Bari Weiss’s CBS newsroom reportedly clashed over how to cover transgender people

The CBS newsroom under Bari Weiss has reportedly had some intense disagreements over how the network should cover transgender people.

Weiss's first three months leading CBS have been marked with controversy, from her decision to pull a 60 Minutes story on the CECOT prison in El Salvador to her interview with Charlie Kirk's widow. Now, reporters have revealed that a correspondent and producer clashed in November over how to use the phrase “biological sex."

Related: All about the infamous CECOT prison — on which CBS's Bari Weiss pulled a story

A prominent correspondent at the network wrote in an email viewed by The Guardian that the network “should refrain from adopting terminology advocated by the movement," referring to the Trans Journalists Association’s stylebook. The guide provides editorial best practices on how to cover trans people, including name and pronoun usage.

A producer wrote back, “It’s a TJA style ‘guide’ – that’s what I’m trying to do. Guide us to better coverage.”

Weiss, 41, gained notoriety after her 2020 resignation from The New York Times, when she accused the paper of enforcing what she described as “ideological conformity.” She later launched The Free Press in 2021 alongside her wife, Nellie Bowles, and her sister, Suzy Weiss. The network was acquired by Paramount Skydance in October, and Weiss was appointed as the editor in chief of CBS News.

The 60 Minutes episode “Inside CECOT,” which detailed the horrific conditions experienced by men who were incarcerated at CECOT (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or Terrorism Confinement Center), was originally scheduled to air December 21. Weiss pulled the episode the day before, claiming that it needed responses from Trump administration officials. Reporter Sharyn Alfonsi held that they had previously declined to participate, and that Weiss's decision was political.

Related: Who is Bari Weiss, the right-wing anti-trans queer woman being given the keys to CBS News?

The CBS staffers that talked to The Guardian under the condition of anonymity criticized Weiss for pulling the episode, with one saying "We are a prideful newsroom, and she’s rubbing people the wrong way."

“Anyone with network TV experience could have warned her that holding that story would have been like walking the plank,” a former CBS News reporter said. “Once you promote it, there are very limited circumstances under which you hold it, including it being false. That wasn’t the case."