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A veteran CBS<\/a> News producer who is leaving the network after 46 years has suggested that political bias is at play at the network in a farewell memo sent to colleagues on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been reading a lot of goodbyes lately and here I am headed out the door. It\u2019s too soon, even after 46 years,\u201d Mary Walsh wrote in the memo, which was obtained by the Guardian. \u201cBut maybe it\u2019s for the best. We\u2019ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don\u2019t know how to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n The memo comes a day after CBS News owner Paramount Skydance emerged as the likely victor<\/a> in a takeover fight for Warner Bros Discovery, owner of CNN. CBS is now headed by Bari Weiss, a conservative commentator turned media entrepreneur, whose appointment was seen as a fillip to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Some CNN staffers are now worried that political considerations<\/a> could factor in when the network comes under the oversight of the Ellisons \u2013 though it\u2019s unclear whether Weiss would play any role at the cable network.<\/p>\n A CBS News staffer \u2013 who was not authorized to comment \u2013 said that the significance of Walsh\u2019s comments was \u201cpretty huge\u201d, considering her stature at the network.<\/p>\n In her memo, Walsh did not specifically mention Weiss or specify which \u201cpart of the political spectrum\u201d staffers have been told to \u201caim\u201d for \u2013 though network management have faced accusations of trying to curry favor with the Trump administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kim Harvey, the executive producer of the Evening News, pushed back on Walsh\u2019s farewell comments in a follow-up note to her staff.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wish Mary Walsh well and thank her for many years of service,\u201d Harvey wrote in the internal message. \u201cMary wrote in her farewell note, \u2018We\u2019ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum.\u2019 That is simply not true. Here at the Evening News, we value our editorial independence, and CBS News leadership has never asked us to aim our reporting in any political direction.\u201d<\/p>\n Walsh is one of nearly a dozen employees<\/a> on the network\u2019s evening news program that elected to take a buyout.<\/p>\n Approximately two weeks ago, another departing producer, Alicia Hastey, took a similar shot at the network\u2019s direction under Weiss and Paramount Skydance chief executive David Ellison.<\/p>\n \u201cStories may instead be evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations \u2013 a dynamic that pressures producers and reporters to self-censor or avoid challenging narratives that might trigger backlash or unfavorable headlines,\u201d Hastey wrote in her memo<\/a>, which was first reported by the New York Times.<\/p>\n