Anna Wintour offered a vote of confidence to new CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
“She’s obviously a very accomplished young woman, with a very strong personality and a strong point of view,” Wintour said. Variety Monday night when asked about Weiss’ appointment at the Only Make Believe 25th anniversary gala in New York. “And that usually makes a great leader.”
Wintour took control of the American edition of Vogue in 1988 and held the position for 37 years. Chloé Malle, daughter of actress Candice Bergen and director Louis Malle, succeeded him in September as editor of American Vogue.
“My days are pretty busy,” said Wintour, who continues to oversee the fashion magazine’s global production as Condé Nast’s chief content officer and Vogue’s global editorial director.
When asked if she might ever stop working, the 75-year-old fashion icon replied, “It hasn’t happened yet.”
Only Make Believe honored Wintour with the James Hammerstein Award at the annual charity gala. Hosted by John Oliver at the Shubert Theater, the organization has raised more than $1.3 million to support its mission of bringing interactive theater to children’s hospitals and special education facilities across the East Coast.
A day earlier, Oliver dedicated the latest episode of his HBO series “Last Week Tonight” to a deep dive into Weiss’ career. The late-night host highlighted articles from his outlet The Free Press that he described as “pretty poorly fact-checked” and questioned Weiss’ lack of experience with traditional newsrooms.
“Of course I knew in advance what they were doing at the Free Press, that’s great,” Oliver said. Variety. “When it jumps, it’s when you’re at the head of a press agency without being a journalist.”
Weiss had a career as an editor at The New York Times before parting ways with the mainstream publication in 2020 and launching the Free Press. Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison announced last week that his company would acquire Free Press from Weiss for $150 million, a move that sparked divisive reactions across the media industry.
Although Oliver expressed deep concern about the future of CBS News, he stressed that he wanted to “separate” Weiss’ new role from the work done by the network’s journalists.
“The reason it’s so alarming is because there’s incredible work being done at CBS,” Oliver said. Variety. “They will continue to do this work until, worst case scenario, they are no longer able to do it and people start getting fired or quitting. So, until then, I would like to strongly defend the fact that great work is being done at CBS News. I hope that can continue to happen under these circumstances. I fear it will be different.”
Close. Donald Trump said Sunday he thinks CBS News has “great potential” after the Skydance-Paramount merger, which put David Ellison in charge of the media company.
“I’m sure he’s happy,” Oliver said. “I mean, he’s certainly happy that Ellison is taking over Paramount and CBS. So it’s more than that. So, I’m sure he’s happy — if happiness is something he can ever fully dedicate himself to.”
Oliver concluded, “Usually if he’s really happy about something, you have to wonder what that something is.”
