In 1929, the
Columbia Broadcasting System began making regular radio news broadcasts, which were five-minute summaries taken from reports from
United Press, one of the three
wire services that supplied newspapers with national and international news. In December 1930, CBS chief
William S. Paley hired journalist
Paul W. White away from United Press as CBS's news editor. Paley put the radio network's news operation at the same level as entertainment, and authorized White to interrupt programming if events warranted. Along with other networks, CBS chafed at the
breaking news embargo imposed upon radio by the wire services, which prevented them from using bulletins until they first appeared in print. CBS disregarded an embargo when it broke the story of the
Lindbergh kidnapping in 1932, using live on-the-air reporting. Radio networks scooped print outlets with news of the
1932 presidential election. In March 1933, White was named vice president and general manager in charge of news at CBS. As the first head of CBS News, he began to build an organization that soon established a legendary reputation. In 1935, White hired
Edward R. Murrow, and sent him to London in 1937 to run CBS Radio's European operation.
Bill Downs,
John Charles Daly,
Joseph C. Harsch,
Cecil Brown,
Elmer Davis,
Quincy Howe,
H. V. Kaltenborn,
Robert Trout, and
Lewis Shollenberger. "CBS was getting its ducks in a row for the biggest news story in history,
World War II", wrote radio historian John Dunning.
World War II In 1940,
William S. Paley recruited
Edmund A. Chester from his position as Bureau Chief for
Latin America at the
Associated Press to coordinate the development of the international shortwave radio Network of the Americas, called
La Cadena de las Américas, in 1942. Broadcasting in concert with the assistance of the
Department of State, the
Office for Inter-American Affairs chaired by
Nelson Rockefeller and
Voice of America as part of President Roosevelt's support for
Pan-Americanism, this CBS radio network provided vital news and cultural programming throughout
South America and
Central America during the World War II era. Through its operations in 20 nations, it fostered benevolent diplomatic relations between the United States and other nations in the region while providing an alternative to
Nazi propaganda. After the end of World War II, expanded news programs appeared on the WCBW schedule –(its call letters were changed to WCBS-TV in 1946) – first anchored by Milo Boulton, and later by
Douglas Edwards. On May 3, 1948, Edwards began anchoring
CBS Television News, a regular 15-minute nightly newscast on the CBS television network, including WCBS-TV. It aired every weeknight at 7:30 p.m., and was the first regularly scheduled, network television news program featuring an anchor (the nightly
Lowell Thomas NBC radio network newscast was simulcast on television locally on NBC's WNBT, which became
WNBC, for a time in the early 1940s, along with Richard Hubbell, Ned Calmer, Everett Holles, and Milo Boulton on WCBW in the early and mid-1940s, but these were local television broadcasts seen only in New York City).
NBC's offering at the time,
NBC Television Newsreel (which premiered in February 1948), was simply film footage with voice narration.
Mid-late 20th century In 1948, CBS Radio journalist
Edmund Chester emerged as the television network's new Director of News Special Events and Sports. In 1949, Chester collaborated with one of CBS' original
Murrow Boys,
Larry LeSueur, to produce the innovative news series
United Nations In Action. Underwritten by
Ford Motor Company as a public service, the broadcasts endeavored to provide live coverage of the proceedings of the
United Nations General Assembly from its interim headquarters in
Lake Success, New York. They proved to be successful, and were honored with a
George Foster Peabody Award for Television News in 1949. In 1950, the name of the nightly newscast was changed to
Douglas Edwards with the News, and the following year, it became the first news program to be broadcast on both coasts, thanks to a new coaxial cable connection, prompting Edwards to use the greeting "Good evening everyone, coast to coast." In 1962, the broadcast was renamed the
CBS Evening News when
Walter Cronkite replaced Edwards. Edwards remained with CBS News, contributing to various daytime television newscasts and radio news broadcasts until his retirement on April 1, 1988. From the 1990s until 2014, CBS News operated its own production unit CBS News Productions, to produce alternative programming for cable networks, and CBS EyeToo Productions, later renamed CBS Eye Productions, a company that produced documentaries and nonfiction programs. CBS News ran a cable channel,
CBS Eye on People, from 1997 to 2000, and
Spanish language channel
CBS Telenoticias from 1996 to 1998.
21st century In 2021, CBS News had set up its own production unit.
See It Now Studios, which was headed by
Susan Zirinsky. Until April 2021, the president and senior executive producer of CBS News was
Susan Zirinsky, who assumed the role on March 1, 2019. Zirinsky, the first female president of the network's news division, was announced as the choice to replace
David Rhodes on January 6, 2019. The announcement came amid news that Rhodes would step down as president of CBS News "amid falling ratings and the fallout from revelations from an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations" against CBS News figures and Rhodes. In April 2021, CBS Television Stations and CBS News merged their two divisions into one entity named
CBS News and Stations. On April 15, 2021, CBS Television Stations and CBS News announced that their respective divisions would merge into one entity, to be named
CBS News and Stations. It was also announced that
Neeraj Khemlani (former executive vice president of
Hearst Newspapers) and
Wendy McMahon (former president of the
ABC Owned Television Stations Group) were named presidents and co-heads. This transition was completed on May 3, 2021. On August 14, 2023, after Khemlani announced he was stepping down, CBS News named McMahon as its sole president and CEO. The next day on August 15, CBS News appointed
Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, who supervised the Washington, D.C. bureau as its president. She stepped down in July 2024. In 2022, CBS News hired former
Trump administration official
Mick Mulvaney as a paid on-air contributor. Mulvaney's hiring stirred controversy within the company due to his history of promoting
Donald Trump's false claims and attacking the press. Initially, the network released a statement that it would "vigorously defend" against the suit. In July 2025, CBS News' parent company, Paramount Global, settled the lawsuit for $16 million, which would be given to
Trump's future presidential library and lawyer costs. The settlement was described as a capitulation to Trump's executive power and blow to freedom of the press, with Stephen Colbert characterizing it as "a big fat bribe". Colbert's show was cancelled shortly thereafter.
Paramount's merger with Skydance Media, which needed executive approval, was cited as a key motivating factor in the network's decision to settle.
Face the Nation host and CBS News correspondent
Margaret Brennan, however, continue to be based in Washington, D.C. In April 2025,
60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens left the network, citing deterioration of journalistic independence. As the
Federal Communications Commission required the appointment of an
ombudsman to monitor "bias" at CBS News for agency approval of the Paramount–Skydance merger,
Paramount Skydance CEO
David Ellison appointed
Kenneth R. Weinstein (the former CEO of the
Hudson Institute, a conservative foreign policy think tank) to the position in September 2025. FCC chair
Brendan Carr, speaking of approval of the merger, stated in an interview to
The Wall Street Journal that "The new owners of CBS came in and said, 'It's time for a change'" and that they said "'We're going to reorient it towards getting rid of bias.'" Carr added: "At the end of the day, that's what made the difference for us." In October 2025,
Bari Weiss was appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News. This announcement was interpreted by critics as a mark of the organization shifting rightward and more
pro-Israel in response to the Trump Era, and was likewise praised by Trump himself. In October, around 100 predominantly non-white employees were laid off, including eight on-air hosts, all of whom were women. This came amidst a broader removal in the United States of non-white employees from political and journalistic positions. Also in October, the conservative, anti-woke digital website
The Free Press was bought by Paramount and incorporated as an independent entity within Paramount. Weiss stated that the merger "gives The Free Press a chance to help reshape a storied media organization — to help guide CBS News into a future that honors those great values that underpin The Free Press and the best of American journalism". In November 2025, in "redrawing the lines of what [fell] in the 40-yard lines of acceptable debate and acceptable American politics and culture" to create a new form of "centrist" news, Weiss was criticized for citing the example of a "charismatic" conversation between American lawyer
Alan Dershowitz and former spokeswoman for the
National Rifle Association Dana Loesch as "an opportunity to speak for the 75%, for the people that are on the center-left and the center-right" by social media users, journalists, as well as staffers at CBS, due to the figures representing fringe political points of view, with journalist
Glenn Greenwald connecting this with its low viewcount reception on YouTube. Dershowitz was criticized as out-of-step with the "clear majority" of Democratic voters on Israel, specifically over his denial of the concurrent commission of the
Gaza Genocide, while Loesch was viewed as politicizing
gun rights advocacy. By April 2026, though still identifying as a "lifelong Democrat", Dershowitz registered as a Republican because the Democratic Party had "become the most anti-Israel party in U.S. history." Amid the editorial changes being undertaken by Bari Weiss, new
CBS Evening News anchor
Tony Dokoupil released a promo promising that the newscast planned to remain objective and editorially independent from politicians, advertisers, and corporate interests (including those of CBS itself). He argued that news media coverage at CBS on topics such as the Iraq war, COVID lockdowns, Hillary Clinton's emails, and Hunter Biden's laptop was "skewed" in favor of "political and academic elites and away from the concerns of normal people".
CBS Evening News reported its 38-page editorial standards handbook was reduced to "5 simple values" of which one was "we love America", establishing an explicit pro-United States editorial stance.
Variety reported the pro-America pledge "reinforce[d] speculation that Ellison put Weiss in charge of CBS News in an effort to boost its appeal among MAGA supporters generally — and with President Trump specifically". In January 2026, new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss held an all-staff meeting outlining her strategic vision for the troubled news division. She said she planned to hire about 18 paid commentators to broaden the range of voices and content at the network and indicated that she expects to make significant newsroom cuts as part of reshaping the organization. In February 2026, it was revealed that CBS News was considering another round of layoffs which could see cuts totalling at least 15% of the current staff. In March 2026, CBS News announced it would shutter its radio news service by May 22, 2026 after nearly 100 years and eliminate all positions tied to it as part of a larger restructuring by Weiss. CBS cited changes in the media landscape and financial pressures as driving the move. ==Broadcast history==