CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss invited actor George Clooney to visit the network’s newsroom after Clooney told Variety on Tuesday that Weiss was dismantling “CBS News as we speak.”
“Bonjour, Mr. Clooney! Big fan of your work. Sounds like you’d like to learn more about ours. This is an open invitation to visit the CBS Broadcast Center, where I’m spending the holidays to relaunch the Evening News with my colleagues. Tune in January 5,” Weiss said in a shared statement. to diversity by Paramount Skydance on Tuesday.
A representative for Clooney did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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The comment ‘Bonjour, Mr. Clooney” in Weiss’ statement is an apparent reference to the actor and his wife recently receiving French citizenship.
Clooney has made no bones about it extensive interview with Variety’s Brent Lang. The actor discussed topics such as politics, President Donald Trump and the current state of the press.
One issue that Clooney seemed particularly troubled by was CBS and ABC’s decision to settle multimillion-dollar lawsuits with Trump, suggesting the networks should have instead said, “Go ahead.”
CBS and ABC have each paid at least $16 million to settle lawsuits filed by Trump. But Clooney, who has lived in France after uprooting his family to get away from Hollywood culture, is upset that the networks aren’t fighting back.
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“If CBS and ABC had fought those lawsuits and said, ‘Go ahead,’ we wouldn’t be where we are in the country today,” Clooney said. Variety. “That’s just the truth.”
“It’s a very difficult time,” Clooney continued. “It can depress you or make you very angry. But you have to find the most positive way to get through it. You have to keep your head down and keep moving forward because giving up is not an option.”
George Clooney claims he was friends with President Trump during his interview with Variety on Tuesday. (Neil P. Mockford/Getty Images, James Devaney/GC Images)
Paramount Global and CBS agreed in July to pay $16 million upfront to settle the president’s lawsuit against the network over how “60 Minutes” edited and released an interview with then-Democratic rival Kamala Harris in 2024. Trump’s team, which initially demanded $10 billion, claimed the network’s use of edited excerpts from a single comment about Israel constituted “election interference.” Trump’s legal team defended the settlement as a victory for the responsibility of the media and the American people.
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The same month as the settlement, the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance Media, putting David Ellison in charge of the newly formed company.
Ellison then picked Bari Weiss to take over CBS News, but Clooney is not a fan.
“Bari Weiss is dismantling CBS News as we speak,” Clooney told Variety. “I worry about the way we inform ourselves and how we are going to discern reality without a functioning press.”
Bari Weiss was formally named editor-in-chief of CBS News earlier this year after her outlet, The Free Press, was acquired by Paramount. (Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press)
Trump’s victory over CBS followed ABC’s apology $16 million settlement with Trump last December, after he filed a defamation suit over “This Week’s” George Stephanopoulos’ claims that the president had been “held liable for rape.” The jury in the E. Jean Carroll case he referred to had actually found him liable for “sexual abuse.”
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ABC and CBS did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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