Viewers have seen a number of changes occur at CBS News over the past few months. This includes both numbers of people leaving and obtaining new roles with the company. Recently, a departing veteran announced that they were leaving the network, sharing the news in a memo.
The Producer Shared Things Were Ending ‘Too Soon,’ Even After A Decade-Spanning Career
Back in late October, Bari Weiss was hired as the new editor-in-chief at CBS News. Since that time, viewers have seen a variety of figures come and go at the network. This includes Anderson Cooper, who previously announced his exit from 60 Minutes as a correspondent earlier this month.
Throughout this time, insiders have been weighing in on who is set to leave, as well as who is walking away and who is being let go. Recently, a producer who spent decades with the network announced that they were leaving CBS News themselves.
In a farewell memo sent to colleagues on Friday afternoon, Mary Walsh acknowledged she was leaving, all while noting that this was starting to sound like a familiar story. As she wrote, “We’ve been reading a lot of goodbyes lately and here I am headed out the door. It’s too soon, even after 46 years.”
Walsh started her career in Washington, D.C. as the CBS News political director’s assistant. With her career in broadcasting, she won a 2002 and a 2004 duPont-Columbia Award.
According to the memo, which was shared by The Guardian, Walsh tried to keep in good spirits about leaving. She continued, “But maybe it’s for the best. We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that.”
An Inside Source Briefly Spoke About The Situation
The memo notably comes out a day after CBS News’ owner, Paramount Skydance, came out as the likely victor in a takeover fight for Warner Bros Discovery, which owns CBB. Reportedly, some CNN staffers are concerned with what this could mean for the network going forward.
That said, Walsh’s memo did not specify what “political spectrum” the company was trying to appeal to. However, the outlet mused that there could be a connection to Bari Weiss. Meanwhile, speaking with the outlet, a CBS News staffer claimed that Walsh’s comments were “pretty huge,” considering her stature at the network, though it was shared that the source was not authorized to comment.
In addition, Kim Harvey, the executive producer of the Evening News, pushed back on Wash’s comments with her own memo to staff. In the message, she shared, “We wish Mary Walsh well and thank her for many years of service. Mary wrote in her farewell note, ‘We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum.’ That is simply not true. Here at the Evening News, we value our editorial independence, and CBS News leadership has never asked us to aim our reporting in any political direction.”
Walsh also shared a message from Bob Schieffer, who stepped down as anchor for Face the Nation in 2015. She shared, “We were lucky because we were part of something grand, something that made a difference and no one can take that away from us.”
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John Witiw has been a writer since at least 2015. He’s covered a variety of topics, especially when it comes to film and television.
