Has CBS News’ Bias Moved Right Under Bari Weiss’ Leadership? AllSides Analysis

Many eyes have been on CBS News after Bari Weiss (Center) undertook its top editorial role in October 2025, with some alleging the news outlet is becoming right-wing. 

AllSides took an extensive look at CBS News’ bias rating in December 2025 and January 2026 to uncover whether the allegations have merit. The result of the AllSides bias reviews for CBS News — an expert panel analysis and a survey of hundreds of Americans — was Lean Left.

Recent History of Weiss, CBS News

CBS News has been rated Lean Left by AllSides since 2017, and it has appeared on every version of the AllSides Media Bias Chart. 

Weiss left her post as a The New York Times opinion editor in July 2020, arguing in her resignation letter that the paper had shifted away from a free exchange of ideas to an environment dominated by a narrow ideological orthodoxy. She went on to found The Free Press, which, per multiple AllSides bias analyses, does not fall cleanly on a left-to-right scale (more on that later) but is rated Lean Right.

Weiss was appointed to the top position at CBS News after Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison bought The Free Press for $150 million. Now, media commentators have raised concerns (more below) that CBS News is turning right-wing under Weiss’ tenure. 

AllSides recently ran multiple bias analyses on CBS News to explore whether these claims have merit. 

CBS News Rated Lean Left by Americans Across the Political Spectrum — Experts and Novices

AllSides applied its patented bias rating methodology to CBS News over the last two months, including conducting a Blind Bias Survey of Americans and an expert, multipartisan Editorial Review. We also ran 30 articles through our Bias Checker tool, which automatically rates articles for bias. The results of the Bias Checker did not impact the outlet’s rating.

In the Dec. 2025 Blind Bias Survey of Americans, 382 people across the political spectrum rated content from CBS News as firmly Lean Left, -1.52 on the AllSides Media Bias Meter™. 

The result of the expert Editorial Review was also Lean Left, or -1.92 on the AllSides Media Bias Meter. Editorial Reviews are 6-person panel analyses by a multipartisan team trained to spot media bias.

After weighing the Blind Survey data and Editorial Review data with an older review from Sept. 2024, the final, overall rating for CBS News remains Lean Left (-1.69). 

CBS News Rated Lean Left in Dec. 2025 Blind Bias Survey

Across bias categories, CBS News results were consistent in the survey — respondents in all bias categories rated CBS News as Lean Left on average, including those who rated their own personal bias as Left, Lean Left, Center, Lean Right, or Right, and those who identified themselves as Republican, Democrat, or Independent.

All respondents, regardless of age, rated CBS News as on the left as well. 

In a Blind Bias Survey, average Americans across the political spectrum read headlines and articles from a media outlet and provide an overall bias rating for the source, without knowing what source they are rating.

Blind Bias Surveys factor in the following:

• The political leaning of each survey participant.
• How each participant rates the bias of headlines and content from the media outlet.
• How participants with different biases (aka "Bias Groups") rate the content differently.
• The average rating from each Bias Group.
• The average rating from all participants across the political spectrum.

You can help AllSides rate bias by signing up here.

CBS News Rated Lean Left in Jan. 2026 Editorial Review

In the Jan. 2026 AllSides Editorial Review, CBS also received a Lean Left rating (-1.92 on the AllSides Bias Meter). 

While some CBS News articles were balanced and neutral, others showed slant, bias by omission, bias by viewpoint/information placement, story choice bias, and other types of bias. The panel concluded CBS News’ overall editorial approach still favors left-leaning narratives. Panelists identified Democratic perspectives appearing more often than conservative viewpoints.

A Lean Right reviewer said CBS News showed “major slant,” with “pro-Trump or conservative views largely absent.” The reviewer added that CBS News coverage was “slanted against Trump policies, ICE action, and Kristi Noem,” as the killing of Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE officers dominated the news at the time of review. The panelist noted CBS News was slanted against ICE, with “all perspectives critical of or against the Trump administration.”

While most panelists rated CBS News Left or Lean Left, one panelist who has a Lean Left bias rated it Center, but just barely inside that category (-0.9). The reviewer stated that CBS News’ bias varied by article.

A Center reviewer said CBS News showed “attempts at balanced word choice” and found parts

of the coverage of the shooting of Alex Pretti to be “pretty balanced,” but concluded that “lots of left-leaning story choices keep it Lean Left.” The reviewer also flagged an increasing reliance on anonymous sourcing.

Here is a sampling of article-level bias analysis by panelists:

• Trump policies at odds with emerging understanding of COVID's long-term harm
  • Positions Trump administration as at odds with reality, instead of just laying out both sides objectively
  • Focus on Long COVID may be of more interest to the left.
  • Elite bias: Positions many researchers in opposition to Trump administration
  • Slant (emphasis ours): “Trump administration officials led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have reduced access to COVID vaccines despite the lack of any new, substantiated evidence of harm. Though the shots were a hallmark achievement of the first Trump administration, which led the effort for their development, Kennedy has said without evidence that they are ‘the deadliest vaccine ever made.’”
• Josh Shapiro on a life of service and faith
  • Lean Left story choice bias
  • Panelists noted a “glowing” profile on the Democrat
• 5-year-old taken into custody by ICE has active immigration case, preventing deportation for now
  • Misleading headline: Makes it sound like ICE was targeting a 5-year-old
  • Slant: A Lean Right reviewer noted the following graf “makes it sound like ICE specifically targeted a 5 year old, when in reality the child’s father had fled, leaving the boy alone and forcing ICE to keep the child with them”: “The ICE operation that led Liam Adrian Conejo Ramos and his father to be taken into government custody, captured on videos and photos that have gone viral, has garnered national attention and raised questions about who exactly the Trump administration is targeting in its mass deportation campaign.”
  • Bias by Placement: Does not get to the official narrative — that the father, not the child, was being targeted — until paragraph 13.
• "A terrible miscalculation": Officials' response to fatal Minneapolis shooting causes anger among some at DHS
  • Slant/Subjective qualifying adjectives: “Soon after Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, top Trump administration officials made sweeping, categorical statements about the deadly shooting before a full investigation had begun.” 
  • Journalists should state what was said without interpreting it for the reader.
  • Bias by omission/spin words/subjective qualifying adjectives: “In Good's case, top Trump administration officials also made broad accusations early on, branding her a "domestic terrorist" and alleging that she had sought to injure the ICE officer. Lawyers representing Good's family have said the Minneapolis mother and her partner were observing ICE activity.”
    • Does not mention video of Good appearing to drive her car toward the agent.
• Judge in Minnesota orders ICE chief to appear in court, warns of possible contempt proceedings
  • Bias by omission: Trump side not quoted at all. Judge who ordered the chief to appear in court is quoted throughout.
  • Center word choice: “immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally” 
• Growing number of Republicans criticize Trump officials' response to Alex Pretti's shooting
  • Lean Left story choice
  • No similar piece on Republican commentators who have argued protestors obstructing federal operations may lead to negative outcomes.
• American Academy of Pediatrics releases childhood vaccine recommendations that differ from CDC
  • Balanced: Ample quoting from different sides and from neutral observers, does not paint one side as right or wrong, gives the facts.
  • Word choice neutrality: Describes RFK Jr. as “vaccine critic” — more balanced than other Lean Left sources who say bluntly “anti-vaccine,” which removes the nuance of his stance.
  • Bias by viewpoint placement: Pro-vaccine viewpoints placed higher in the story
• Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says Minneapolis immigration crackdown "must be terminated," says Noem should be fired 
  • Lean Left/Center story choice
  • Bias by viewpoint omission: A Lean Left reviewer said the piece “does little to explain arguments for keeping Noem in or reasons why people saw justification in the shooting of Pretti.”
• Trump officials predict a 2026 economic boom. Here's what experts say. 
  • Center
  • Opens with quotes from Trump administration and justification around numbers
  • Provides skepticism from experts, seemingly well balanced.

Vote on CBS News’ bias rating here.

Editorial Reviews involve a panel of six reviewers — two on the left, two center, and two right — who are trained to look for common types of media bias such as slant, spin, sensationalism, and story choice. We review the outlet’s homepage, headlines, recent articles, photos, and other content dating as far back as six months using online archival tools like the Wayback Machine. Taking into account all perspectives, panelists individually assign a number, between -6.0 and +6.0, that they believe best represents the bias of the media outlet. These numerical ratings are then combined into a weighted average. 

AllSides Bias Checker Output

AllSides also ran the 30 top headlines on CBS News’ homepage on Jan. 28 and 29, 2026 through our Bias Checker, a tool that provides instant article-level bias analysis on demand. The average rating was -0.89, which is in the Center category, though close to Lean Left (which starts at -1.0). 

This rating was not incorporated into AllSides’ final bias rating for CBS, but is provided as an FYI for readers.

Try the Bias Checker for yourself here and become a Sustaining Member to unlock additional uses.

Concerns About CBS Becoming Right-Wing

AllSides bias reviews of CBS News follow numerous claims by media commentators that CBS News is becoming right-wing under Weiss’ tenure.

This is likely informed by Weiss’ past; in her resignation letter from The New York Times, Weiss alleged that the paper had adopted a narrow orthodoxy on its opinion pages, rather than allowing for curiosity and a wide range of ideas. “My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views,” she said. “They have called me a Nazi and a racist.”

RELATED: X Influencer Bias Chart

The Free Press was then funded via investments from Marc Andreessen, David Sacks, Howard Schultz, and others. 

Various bias analyses by AllSides have found The Free Press’ news content is very pro-Israel/Zionist, critical of “woke” culture, and has a classical liberal bent. Its coverage largely frames Democrats negatively and right-wing figures more positively, while not falling totally in line with the "MAGA right," or populist right-wing. It has been rated both Right and Lean Left in recent AllSides Blind Bias Surveys, underscoring the difficulty of placing it into one partisan box. As of now, AllSides rates The Free Press Lean Right. (Vote on the rating here or sign up to help us rate bias.)

Weiss is Jewish and a Zionist. This week, Weiss announced further shakeups at CBS News, offering buyouts to existing staff and further involving contributors from The Free Press. Some commentators noted that Weiss’ new contributors are also largely Zionists. 

RELATED: What “Zionism” Means to Liberals and Conservatives

Bias is in the eye of the beholder, so when Weiss became Editor-in-Chief of CBS News in October, HuffPost (Left bias) ran the headline, “Bari Weiss Named CBS News Editor-In-Chief, Solidifying Network’s Rightward Shift.” Media outlets and commentators on the left may be more likely to see Weiss as right-wing due to her bucking of progressive orthodoxy, pushback against “woke” culture, and Zionist views (though the American right is currently split on this issue).

An op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer (Lean Left bias) called CBS News “Trump’s state media,” and a report from Insider (Lean Left bias) on January 27  claims a CBS News employee asked Weiss “how she would respond to criticism that CBS News is turning into "a right-wing network" in an all-hands meeting.

In December, Weiss faced criticism — including internally — for pulling a 60 Minutes segment that highlighted Venezuelan deportees who had been sent to El Salvador's CECOT prison. Weiss argued the story required more reporting and was “not ready.” Because the pulled segment was seen as critical of the Trump administration (per New York Times, Lean Left), some commentators argued Weiss was politically motivated and acting to favor the administration.

Commentators have also noted Weiss reports directly to David Ellison, the head of CBS News’ parent company, Paramount Skydance, who has been involved in business dealings Trump has overseen. For instance, in July 2025, the Trump administration allowed Paramount to merge with the Ellisons’ Skydance. And in recent months, David Ellison has been seeking to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, a decision Trump initially said he’ll be “involved in.” However, in mid-December, Trump posted to Truth Social: “For those people that think I am close with the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they have ever treated me before.”

Conclusion

AllSides bias reviews contradict claims that CBS News has become a right-wing network. As of January 2026, left-leaning bias is still apparent at the publication. AllSides continually monitors media bias and will continue to keep an eye on CBS News.

Sign up to help AllSides rate media bias or vote on CBS News’ rating.

Julie Mastrine is the Director of Marketing and Media Bias Ratings (Lean Right).

This piece was reviewed by Andrew Weinzierl, Bias Research Manager and Data Journalist (Lean Left bias).