Insider Says Bari Weiss Is ‘Not Remotely Qualified’ to Run CBS, Calls Tony Dokoupil ‘A Useful Idiot’

Bari Weiss is reportedly not well-received by those at CBS.

On Thursday, April 23, Vanity Fair published an article about the Editor-in-Chief of CBS News, 42, and Evening News anchor, Tony Dokoupil, 45, based on interviews with numerous current and former CBS staffers and industry insiders who stayed mostly anonymous because “Anyone caught talking to reporters will be summarily fired,” a source told the outlet.

“We’re all in this weird situation where we’re looking at this woman and all of us agree that she’s not remotely qualified for this job,” a correspondent told the publication. “All of us agree that she’s an ideologue with an ideology that she invented herself, and we’re sort of left here trying to psychoanalyze her and make sense of her and try to find motivation and understanding. And it’s f**king crazy!”

Insiders explained that Dokoupil — who became the CBS Evening News anchor in January 2026 — was not Weiss’ first choice for the job.

“She called everyone on planet Earth,” an agent told Vanity Fair. “And that was her problem. In doing so, she demonstrated she didn’t really know how the process worked.”

“He must have been her seventh or eighth choice, because nobody would take the f**king job,” the correspondent stated. “I mean, she wanted Bret Baier. She wanted Anderson Cooper. She wanted a name, and she does not see Tony Dokoupil as a name. A useful idiot for sure, but not a name.”

As for the network seemingly leaning more right-wing since The Free Press founder took over in 2025, the agent commented, “They tried to overcorrect against their audience too quickly,” as the Evening News ratings have dropped, per Vanity Fair.

“The audience they’re trying to capture, I don’t think it’s ever going to go to CBS because either they’re with Fox or they’re out in the fractured digital ecosystem,” the agent added. “They’re not going to start watching CBS because their editorial aperture changes to the right by 10%.”

As Globe previously reported in January, Weiss held a town hall for staffers and told everyone, “We are not producing a product that enough people want,” and insisted she would “earn” their “trust,” per Variety.