The media industry loves a savior story. Bari Weiss and Chris Licht both starred in one — and if history tells us anything, that story rarely ends well for the savior.
Licht arrived at CNN in 2022 with a mandate from David Zaslav to fix a network that had, in the eyes of its new ownership, drifted from its core mission and fallen on hard times. Weiss arrived at CBS News under similar circumstances, brought in by Shari and David Ellison to shake up a legacy institution they believed had lost its way. Both came as outsiders. Both came with big ideas. And both, notably, came without deep roots in the cultures they were hired to transform.
The parallels don’t stop there, either. Licht made sweeping programming changes almost immediately. He canceled shows, reshuffled talent, and tried to pivot CNN toward what he described as a more balanced, down-the-middle approach to news. Weiss has done much the same at CBS News — reshaping the editorial vision, cutting loose familiar voices, and attempting to recreate the network in her own image. The intention, in both cases, was bold. The execution, however, is where things get complicated.
A Vision in Search of an Audience
Here’s the problem Licht ran into: what Zaslav wanted CNN to be and what was actually attainable — let alone profitable — at that moment in cable news history were two very different things. Zaslav envisioned a CNN that appealed to a broader, more politically heterogeneous audience. But CNN’s viewers had tuned in for a specific reason. Asking them to accept a fundamentally different product was always going to be a tough sell, and ultimately, it didn’t work.
Weiss faces a strikingly similar tension. CBS News carries decades of institutional identity — a legacy audience that expects a certain kind of journalism. What Weiss wants CBS News to be runs somewhat counterintuitive to those expectations. She’s an ideological disruptor by nature, and that’s precisely why the Ellisons hired her. But disruption isn’t always a ratings strategy. It isn’t always a business strategy, either.
Licht’s CNN experiment lasted just over a year before Zaslav showed him the door. The network’s struggles didn’t end with Licht’s departure, of course — they continued. But Licht became the convenient scapegoat for a plan that was flawed from the start. Zaslav didn’t fall on the sword. Licht did.
Will the Ellisons Let History Repeat Itself?
That brings us to the uncomfortable question no one in the industry seems eager to ask out loud: if Weiss’s reinvention of CBS News stalls — or worse, accelerates the network’s decline — who takes the blame?
Don’t count on the Ellisons to be the ones who fall on the sword. Ownership rarely does. What typically happens is this: the bold hire becomes the bold exit, framed publicly as a “creative difference” or a “strategic pivot.” The executive absorbs the narrative. The owners move on to the next plan.
Licht tried. He genuinely tried, by most accounts. But trying isn’t enough when the fundamental premise of the mission is at odds with market reality. Weiss is trying, too. She’s smart, she’s driven, and she clearly believes in what she’s building. Yet belief alone doesn’t fill a newsroom with the right talent, rebuild audience trust, or reverse structural decline in a legacy cable news environment.
So, will Weiss’s fate match Licht’s? Will she ultimately become the fall guy for the Ellisons’ vision — a vision that may prove just as disconnected from reality as Zaslav’s was? Only time will tell. But this playbook isn’t new. We’ve seen it before. And the people who tend to survive it aren’t the ones doing the heavy lifting.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
