On Thursday, October 9, staffers in the Washington bureau of CBS News filed into a conference room for the organization’s 9 a.m. editorial call. The call started five minutes late, owing to the tardy arrival of a fresh face: Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of the outlet. She sat at the head of the table, next to DC bureau chief Mark Lima. The room was more packed than usual, filled with various producers, reporters, and anchors, including Robert Costa , star politics reporter, and Norah O’Donnell , network doyenne and contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes . “You could cut the tension with a knife,” said a source in the room.

The morning meeting is typically a broad review of coverage, but Weiss was quick to dive into the minutiae of day-to-day programming. When

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