CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss reportedly took the organization’s president Tom Cibrowski by surprise as she tapped former Wall Street Journal editor Charles Forelle as one of her top deputies.
Weiss announced the move during a Tuesday morning editorial call, telling staff that Forelle will serve in a deputy editor role for at least a few months, according to a report by Breaker Media that cited unnamed sources.
The appointment marks the latest in a string of rapid moves by Weiss since taking the reins at CBS earlier this month under Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison’s mandate to make the network “more balanced” and “fact-based.”
The Post has sought comment from CBS News.
Forelle, 44, spent more than two decades at the Journal, where he rose from intern to deputy editor in chief.
He previously oversaw global financial coverage and served as the paper’s Europe finance editor, winning multiple industry awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the George Polk Award and the Gerald Loeb Award.
Forelle left the Journal earlier this month after what sources described as a “very close working relationship” with a subordinate, according to Breaker. The Journal has not commented on the circumstances surrounding his departure.
Journal staffers raised eyebrows last November after the subordinate was promoted to a top position within the newsroom at the urging of Forelle, who lobbied his then-boss, editor-in-chief Emma Tucker, to give her the nod, according to Breaker.
The promotion fueled the perception in the Journal newsroom that her relationship with Forelle played a role in her ascent — prompting Tucker to look into the matter, Breaker reported. Amid the chatter, Forelle and the subordinate departed.
The Post has sought comment from Forelle and the Journal.
The Journal is property of Dow Jones, which is a subsidiary of The Post’s corporate parent News Corp.
Weiss is looking to make major shakeups at “60 Minutes” and the “CBS Evening News,” according to insiders who spoke to The Post earlier this week.
Within days of her start, longtime standards chief Claudia Milne exited — a move insiders described as Weiss’s “first scalp.”
Weiss has since pushed to reassert control over the network’s editorial direction, including questioning “60 Minutes” staffers about perceived political bias and pressing producers to book more conservative guests.
Weiss, 41, joined CBS News after selling her digital outlet, The Free Press, to Paramount Skydance for a reported $150 million.
Her appointment came as Ellison pushes to mollify federal regulators and advertisers who have raised concerns about CBS’s alleged liberal bias following a recent $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump over a “60 Minutes” interview.
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