CBS News in the crossfire

If CBS News' new owners are trying to pull the network away from what they see as liberal politics and reflexive hostility to Donald Trump, the president would like them to try harder.

"Your elections are crooked and you're crooked, and Meet the Press is crooked," Trump told NBC News' Kristen Welker Sunday, shortly before storming off, then added: "And so is ABC and CBS."

CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and her team find themselves in an unusual situation in America's contemporary polarized politics: under siege from both sides. Trump appears uninterested in a modest rightward adjustment, while the most powerful right-wing outlet in America, Fox News, has greeted CBS' attempt to woo its audience with gleeful hostility. That has left CBS' leaders taking solace in support from stray voices on X, led by Elon Musk, as they try frantically to damp down a rolling civil war.