CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is planning to open up 60 Minutes to the wider CBS News division, including a move that would let evening news anchor Tony Dokoupil appear on the storied Sunday program. The reported shake-up would also give Matt Gutman a new role inside the broadcast and award Norah O'Donnell more airtime next season as a contributing correspondent.
The changes would mark one of the biggest internal rewrites of 60 Minutes in years, according to more than 20 current and former CBS staffers and industry insiders who have watched Weiss push the network in a more Trump-friendly direction during her tenure. Weiss is also moving to loosen the show's long-standing habits, with sources saying she wants anchors beyond the usual correspondents to appear on the 20-minute broadcast.
That matters now because the debate over who gets to speak for CBS News has already turned personal inside the network. Dokoupil's promotion to the evening news slot has been described by critics as a gaffe-filled ratings disaster, and his on-air style has stirred fresh resentment after he said, “Marco Rubio, we salute you. You’re the ultimate Florida Man,” and later boasted that he would be “more accountable and more transparent than Cronkite or anyone else of his era.” In April, Vanity Fair published an account citing more than 20 current and former CBS staffers and industry insiders who questioned his credentials and news sensibilities.
The friction is clearest around 60 Minutes itself. Weiss went behind Lesley Stahl's back this week to secure an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and allowed him to choose who would conduct the sit-down. Bibi's office picked Major Garrett over Stahl, even though she had spent months trying to land the interview herself. One source said, “Bari did what she had to do to secure the interview,” while another said, “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 editorial standards.”
That collision of ambition and resentment is now the real story at CBS. One unnamed correspondent said Dokoupil was likely Weiss's “seventh or eighth choice” because “nobody would take the f---ing job,” while another dismissed him as “a useful idiot for sure, but not a name.” A CBS journalist said the Rubio comment was “outrageous” and that it “just alienates the audience,” and a CBS executive said, “I just don’t even understand how you could say something like that.” Stahl is reportedly considering leaving 60 Minutes at the end of the current season, which would leave Weiss with a show she appears intent on remaking from the inside, not preserving as a protected institution.
The next test is whether the audience accepts that remake or sees it as the point at which 60 Minutes stops being a law unto itself.
