CBS News

History

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. White led a staff that would come to include Richard C. Hottelet, Charles Collingwood, William L. Shirer, Eric Sevareid, 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 becoming commercial station WCBW (channel 2, later WCBS-TV) in 1941, the pioneer CBS television station in New York City broadcast two daily news programs, at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. weekdays, anchored by Richard Hubbell (journalist). Most of the newscasts featured Hubbell reading a script with only occasional cutaways to a map or still photograph. When Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, WCBW (which was usually off the air on Sunday to give the engineers a day off), took to the air at 8:45 p.m. with an extensive special report. The national emergency even broke down the unspoken wall between CBS radio and television. WCBW executives convinced radio announcers and experts such as George Fielding Elliot and Linton Wells to come down to the Grand Central studios during the evening and give information and commentary on the attack. The WCBW special report that night lasted less than 90 minutes. But that special broadcast pushed the limits of live television in 1941 and opened up new possibilities for future broadcasts. As CBS wrote in a special report to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the unscheduled live news broadcast on December 7 "was unquestionably the most stimulating challenge and marked the greatest advance of any single problem faced up to that time."

Additional newscasts were scheduled in the early days of the war. In May 1942, WCBW, like most television stations, sharply cut back its live program schedule and the newscasts were canceled, since the station temporarily suspended studio operations, resorting exclusively to the occasional broadcast of films. This was primarily because much of the staff had either joined the service or were redeployed to war related technical research, and to prolong the life of the early, unstable cameras which were now impossible to repair due to the wartime lack of parts.

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. CBS News co-president Neeraj Khemlani told CBS morning show staff, "If you look at some of the people that we've been hiring on a contributor basis, being able to make sure that we are getting access to both sides of the aisle is a priority because we know the Republicans are going to take over, most likely, in the midterms".

In October 2024, President Donald Trump sued CBS News over a 60 Minutes interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, alleging that the network engaged in election interference through deceptive editing. The lawsuit, which sought $10 billion in damages, claimed that CBS violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by airing two different edits of Harris' response to a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The lawsuit was widely described as frivolous by legal experts.

Broadcast history

The information on programs listed in this section came directly from CBS News in interviews with the Vice President of Communications and NewsWatch Dallas.

According to the CBS News Library and source Sandy Genelius (Vice President, CBS News Communications), the "CBS Evening News" was the program title for both Saturday and Sunday evening broadcasts. The program title for the Sunday late night news beginning in 1963 was the "CBS Sunday Night News". These titles were also seen on the intro slide of the program's opening. The program airs on Saturday, and Sunday nights at 7:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m. UTC (Eastern Time) on CBS.

CBS News television programs

Other programs

United Nations in Action (1949)

You Are There (1953–1973)

Adventure (1953–1955)

Youth Takes a Stand (1953–1954)

Air Power (1956–1957)

The Twentieth Century (1957–1970)

CBS Reports (1959–2010)

Of Black America (1968)

In The News (1971–1986; 1997–1998)

Razzmatazz (1977–1982) (co-production with Scholastic Magazines, Inc.)

West 57th (1985–1989)

America Tonight (1990–1991)

20th Century with Mike Wallace (1993–2001)

Biography (1996–2005)

Off Tenth (1997)

Fast Forward (1997–1999)

Scandal! (1998–2007)

BET Nightly News (2001–2005) (co-production with BET Studios)

TV Land Legends: The 60 Minutes Interviews (2002–2004) (co-production with TV Land)

TV Land Moguls (2004–2009) (co-production with TV Land)

What's Hot! What's Cool! (2004)

365gay News (2005–2009) (co-production with Logo TV)

CBS News Radio

CBS News produces newscasts and features for radio stations through CBS News Radio, which is the oldest unit of CBS and tracings its roots to the company's founding in 1927, and the news division took shape over the decade that followed. The list of CBS News correspondents (below) includes those reporting on CBS News Radio.

CBS News Radio produces the oldest daily news show on radio or television, the CBS World News Roundup, which first aired in 1938; in 2018, it celebrated its 80th anniversary. The World News Roundup airs twice every weekday, broadcasting a morning edition anchored by Steve Kathan and produced by Paul Farry, and a late edition anchored by Dave Barrett and produced by James Hutton. The evening Roundup, previously known as The World Tonight, has aired in its current form since 1956, and has been anchored by Blair Clark, Douglas Edwards, Dallas Townsend, and Christopher Glenn, Glenn also anchored the morning Roundup prior to his death in 2006.

CBS Radio Network provides newscasts at the top of the hour, regular updates at :31 minutes past the hour, the popular Newsfeeds for affiliates, including WCBS in New York City and KYW in Philadelphia, at :35 minutes past the hour, and breaking news updates when developments warrant, often at :20 and :50 minutes past the hour. Skyview Networks handles the distribution.

In 2026, CBS announced its radio news service would be shut down on May 22, 2026, as part of a larger restructuring due in part to changes in the media landscape and financial pressures.

CBS Newspath

CBS Newspath is CBS News' satellite news-gathering service, similar in format to CNN Newsource. Newspath provides national hard news, sports highlights, regional spot news, features and live coverage of major breaking news events for affiliate stations to use in their local news broadcasts. The service has a team of domestic and global correspondents and freelance reporters dedicated to reporting for affiliates, and offers several different national or international stories fronted by reporters on a daily basis. CBS Newspath also relies heavily on local affiliates sharing content. Stations will often contribute locally obtained footage that may be of national interest. It replaced a similar service, CBS News NewsNet.

In late 1999, the news-gathering arms of CBS (Newspath), ABC (NewsOne) and Fox (NewsEdge) agreed to form a joint-venture footage sharing pool, known as Network News Service.

CBS News 24/7

CBS News 24/7 is a 24-hour streaming news channel which launched on November 4, 2014, as CBSN. At the time as CBSN, the channel features live news from 9 a.m. to midnight on weekdays. The channel makes all of the resources of CBS News available directly on digital platforms with live, anchored coverage 15 hours each week. It is a first for a U.S. 24-hour news channel to forgo cable and be available exclusively only online and on smart devices such as smart TV's Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire and others. The channel is based at CBS's New York City headquarters.

The morning hours are typically anchored by Errol Barnett and Vladimir Duthiers, with afternoons anchored by a rotating team. Various correspondents in Washington D.C. anchor a late-afternoon political program titled, 'America Decides' and John Dickerson anchors "The Daily Report", which airs Mondays through Thursdays.

Unionized writers of CBS News 24/7 held a 24-hour walkout on March 17, 2026, after their contract expired on March 9, and negotiations failed. CBS and Paramount signed a three-year agreement with the Writers Guild of America East on April 2, pending a ratification vote by union members.

News bureaus

Domestic bureaus

New York City (Main CBS News headquarters)

Washington, D.C. (White House Bureau)

Atlanta

Chicago

Dallas

Denver

Kennedy Space Center

Los Angeles (West Coast bureau)

Miami

San Francisco

Foreign bureaus

Johannesburg

Bangkok

Beijing, where it does not have a correspondent, but does have a producer-camera person

Kabul

(Formerly, until April 3, 2024) Tokyo

London

Paris

Rome

Tel Aviv

Personnel

Current television hosts, anchors, correspondents, and reporters

New York (Main Headquarters)

Washington, D.C. (White House Bureau)

Presidents of CBS News

Tom Cibrowski currently serves as president of CBS News and reports to Paramount TV head George Cheeks. Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss works alongside Cibrowski but reports directly to Paramount CEO David Ellison and is also in charge of her former digital website and now independent CBS News division The Free Press.

Reporting partnerships

In 2017, CBS News entered into a content-sharing agreement with BBC News, respectively replacing previous arrangements between the BBC and ABC News, and CBS and Sky News (which was partially controlled by 21st Century Fox until 2018 when ownership was then transferred to Comcast). The partnership includes the ability to share resources, footage, and reports, and conduct "efficient planning of news gathering resources to increase the content of each broadcaster's coverage of world events".

Although they do not have an official partnership, CNN and CBS News share correspondents and contributors, including Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta.

In 2022, CBS News entered into a content-sharing partnership with The Weather Channel, where The Weather Channel meteorologists will appear on CBS News programs.

Beginning in 2025, The Free Press operates as an independent entity within Paramount and has its stories featured online at CBS News.

Controversies

Notable controversies include the resignation of CBS News president Fred Friendly in 1966 to protest against Vietnam War coverage, the 2004 Killian documents controversy involving Dan Rather presenting improperly verified documents, accusations of liberal bias and plagiarism, and several instances of misrepresented or erroneously attributed footage.

Paramount Skydance ownership controversies

In 2025, CBS News President Wendy McMahon and 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens resigned; Owens stated his departure was due to a loss of journalistic independence. Following editorial changes by owner Larry Ellison and editor-in-chief Bari Weiss that same year, CBS News faced allegations of a conservative, pro-Trump, pro-MAGA bias. Pro-Trump comments by Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr regarding CBS News were criticized for highlighting the extent politics played a part in approval of the Paramount-Skydance merger, such as his statement that "President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the media landscape" and that Paramount's promise to remove "bias" at CBS News "made the difference to us". In early 2026, under newly appointed editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, CBS Evening News' Tony Dokoupil introduced "5 simple values", a set of principles that inform how the show presents news. The principles, which espoused American-centric values, led to increased speculation that Weiss's appointment was aimed at gaining approval from MAGA supporters, including Donald Trump.

The Guardian wrote that among the new contributors Weiss had hired was Mark Hyman, who had "been called a 'germ theory denialist' by the medical author Harriet Hall". The Guardian also wrote he is associated with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and that he is "a doctor who has claimed that he has reduced his biological age by 20 years with therapies including cold plunges; that cod liver oil can treat autism and that conditions like Alzheimer's and dementia can be reversed with the kind of nutritional supplements he also sells on his online store." Jonathan Jarry, a science communicator for McGill University's Office for Science and Society said, "By hiring Mark Hyman, CBS News will be misinforming its large audience on the subject of health. Hyman is the face of functional medicine … CBS viewers will be told that true health is about testing for everything – at a cost – and gorging yourself on an array of unproven and unnecessary dietary supplements. This is in keeping with what is happening under Trump: the institutionalization of pseudoscience."

In April 2026, David Ellison and CBS News' Bari Weiss, Norah O'Donnell, Tom Cibrowski, CBS News president, Makan Delrahim, Paramount's chief legal officer, Jan Crawford, the network's chief legal correspondent, chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes, and Weijia Jiang, White House correspondent and president of the White House Correspondents' Association; all attended a party "honoring" Donald Trump and the First Amendment with Trump, acting attorney general Todd Blanche, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Stephen Miller, deputy White House chief of staff. The DOJ's antitrust division was in the process of reviewing a merger by Ellison to acquire Warner Bro. Discovery which would give him ownership of CNN. The New York Times reported that party invitations sent to guests said the event was for "honoring the Trump White House", and several CBS News journalists expressed surprise and consternation over the dinner, worried that the event had the "potential to create a perception of coziness between the news division and the Trump administration".