected to make appearances, the New York Post reports, citing an unidentified source.

Dokoupil began hosting the CBS Evening News in January, after the hiring of Weiss to be CBS News editor-in-chief by Paramount Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison, whose billionaire father, David Ellison, is a supporter and confidante of President Donald Trump.

But Dokoupil's tenure has been rocky, with his show mired in last place among the three major broadcast networks as critics have accused him of being "Trump-friendly" and "MAGA-coded."

In addition to Dokoupil, Weiss — founder of The Free Press, a conservative news outlet on Substack — wants CBS News correspondents, including Matt Gutman, to be part of a revamped 60 Minutes, and contributing correspondent Norah O'Donnell, who once hosted the Evening News, is slated to get more airtime, the Post reported Tuesday.

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"This is exactly what Bari has been talking about doing — breaking down the silos at 60 Minutes and making clear that the show is no longer an island unto itself and subject to its own rules and own editorial standards," the tabloid's source said.

Spokespersons for CBS News and 60 Minutes didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.

Last month, Vanity Fair reported that before Dokoupil started his anchor job, he recorded a video introducing himself to viewers while Weiss, just out of sight of the camera, coached him on his lines, which included criticizing the "legacy media" for its reliance on "academics or elites” — both MAGA talking points.

"He’s deeply lacking in self-awareness,” said a CBS correspondent who was among more than 20 current and former CBS staffers and industry insiders interviewed by the magazine.

The correspondent also said that Dokoupil was "very much was not Bari’s first choice" for the anchor position and that "she wanted Bret Baier. She wanted Anderson Cooper. She wanted a name, and she does not see Tony Dokoupil as a name. A useful idiot for sure, but not a name."

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Also Tuesday, reports said that Weiss personally booked Sunday's 60 Minutes interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu and gave the assignment to CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett instead of veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, who'd been working for months to arrange the sit-down.

The interview was Netanyahu's first with an American broadcast network since Israel and the U.S. went to war against Iran, and he said it wasn't yet over because there's still "work to be done" regarding Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium, nuclear enrichment sites, proxy forces and production of ballistic missiles.

Weiss's move worsened the strained relationship between Weiss and the 60 Minutes reporting team, according to the Status news website.

Sources also told the Post that Garrett got the assignment because Weiss gave Netanyahu his choice of interviewer.

"Bari did what she had to do to secure the interview,” a source said. “Bibi’s office picked Major over Stahl.”

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In a statement to both outlets, CBS News said, "It’s the editor in chief’s job to make decisions about bookings and interviews. Major is a world-class journalist and did a tough, fair, and newsmaking interview.”

Spokespersons for Netanyahu didn't return a request for comment, the Post said.

Last year, Weiss came under fire for holding a report by 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi about the Trump administration's deportation of migrants to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison on grounds that it didn't present "the administration’s argument."

Although Weiss wanted Alfonsi to "push much harder" for interviews with Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, or Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” the segment ultimately aired several weeks later without either of them.

In an April 30 speech after being awarded a Ridenhour Courage Prize, Alfonsi said what happened was the result of "corporate meddling and editorial fear."

“Some executives are asking not, ‘Is the story true?’ but, ‘Is it good for business?’” she said.

Alfonsi, who never mentioned Weiss by name, also said she was worried about her future at 60 Minutes, where her work won her an Emmy.

"My hope recently has been that I still have a job,” she said. “And every morning I wake up to another headline that says I’ve been fired.”

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