Bari Weiss calls Alaska’s second-Sullivan affair a ‘scandal’ — CBS staffers reportedly resist

THE DAILY BS: HOW MUCH CAN YOU HANDLE?

SPARE ME THE BS (I’ve got things to do)

Fox News reports that CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss encountered staff resistance over Alaska ballot coverage.
‘This is a scandal,’ Weiss reportedly told newsroom employees in an editorial meeting.
The underlying Alaska dispute has prompted federal subpoenas, giving the newsroom disagreement a timely factual backdrop.

LAY IT ON ME (I’ve got time)

Stop the presses. Or, judging from the latest reporting out of CBS News, perhaps make sure they never get rolling.

Fox News Digital reported that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss met resistance from CBS staffers when she pressed Thursday for serious coverage of the Alaska second-Dan-Sullivan election controversy.

‘This is a scandal,’ Weiss reportedly told the newsroom during an editorial meeting, according to network insiders cited by Fox.

Some staffers reportedly argued that the alleged candidate-recruitment tactics were politics as usual and invoked similar conduct by Republicans. Ah, the timeless editorial rule: before asking whether something happened, determine whether the other team has ever been accused of it.

Weiss has sought to reshape CBS’s editorial direction, and the reported confrontation illustrates how difficult changing newsroom habits can be.

The Alaska news is not simply a rumor. Federal investigators have issued subpoenas, the Justice Department has filed civil claims and the candidates are publicly answering questions about the ballot.

That does not resolve allegations against anyone, but it ordinarily clears the threshold for national news coverage.

The Fox account relies on unnamed insiders and is not a full transcript of the meeting. Yet if an editor has to remind journalists that an unfolding federal election investigation is news, perhaps the newsroom has developed an unusual definition of ‘newsworthy.’