CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss intervened to save the job of a foreign correspondent after he complained of being sidelined because of his strong support for Israel — opting to fire a reporter who’d irked US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, instead — The Post has learned.
As The Post first reported Thursday, Weiss axed Debora Patta, a 12-year veteran based in South Africa, during sweeping cuts hitting the Tiffany Network.
The move came after Rome-based correspondent Chris Livesay appealed directly to Weiss, complaining of his mistreatment and asking to be assigned as Israel correspondent, sources told The Post on Friday.
Weiss replaced Livesay’s name with Patta’s on the firing list — a switch first reported by The Independent, which did not name the male correspondent — just hours before the cuts were finalized.
The Post has reached out to Livesay, Patta and CBS News for comment.
Weiss — who has described herself as a “Zionist fanatic” and is known for her outspoken pro-Israel views — has been overseeing her first major round of cuts since taking over the newsroom. The purge has seen eight on-air women — including several women of color — dismissed from the network, according to the Independent.
Patta is now looking into legal action, The Post previously reported.
She had been told she was safe from the cuts before learning her name had been added to the list, sources told The Independent.
Patta’s dismissal came months after Huckabee publicly criticized the reporter, accusing her of intentionally editing a sitdown with her to craft a “different story than the one they had.”
Huckabee claimed CBS News producers stripped key context from his remarks to make him appear indifferent to reports of starvation in Gaza.
The former Arkansas governor posted the full transcript on the US embassy’s website, showing that CBS cut portions in which he questioned the authenticity of widely circulated photos of malnourished children and argued that some images were misattributed or staged.
Patta, 61, denied any wrongdoing at the time, and colleagues described her to The Independent as a “fearless and fair” correspondent whose reporting from conflict zones — including Syria, Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war — was known for sticking closely to verified facts.
Just before being axed, Patta signed a new three-year contract. She was considered one of the network’s most experienced war correspondents.
Weiss, who joined CBS earlier this month after selling her media outlet The Free Press to Paramount Skydance, has not commented publicly on the layoffs, which affected about 100 employees across the division.
A network source previously told The Post the cuts, which affect more than 100 employees, span every major CBS News program.
The network shuttered its Johannesburg bureau, where Patta was based, with coverage shifting to London.
Planning for the reductions had been underway for months, the source added, noting that Weiss began her tenure three weeks ago and that “these decisions were made before her arrival.”
The network’s coverage of Israel has historically been a sensitive issue for on-air personnel, as well as current and former executives.
Last year, “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil conducted an interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates about his recent book strongly criticizing Israel.
Dokoupil was reprimanded for pressing Coates about omissions in the book — leading then-Paramount boss Shari Redstone to publicly back the co-anchor.
In January, “60 Minutes” aired a piece quoting former State Department officials as being concerned about the US role in Israel’s war in Gaza.
Redstone, who sold her stake in Paramount as part of the $8 billion merger with Skydance, later said she thought the network had an anti-Israel bias.
