CBS News has fired most of its climate crisis production staff as part of the company’s dozens of news staff layoffs last week.
The decision to lay off the climate desk comes after Paramount, parent company for CBS News, merged with Skydance. Following the merger, David Ellison, a pro-Trump billionaire, became chief executive of the new Paramount Skydance company, and conservative writer Bari Weiss was installed as editor-in-chief of CBS News.
Layoffs were expected as a result of the merger. Around 100 news staffers have been let go, The Guardian reported, with one staffer calling it a “bloodbath” that was set to affect “a number of departments.”
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CBS News senior coordinating producer Tracy Wholf, the former head of the climate desk, was among those who were fired. Two other producers on her team were also laid off, with a third producer reassigned to a different department. Only environmental correspondent David Schecter remains in his position, without an assigned producer overseeing his work.
Wholf’s departure came shortly after she sent an email within the news department suggesting that the network’s reports on Hurricane Melissa include context about the climate crisis. Wholf had su
