Fox News host claims there’s an ‘antisemitic thread’ behind backlash over CBS News hiring Bari Weiss

Fox News host Emily Compagno suggested that the backlash to Paramount’s decision to install Bari Weiss as CBS News’ editor-in-chief had an “antisemitic thread” behind it, specifically flagging a recent article by The Independent.

Compagno’s remarks came during a Fox News segment about not only the broad criticism Weiss has received since arriving at CBS, but also the internal pushback from network staffers over the self-described “politically homeless” pundit’s DOGE-like directive.

Following months of speculation, Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison announced last Monday that the company had not only hired Weiss to lead CBS News but that it had purchased her anti-woke and “heterodox” digital outlet The Free Press for $150 million. However, even before Weiss was officially brought on, network staffers had expressed trepidation about her ability to lead CBS, especially since she had no prior experience in broadcast journalism.

“People are using words like depressing and doomsday – feels like some sort of doomsday,” one CBS News reporter told The Independent earlier this month, while another noted that staffers were “literally freaking out” over the pending hire and Ellison’s other politically charged changes to the newsroom.

“It's not a good place right now,” one source said right before the Weiss hire was announced. “There was a proper way to do this and a not proper way, and they're doing it in the non-proper way, and maybe that's by design.”

On top of that, due to Weiss’ stridently pro-Israel stance (she has described herself as a “Zionist fanatic”), many staffers felt that a “major reason” she was being brought to oversee CBS News was due to the close ties Ellison and his father – Oracle founder and close Trump ally Larry Ellison – share with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“He's essentially going to hand the keys to the kingdom to Bari Weiss and to anyone and everyone who is an ideologue that supports his and his father's world,” a network staffer told The Independent.

During her first week at the helm of the network, meanwhile, Weiss literally made employees roll their eyes with her Sorkinesque call to arms, exclaiming “let’s do the f***ing news” during her first editorial call. She also sent out an email to the network’s thousand-plus employees demanding they detail their workday.

“By the end of the day Tuesday, I’d like a memo from each person across our news organization,” Weiss wrote. “I’m not looking for a JD or words like synergy. I want to understand how you spend your working hours and, ideally, what you’ve made (or are making) that you’re most proud of.”

Her missive prompted staffers to quip that they “got Elon Musk’ed” and “DOGE’d,” referencing the infamous edict from the Department of Government Efficiency that was once spearheaded by the world’s richest man and one-time “first buddy.”

Weiss’ email has sparked confusion at the network, as staffers have received conflicting orders on whether they should respond or not. The Writers Guild of America, which represents union employees at the network, told its members not to send the requested memo until CBS provided more details on whether their replies could serve as “a basis for discipline, discharge, or layoff.”

Two sources at CBS News told The Independent that staffers were perplexed, though, since some managers have told them to do the exact opposite of what their union has said and respond to Weiss.

During Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News roundtable show Outnumbered, Compagno noted that the “backlash was swift and severe” to Weiss’ arrival at CBS, pointing to a number of social media posts from prominent progressives.

After reading pointed critiques from former New York Times colleagues of Weiss, who called her a “talentless hack” with “zero news experience,” Compagno then spotlighted The Independent’s reporting about the internal angst over The Free Press founder.

“This kind of thing would make me laugh if there was not an antisemitic thread in there,” the Fox host fumed, suggesting that Weiss’ Jewish heritage is sparking the criticism of her.

“Ironically, in employment law, employees are entitled to specificity. And the whole point of articulation back and forth is that employees have the right to know what is expected of them,” she continued, referencing Weiss’ letter to staff. “And the fact that they are resisting as if it is some type of rebellion is such a joke to me and just speaks that none of them are actually in the business of transmitting actual information.”

Moments later, the Outnumbered panelists also took aim at HBO host John Oliver’s dissection of Weiss’ journalism career and why there is such concentrated outrage over her ascension to the top of CBS News.

“I wouldn’t want anyone who led a pure opinion outlet, not even one that I happen to agree with, to suddenly be running CBS News,” Oliver declared on Sunday. “But it is especially alarming to have someone doing it who has spent years putting out work that, in my opinion, is at best irresponsible and at worst deeply misleading.”

Fox News host and former Trump White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany stood up for Weiss, insisting that she is “extraordinarily talented” and “very smart.” At the same time, according to McEnany, she was unsure if Weiss could “fix what is broken at CBS News because there was a lot broken.”