CBS Producer Alicia Hastey Quits and Sounds Alarm on Editorial Direction and Pressures on Journalism
CBS News producer Alicia Hastey left the network on Wednesday after four years, taking aim at what she described as a troubling shift in editorial direction under the leadership of Bari Weiss. In a sharply worded departure message, Hastey announced she had accepted a buyout and said the day marked her final time working inside CBS’s Broadcast Center.
“It is with sadness that I write to tell you that I am taking a buy out and today was my last day in the Broadcast Center,” Hastey wrote in a statement. “I joined the network four years ago with gratitude and optimism and I want to leave you with these thoughts only as a reminder of things I know you already know.”
She reflected positively on her time at the network, highlighting stories and reporting efforts she felt served audiences that are often overlooked. “I am proud of the work that’s been done in my time here: segments that aimed to foreground underrepresented perspectives, interviews that challenged conventional wisdom and efforts to make our journalism more responsive to a skeptical public.”
But Hastey warned that such stories are becoming harder to produce, arguing that a “sweeping new vision” at CBS has encouraged a departure from long-standing broadcast standards in favor of what she described as “heterodox” journalism. According to Hastey, the result has been an atmosphere in which decisions are increasingly shaped by ideology rather than by reporting value.
“The truth is that commitment to those people and the stories they have to tell is increasingly becoming impossible,” she added. “Stories may instead be evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations, a dynamic that pressures producers and reporters to self-censor or avoid challenging narratives that might trigger backlash or unfavorable headlines.”
While she emphasized that her criticism was not meant as an attack on colleagues who remain at CBS News, Hastey said the larger industry trend has become painful to watch.
While Hastey noted that this sentiment didn’t detract “from the talent of the journalists who remain at CBS News,” she called this shift in the industry “so heartbreaking,” adding, “The very excellence we seek to sustain is hindered by fear and uncertainty.”
Although Hastey did not mention Weiss by name, her comments came shortly after Weiss, CBS News’ editor-in-chief, presented what she described as a “21st century” strategy for the network during a town hall. That event also coincided with CBS News unveiling 19 new contributors, a diverse group spanning areas such as politics, economics, lifestyle, history, and technology.
“We have to start by looking honestly at ourselves,” Weiss said at the time. “We are not producing a product that enough people want.” Weiss has also faced criticism in recent months over editorial decisions, including pulling a “60 Minutes” segment in December focused on Venezuelans deported by the Trump administration to a prison in El Salvador just hours before it was scheduled to air.
Weiss defended the move, saying the segment needed more work. “While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball the [New York] Times and other outlets have previously done similar work,” she wrote at the time. “The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more.”
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