Susan Zirinsky is once again tapped to help clean up CBS News.
The veteran producer, who served as the unit’s president from early 2019 to late 2021, has been tapped to return to CBS News as interim “executive editor,” and will oversee standards and help investigate stories and journalistic practices. Like many news operations, CBS News has long had staff to oversee its internal practices and ethics. But there appears to be a desire to make such efforts more part of the senior suite after controversies surfaced last year at the Paramount Global operation related to incidents on “60 Minutes” and “CBS Mornings.”
“In today’s rapidly changing news environment, it is critical that newsrooms can quickly and effectively deliver balanced, accurate, fair and timely reporting, including highly complex, sensitive issues such as the war in the Middle East,” said George Cheeks, co- CEO of Paramount Global, in a memo sent to CBS News employees Monday evening. “CBS News takes this responsibility seriously. While there is no way to raise such sensitive issues without provoking some criticism, we do have a responsibility to address these concerns. This includes feedback about perceived bias in some CBS News reporting. We cannot let this negatively impact our legacy or our future, our mission or our connection with our viewers.”
Zirinsky will fill the role, while Wendy McMahon, the Paramount Global executive who oversees CBS News, will look for someone to fill the role permanently. The executive editor, Cheeks said, will have “the specific mandate to ensure we have the expertise, resources and oversight to enable reporting on the most challenging issues with the highest degree of balance and integrity. Standards will report in this new position.”
The move comes as Paramount Global is being acquired by Skydance Media, and there is no doubting concerns that any conflict in court with President-elect Trump could have an effect on how regulators assess the proposed transaction.
Zirinsky, a longtime senior producer who led the news magazine “48 Hours” and was involved in special reporting and several celebrated documentaries, took on the role of president of CBS News in 2019. At the time, the news department was under scrutiny after claims of harassment. were leveled against Charlie Rose, co-host of CBS This Morning, and Jeff Fager, the former executive producer of 60 Minutes.
More recently, she led See It Now Studios, a production unit dedicated to special projects and documentary programs. It is expected that she will continue to fulfill this role.
CBS News has faced backlash over its reporting in recent months. In November, then-candidate Donald Trump sued CBS News for $10 billion in federal court in the Northern District of Texas, demanding an interview between “60 Minutes” and U.S. Vice President Kamala. Harris, his opponent at the time, had been deceptively edited.
At issue was part of the interview that was made available to the CBS News program “Face The Nation,” which airs Sunday morning, as a promotional teaser for what would appear later in the week in a special broadcast of the news magazine. The promotional segment used a longer portion of Harris’ response than the interview that appeared on “60 Minutes,” which was edited to give viewers a sense of Harris’ opinions on a wider variety of topics.
CBS has taken steps to have the case dismissed.
CBS became embroiled in another controversy in October when Tony Dokoupil, one of the co-hosts of “CBS Mornings,” questioned author Ta-Nehisi Coates about whether his writing expressed antipathy toward Israel. On October 7, the anniversary of Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel, CBS News executives told staff that Dokoupil’s report did not meet the network’s standards. The move sparked resistance from advocacy groups like the Anti-Defamation League and even Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global.
On Monday, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, addressed a Sunday “60 Minutes” segment that examined former State Department officials’ opposition to the Biden administration supporting Israel’s attack on Hamas. Greenblatt called the segment “a biased and one-sided piece” in a statement, noting that “Even before that, CBS had a recent history of insensitivity on Jewish issues that was incredibly problematic.”