A CBS News staffer who wrote that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spread misinformation was later laid off, according to testimony about the proposed merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery.
On Wednesday, Michael Isaac, the legal director of Writers Guild of America East, spoke at a hearing held by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker about the potential merger. Paramount Skydance, CBS News’ parent company, is poised to acquire the parent company of CNN, HBO, and several other properties after Netflix backed out of the bidding war.
CBS Editor-in-Chief and anti-woke opinion journalist Bari Weiss has overseen buyouts and layoffs since taking the helm last fall. One staffer included in last month’s layoffs of 60-70 staffers, Isaac said, per the Guardian’s Jeremy Barr, was a staffer who “was reprimanded for writing that RFK Jr. spread misinformation.”
It wasn’t immediately clear who Isaac was referring to, which article of theirs was deemed problematic, and if the relevant portion about the Health and Human Services secretary was changed after publication. Also unclear was whether the Kennedy comment factored into the staffer being laid off.
The Daily Beast has contacted reps for Paramount, CBS News, Weiss and WGA East for comment.
Kennedy, of course, has spread anti-scientific views about vaccines. In January 2022, he was widely criticized for claiming that Americans who refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine were in a worse situation than the Jews in Nazi Germany.
Later that year, Facebook and Instagram removed the account of his anti-vaccine group, Children’s Health Defense, which the Center for Countering Digital Hate called a major spreader of false information. Kennedy Jr. also popularized the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism.
At CBS, Weiss is reportedly planning further layoffs for June, including some at 60 Minutes. Weiss previously drew criticism for delaying a story on that flagship show about the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador, where the Trump administration had been sending deportees. The correspondent on that report, Sharyn Alfonsi, could be included in the layoffs, according to The New York Post.
CBS News has been overhauled by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison in order to appeal to conservative audiences, and there is reason to believe that similar changes could be in store for CNN, where some staffers feel “doomed.”
The $110 billion Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery will need regulatory approval.
Ellison, the billionaire son of Trump donor Larry Ellison, just so happens to be hosting a dinner later this month to honor the Trump White House. It will be held at the U.S. Institute of Peace, one of the capital buildings on which Donald Trump affixed his name.
