CBS News' anti-woke honcho Bari Weiss is 'physically isolated from staff' after 60 Minutes firestorm

CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has reportedly been 'physically isolated from the rest of her staff' amid the fallout from her sweeping changes at 60 Minutes.

Weiss, 42, has been 'holed up' in her suite on the sixth floor of CBS News’ Manhattan headquarters for some two weeks, Status reported on Tuesday.

Weiss's office, along with those of CBS News Deputy Editor Adam Rubenstein and Managing Editor Charles Forelle, is inaccessible to most CBS staffers, sources told the publication.

The suite stays locked and requires a special key card for access, sources said.

Weiss was hired to be CBS News's editor-in-chief in October, at the behest of then-new Paramount CEO David Ellison.

Ellison, at the time, articulated a vision of the prime Paramount asset reaching more people across the country and moving into the digital age.

CBS has since been subject to an extreme overhaul, with 60 Minutes being a particular point of focus.

In her first six months as news chief, Weiss saw 60 Minutes 'as calcified and resistant to change,' sources told CNN late last month.

The Free Press founder last month brought on filmmaker and former New York Times tech columnist Nick Bilton to be the newsmagazine's new executive producer.

At the same time, former top executive Tanya Simon - and several other senior producers and correspondents - were shown the door.

The following Monday, during Bilton's first meeting with the remaining members of the 60 Minutes team, veteran correspondent Scott Pelley peppered his new boss with questions about the day's firings and his purported lack of prestige.

Weiss was not present for the argument that ensued. Pelley still accused her of 'murdering' 60 Minutes. 

The conversation grew so tense that Bilton had to tell Pelley that he would not be 'intimidated,' according to a recording of the meeting that was rapidly leaked to the press. 

Forelle also had to step in twice to say Pelley was being 'rude', Puck, The Guardian, The New York Times and Status all reported.  

A CBS statement that slammed Pelley for 'misconduct' and 'antipathy to the future' of the show made his firing known the following night.

Pelley went on to issue two statements - one claiming that 'new management had instructed [him] to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story,' and another to The New York Times after Weiss told staffers that they made an effort to keep him.

'Weiss knows what she said is not true,' Pelley, 68, told the paper on June 3.

'In the meeting on Tuesday, in which I was effectively fired, there was no effort of any kind to "find a way back," as Weiss had said in the editorial meeting.'

'At no point did anyone in the Tuesday meeting suggest that there could be steps taken by either side that would lead to a resolution,' Pelley said.

The following Friday, on June 6, the show's last three correspondents - Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim all announced their intent to stay with the show in an email to staff.

'We don't want to see 60 Minutes die,' the trio said, with no mention of Pelley.

Stahl spoke with Ellison on the phone over the weekend, she told the Times on Tuesday.

Ellison, 43, promised to respect 60 Minutes' long-enjoyed, large degree of autonomy, Stahl, 84, said.

Ellison also assured her that his top priority is righting the 60 Minutes ship, sources told Status Tuesday.

The publication spoke to multiple senior CBS and Paramount officials last week. They said they believed Weiss had damaged the CBS brand over the past nine months

One CBS News staffer told the publication: 'The problem is clearly Bari. We are all trying to clean this up, but we need Ellison’s help.' 

The Daily Mail has approached CBS News for comment.