CBS Has Just Laid Off 100 Journalists Nov 1, 2025 4:00 pm
By Hugh Fitzgerald
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On October 29, CBS laid off 100 journalists. One of them was Debora Patta, who had been reporting, or as Ambassador Mike Huckabee might say, misreporting, from Israel. More recently, she has been reporting from her native South Africa. More on the circumstances of her firing can be found here: “CBS reporter fired in wake of firestorm over Gaza interview with Mike Huckabee now looking to sue,” by Alexandra Steigrad, New York Post, October 30, 2025:
Ousted CBS News journalist Debora Patta — whose interview with Mike Huckabee on Gaza landed her in a controversy months before she got laid off this week — is looking to sue the network, The Post has learned
The South Africa-based foreign correspondent is “speaking to lawyers” after CBS News slashed her job just months after she came under fire from Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, who claimed an Aug. 7 interview he gave her was heavily edited and misrepresented his views on the situation in Gaza.
Patta’s exit was part of a round of roughly 100 cuts orchestrated by CBS News president Tom Cibrowski. Sources speculated that the network’s new editor in chief Bari Weiss, who’s known for her staunchly pro-Israel views, played a role in the decision to ax the 61-year-old reporter.
Patta signed a new three-year contract in August, according to a source with knowledge of the matter, who added that CBS is not giving her a full payout.
A former CBS staffer said the network may not have an obligation to do so. That depends on what her contract stipulates — which may make a breach-of-contract claim unlikely.
“She is probably looking to sue over her Middle East coverage,” the person said….
There are reasons why Debora Patta might have been let go other than her disturbing coverage of the Gaza War, as shown in the version of her interview with Mike Huckabee that so carefully edited out his skepticism about claims made by Hamas. She was not in the original list of the 100 staff who were to be laid off. It was only after another reporter, set to be laid off, apparently convinced Bari Weiss to keep him on, that Debora Patta was then chosen to be laid off instead. That made sense, since Patta has most recently been reporting from South Africa, and CBS has decided to close its Johannesburg bureau.
Whatever the reason, or reasons, for her firing, Debora Patta is out at CBS, and those who took note of her unsympathetic treatment of Israel will be relieved. |
