CBS New York
U.S. mainstream, center (local news, with a parent network under scrutiny for a rightward shift)
Background
WCBS-TV began in 1941 as experimental station WCBW and is the flagship station of the CBS network, based at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Manhattan. CBS has owned it for most of its history, including through the Viacom, CBS Corporation and Paramount Global eras. In 2025 Skydance, led by David Ellison, completed its acquisition of Paramount Global, and the combined company is now Paramount Skydance. That deal followed Paramount's 2025 settlement of a lawsuit by President Trump over a '60 Minutes' interview, and it was approved by the FCC under Trump-appointed chair Brendan Carr. Ellison named Bari Weiss, founder of The Free Press and a conservative-leaning commentator, editor-in-chief of CBS News in October 2025. Since then critics, including former '60 Minutes' correspondent Scott Pelley and congressional Democrats, have accused CBS News leadership of favoring the administration's version of events; the company has disputed such characterizations. Paramount Skydance has also pursued a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which has drawn scrutiny over CBS News' independence. The New York station's daily coverage remains largely local: crime, transit, city and state politics, and weather. It also carries network and wire material, so some of the parent company's editorial controversy can reach its audience.
Sources
- Bari Weiss and the CBS cloud hanging over the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger (CNN)
- Scott Pelley alleges CBS leadership pushed for 'the president's version of events' (NBC News)
- Bari Weiss joins CBS with a mandate for 'balanced and fact-based' news (NPR)
- Paramount Skydance Corp - Form 10-Q (June 30, 2026)
- CBS News controversies and criticism (Wikipedia)
- CBS Broadcast Center (Wikipedia)
Profile compiled 2026-10-06; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.