‘Mushy’ Bari Weiss announces she’s pausing her ‘Honestly’ podcast ‘for a few short months’

Bari Weiss announced this week that she is placing Honestly – her podcast for The Free Press – on pause “for a few short months” as she deals with the “huge responsibility” of her role as CBS News editor-in-chief, which has been marked with snowballing controversies and plummeting morale among network staff.

The break comes as Weiss continues to be front and center in media news, whether it’s the drama around her decision to finally air the controversially-delayed “Inside CECOT” segment this week, rumors that she’s taking aim at blowing up another CBS News program, or scuttlebutt that network veterans’ “jobs are on the line” because they’ve pushed back against her.

“Don’t worry, it’s not forever; we’ll be back in just a few short months,” Weiss declared during a shortened episode of Honestly on Thursday, acknowledging that she was getting “mushy” about the pause.

Crediting her podcast, which launched in May 2021, with serving “to remind us of our most basic values – values that over the past few years too many have seemed to have forgotten,” Weiss boasted about the “serious thinking” that she’s delivered across more than 400 episodes of Honestly.

“If I sound mushy right now, it’s because I love making this show, and I’m not done making it,” she said. “But, as you may have heard if you have an internet connection, I’ve also taken on a new role. And that’s as editor-in-chief of CBS News. It’s a huge responsibility and it’s an extraordinary opportunity to bring the values that drive this show and that drive The Free Press into a much bigger arena.”

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Indeed, in addition to being named the editorial leader of the Tiffany Network in October, Weiss saw her center-right “anti-woke” Substack site purchased by Paramount chief David Ellison for $150 million. The Free Press, which Weiss founded with her spouse Nellie Bowles and sister Suzy Weiss, has since been integrated into the CBS News apparatus while remaining a separate entity.

“That is the mission of journalism. That is fair, fearless and factual,” Weiss added in her announcement. “In a sentence, my job is to take the values and the vision that you have supported and stood behind here at Honestly and bring it to CBS News.”

Following that preamble, Weiss delivered the “news,” which is that there would be no new episodes of the podcast over the next few months. At the same time, she indicated that she would return to the show down the line.

“CBS News boss Bari Weiss is still all anyone in the TV biz wants to talk about,” CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter observed following Weiss’ podcast announcement. “For the time being, Weiss is going to do a bit less talking.”

At the same time, while Weiss is looking to do “a bit less talking” on her podcast, she appears to be engaging in a lot more whispering to certain reporters behind the scenes. As Status News’ Oliver Darcy first reported, after Weiss finally gave the greenlight for 60 Minutes to quietly air the “Inside CECOT” story she spiked a month earlier, Weiss rang up several journalists to help shape coverage of her decision.

It was during those behind-the-scenes conversations that Weiss – who reports directly to Ellison, who is reportedly seeking favor with Donald Trump amid Paramount’s hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. Discovery – “expressed significant frustration” with Sharyn Alfonsi, the 60 Minutes correspondent behind the “Inside CECOT” report.

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“She is so out of her depth it’s astounding. Her inexperience is on full display,” one network reporter told The Independent. “How long must we endure this fiasco?”

The New York Post also reported this week that Alfonsi and 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley – who have both vocally pushed back against Weiss’ editorial decision-making – are now at risk of being fired. Notably, Alfonsi’s contract is up in a few months.

Additionally, Weiss has instituted more editorial oversight of 60 Minutes, as she will now take part in a Monday meeting with the newsmagazine’s executive producer Tanya Simon, which is a remarkable departure from the show’s traditional approach of largely operating on its own within the CBS News operation.

Meanwhile, after her “MAGA-coded” reboot of CBS Evening News with new anchor Tony Dokoupil – which has suffered a rocky rollout amid “embarrassing” technical mishaps, cringey pro-Trump segments and soft ratings (outside of one blip due to the preemption of NBC’s nightly news show) – Weiss is setting her sights on other CBS News institutions to revamp.

According to Breaker’s Lachlan Cartwright, Weiss is now looking at replacing Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan, who has served as the Sunday show’s anchor since 2018 and has been with the network for more than a decade.

“So, will Weiss look to promote internally, like she did with Dokoupil, with talent such as Chief Washington Analyst Robert Costa, senior correspondent Norah O'Donnell or Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett? Maybe, though we’re told Weiss is looking externally to replace Brennan, according to two people familiar with the matter,” Cartwright added.