Overview
- Vanity Fair’s Party Animals newsletter, reported by Mediaite and Fox News, says New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ended talks to appear on CBS after a Feb. 28 post by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.
- Two sources, including a former CBS producer, told Vanity Fair the planned booking was for Robert Costa’s CBS News Sunday Morning and that Weiss’s post was the “nail in the coffin.”
- Weiss had reposted a CBS clip of new contributor Masih Alinejad, who criticized Mamdani’s late‑February statement warning that U.S. military action against Iran would be a catastrophic escalation.
- In the clip Weiss shared with a fire emoji, Alinejad quipped that Mamdani was welcome at one of her safe houses and urged him to redirect his focus away from partisan targets.
- The report also highlights internal strain at CBS, with recent departures by Scott MacFarlane, Anderson Cooper, and producer Alicia Hastey, and a source claiming guest booking has become more difficult; CBS News and Mamdani’s office did not comment.