'Wacky': CBS insiders flabbergasted as Trump-aligned chief throws wrench in '60 Minutes'
The Free Press's co-founders, Suzy Weiss, Bari Weiss, and Nellie Bowles, pose in this handout picture. Daniel Paik/Paramount/Handout via REUTERS
May 29, 2026
Bari Weiss, the conservative commentator turned editor-in-chief of CBS, sparked a wave of outrage when she appointed Nick Bilton in charge of the gold standard investigative reporting show "60 Minutes," according to a Page Six report — and many are afraid she'll go even farther.
Per the report, Weiss was so confident in her decision that "she wasn’t looking at any other candidates," and now staffers at the network "already fear Weiss could have a more unexpected move up her sleeve, bringing her sister, The Free Press co-founder Suzy Weiss, onto '60 Minutes.'"
All of this comes as Weiss already cleaned house at "60 Minutes," terminating reporter Sharyn Alfonsi, who went to war with the network after Weiss tried to delay explosive reporting about the torture conditions inside a foreign megaprison Trump was sending deportees to, as well as a number of other key figures.
“Bari was given the green light to make wholesale changes after she arrived, so people have been bracing for a significant move for a long time,” one CBS insider told Page Six. ”And now, she finally is making moves.”
Others simply had no understanding of why Weiss chose Bilton to head up the show, with another insider saying, “People are stunned. They are like, what? A tech reporter? It’s a little wacky. You don’t need a ton of experience to make great TV, but it is tricky to put a print reporter in a job like that. It seems like the world is upside down, [and] there is a bit of mythology going on with the people and the place. CBS News is not the one that Edward R. Murrow ran, and it hasn’t been for a really long time.”
All of this comes as Weiss, whose appointment of Tony Dokoupil as nightly anchor has met similar outrage, and become persona non grata in many media industry circles. She was openly shamed at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards in Manhattan this week.