CBS Evening News Producer Calls Out ‘Shifting Set of Ideological Expectations’ In Farewell Letter

CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss began offering buyouts to CBS Evening News staffers in an effort to reduce costs and reimagine the nightly newscast. One producer, Alicia Hastey, has publicly accepted and called out the direction of the network in her farewell letter.

Hastey — who has worked at the network for the past four years — said that the situation at CBS News had become untenable due to pressures and changes enacted from the top of the network.

“There has been a sweeping new vision prioritizing a break from traditional broadcast norms to embrace what has been described as ‘heterodox’ journalism,” Hastey wrote. “The truth is that commitment to those people and the stories they have to tell is increasingly becoming impossible. Stories may instead be evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations — a dynamic that pressures producers and reporters to self-censor or avoid challenging narratives that might trigger backlash or unfavorable headlines.”

Hastey’s comments come after CBS Evening News has received criticism for its coverage since Weiss took over the organization and selected Tony Dokoupil to serve as the new anchor of the nightly newscast.

She concluded her message by stationg “Walter Cronkite once said in response to critics: ‘If that is what makes us liberals, so be it, just as long as in reporting the news we adhere to the first ideals of good journalism — that news reports must be fair, accurate, and unbiased.’

“I’ve always taken comfort in the believe that if we hold fast to those first ideals, trust follows,” Hastey added. “But those ideals cannot stand on their own. They require vigilance. They require courage.”

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BNM Staff