Apparently, you can ignore the memo.
CBS has indicated that staffers at CBS News will not be disciplined if they don’t respond to a much-scrutinized message sent last week by Bari Weiss, the division’s new editor in chief, according to Writers Guild of America East, the union representing many CBS News employees,
CBS “informed us that you will not be disciplined if you do not respond to the email, indicating that a response is optional. The company further stated that if you choose to respond, it will not be a basis for discipline, discharge, or layoff,” according to a message from the union to its members that was reviewed by Variety. “We intend to hold the company to these responses.”
CBS News declined to make executives available for comment.
CBS News staffers have been grappling with conflicting orders since Weiss sent the message, according to three people familiar with the matter, after some producers at the Paramount Skydance news unit urged reporters and journalists to respond despite WGA criticism. Weiss asked staffers to tell her “how you spend your working hours” and what they thought of CBS News, so that she and editorial employees could be “aligned on achieving a shared vision for CBS News.”
A simple memo from a senior executive usually doesn’t spur such conflagration, but Weiss is no ordinary news leader. She was named editor in chief at CBS News last week by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, and CBS News staffers have been roiled in the aftermath. Weiss, a digital entrepreneur and opinion writer who built The Free Press, has no experience running a mainstream TV-news outlet, and little history in helping traditional journalists navigate the challenges to finding facts. She has a direct line to Ellison, while Tom Cibrowski, a former ABC executive who came aboard as CBS News president earlier this year, has been tasked with working alongside Weiss and lending his expertise.
The Paramount news drama takes place as most employees are fearful they are about to lose their jobs. Paramount executives have said they intend to cut the company’s workforce significantly in order to trim costs. Details on staff layoffs are expected to be revealed by Paramount’s next earnings report.
CBS told the union that employee responses to Weiss were not supposed to be used to foster pushback against respondents. “The intention is that only Bari Weiss and her Chief of Staff will see the responses, though they may have an obligation to share with other senior executives,” CBS said. The company also noted that Weiss’ purpose in seeking employee reaction was simply “to know the employees and use it as a discussion guide as she meets with employees in the coming weeks and months as time permits.”
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