Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Bari Weiss named editor-in-chief at CBS News

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In todays email:

  • Featured story: Bari Weiss named editor-in-chief at CBS News
  • In other news: Chicago journalists sue Trump administration
  • Looking ahead: AI video app Sora tops charts
  • Chart of the week: What Americans see as the risks of AI

🔥 Featured story

Bari Weiss has been named editor-in-chief at CBS News, network owner Paramount Skydance announced this week. Weiss founded digital media startup The Free Press – acquired by Paramount for $150 million – after she left The New York Times in 2020. In her resignation letter to the Times, Weiss criticized a culture she said was not open to certain viewpoints. 

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison called Weiss a “proven champion of independent, principled journalism” and said he wants CBS News to “be at the forefront of a much-needed transformation in how news is gathered, reported and delivered.” Weiss this week sent a note to staff outlining 10 principles that will guide her leadership at CBS News, emphasizing accuracy, fairness and nonpartisan journalism. 

Most Americans have long said that news organizations tend to favor one side (rather than deal fairly with all sides) when presenting news on political and social issues, with 77% taking this view in a 2024 Pew Research Center survey. And while majorities of the public describe most journalists as intelligent (63%) and well-intentioned (58%), more than half also say most journalists are biased (58%), according to a 2025 Center survey. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say that “biased” describes most journalists well (74% vs. 45%). 

📌 In other news

📅 Looking ahead

Sora, OpenAI’s new video-generation app, has risen to the No. 1 spot on Apple’s App Store since its release last week, despite only being available to those with an invitation code. But experts warn that the app, which generates realistic short-form videos using AI, could make it easier to spread false information. The app has already been used to create convincing – though entirely fabricated – videos of crimes, arrests, terror attacks and more.

Many Americans do not feel confident in their ability to distinguish AI-generated content from real content. According to a recent Center survey, most Americans (76%) say it’s extremely or very important to be able to tell if pictures, videos and text were made by AI or people. But just 12% of U.S. adults are extremely or very confident they can detect if something was made by AI, while 53% are not too or not at all confident. 

📊 Chart of the week

This week’s chart comes from a recent Center report on how Americans view AI. We asked the 57% of Americans who rate the risks of AI for society as high or very high why they feel this way. In their open-ended responses, 18% said the main reason they feel this way is the negative impact AI could have on accurate information, such as making it harder to tell what is real and what is created by AI. 

As one respondent in his 30s said: “Misinformation is already a huge problem and AI can create misinformation a lot faster than people can.” 

Americans who see high risks from AI most commonly cite ‘erosion of human skills and connections’ as the reason

👋 That’s all for this week. 

The Briefing is compiled by Pew Research Center staff, including Naomi Forman-Katz, Jacob Liedke, Christopher St. Aubin, Luxuan Wang, Emily Tomasik, and Joanne Haner. It is edited by Michael Lipka and copy edited by Anna Jackson.

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