Veteran British broadcaster Sir Trevor Phillips has offered some strong advice to his colleagues at CBS News in the face of critics who question the channel’s editorial integrity: “Why don’t you fuck off and let us do our job?”
Phillips made the blunt suggestion during a contentious meeting of the network’s London bureau on Tuesday, during which foreign editor Shayndi Raice launched a lengthy tirade criticizing unnamed staffers for suggesting that editorial oversight amounted to “interference” and informing colleagues that disobeying editors would be insubordination and “legal grounds for termination.”
Phillips’ decision to join CBS was announced in June. That came after its billionaire owner, David Ellison, named opinion journalist and newcomer Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief, a move that shook the staff.
The Guardian, which was first to report on Tuesday’s meeting, reviewed an audio recording of the controversial session that shook staff. A CBS News spokesperson and Phillips declined to comment on the meeting.
Phillips initially spoke out to defend Raice, saying the message she was delivering was common sense. “I’m really surprised you had to say anything in the last 15 minutes,” he said during the meeting. “That seems like a no-brainer in any organization…I meant I’m a little surprised that in an organization of this kind and capacity, with the smart people I’ve met here, that all of this actually needs to be said.”
He then turned to outside opinion on CBS, telling colleagues he had faced criticism after it was announced he was leaving Sky News to become the channel’s senior world affairs correspondent. Phillips also contributes to CBS’ flagship news show, 60 Minutes, and delivered a short piece on Sunday about the protests in Europe. Since CBS parent company Paramount Global was acquired by Ellison’s Skydance Media in the summer of 2025, the company’s executives have been accused of tilting the editorial balance in a more conservative direction.
“I could spend the next hour telling you the number of people when it was announced that I was coming here, the number of people who told me for all the reasons you just explained why this is the end of my career and how I was going to destroy everything I’ve ever created, and all that bullshit,” Phillips said.
He continued: “I think we’re in a new game now, actually, in which we are now players as journalists. And what people are constantly trying to do is bring us down – to scare us, basically, into doing this or that. It emphasizes two things – one is our objectivity, and two: supporting each other. I think the worst thing that can happen now is if we start telling people, ‘Well, I would have done this if the higher ups hadn’t told me to do this. This is exactly what everyone wants us to get into. This is how we become vulnerable.”
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