White House Denounces CBS News for Hiring Ex‑Liz Cheney Communications Adviser Jeremy Adler
The White House, according to Fox News, denounced CBS’s hiring of Jeremy Adler — a former communications adviser to Rep. Liz Cheney — calling the move damaging to the network’s credibility and characterizing it as a possible “revenge hire,” with a source saying it “destroyed whatever ounce of credibility they had left.” Fox also links the hire to CBS’s 2025 $16 million settlement of an election‑interference suit and says the appointment has drawn criticism from some Democrats and liberals who accuse the network, under new CEO David Ellison, of “catering to Trump.”
📌 Key Facts
- The White House publicly criticized CBS for hiring Jeremy Adler, saying the move damaged the network’s credibility and quoting a source who said CBS ‘destroyed whatever ounce of credibility they had left’ by hiring ‘an aide to a prosecutor who built her career trying to put President Trump in jail,’ and characterizing the hire as a possible ‘revenge hire.’
- Coverage links Adler’s hiring to a 2025 CBS settlement in which the network agreed to pay $16 million to Donald Trump’s future presidential library or charitable causes to resolve an election‑interference lawsuit stemming from a ‘60 Minutes’ interview with Kamala Harris.
- Fox News reports intra‑Democratic/liberal criticism that CBS has been ‘catering to Trump’ under new Paramount CEO David Ellison, and says the Adler hire has ‘rocked the boat’ among those observers, suggesting tension between the White House and parts of the left over CBS’s direction.
- Subsequent Fox coverage emphasized the narrative that the hire harmed CBS’s credibility and may be tied to the earlier settlement, largely repeating the same criticisms without naming additional critics or reporting any internal CBS response.
- All of the cited reporting appeared in Fox News pieces published on March 13, 2026.
📊 Relevant Data
As of October 2023, 38% of White Catholics believed the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, compared to 24% of Hispanic Catholics and 11% of Black Protestants.
Threats to American Democracy Ahead of an Unprecedented Presidential Election — PRRI
In 2024, 29% of top editors in major US news outlets are people of color, compared to 42% of the US population being people of color.
Race and leadership in the news media 2024: evidence from five markets — Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
In June 2024, 39% of Donald Trump supporters said that having a majority non-White population by 2050 would be bad for American society, compared to 10% of Joe Biden supporters.
Biden and Trump voters’ attitudes on race ahead of election 2024 — Pew Research Center
📰 Source Timeline (3)
Follow how coverage of this story developed over time
- Fox notes that the White House backlash frames CBS’ hiring of Jeremy Adler as damaging to the network’s credibility and suggests it may be a 'revenge hire' linked to a prior $16 million election-interference settlement.
- The newsletter essentially repeats the existing narrative without adding names of additional critics or any CBS internal response.
- Fox quotes a White House source saying CBS ‘destroyed whatever ounce of credibility they had left’ by hiring ‘[an aide to] a prosecutor who built her career trying to put President Trump in jail,’ characterizing the move as a possible ‘revenge hire.’
- The article ties Adler’s hiring to a 2025 CBS settlement in which the network agreed to pay $16 million to Trump’s future presidential library or charitable causes to resolve an election‑interference lawsuit over a ‘60 Minutes’ interview with Kamala Harris.
- Fox highlights intra-Democratic/liberal criticism that CBS has been ‘catering to Trump’ under new Paramount CEO David Ellison and notes that the Adler hire has ‘rocked the boat’ among those observers, suggesting tension between the White House and parts of the left over CBS’s direction.