Some CBS News employees expressed concern after the network cited two anonymous “US officials” on Wednesday to report that the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis “suffered internal bleeding to the torso” after the incident.
CBS initially published the account about officer Jonathan Ross on X, formerly Twitter. About 30 minutes later, the network followed up with another post, containing a link to an article by two correspondents that similarly cited “two US officials briefed on his medical condition”.
The report, which was not extensively covered by other news organizations, drew an immediate response on social media from critics who questioned the network’s sourcing – and whether it aligned with the Trump administration’s preferred focus.
But there was also internal skepticism at the network about the report, according to emails viewed by the Guardian. It was met with “huge internal concern” by some, one CBS News staffer said. Others viewed the conversations as standard editorial discussions.
Before the original report was published, a medical producer at the network suggested in an email to colleagues that “it would be helpful to ask what type of treatment he received”, and whether the officer received surgery or any other type of procedure.
In another email, an executive expressed skepticism about the broad nature of the medical diagnosis, and what it actually entailed. “I’m no doctor, but internal bleeding is a very broad term and can range in severity,” wrote CBS News senior vice-president David Reiter.
“A bruise is internal bleeding. But it can also be something serious,” Reiter continued. “We do know that the ICE agent walked away from the incident – we have that on camera.” (The network’s story noted that “videos from the scene showed Ross walking away after the incident”.)
The network’s top editor, Bari Weiss, expressed a high level of interest in the story on an editorial call Wednesday morning, according to staffers who listened.
“There was big internal dissension about the ‘internal bleeding’ report here last night,” the CBS News staffer, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said . “It was viewed as a thinly-veiled, anonymous leak by [the Trump administration] to someone who’d carry it online.”
“Felt to many here like we were carrying water for the admin’s justifying of the shooting to keep our access to our sources,” said a second network staffer, who was also not authorized to comment.
In a statement, a CBS News spokesperson said the network “went through its rigorous editorial process and decided it was reportable based on the reporting, the reporters, and the sourcing”.
CBS, which labeled its story as an “exclusive”, was not totally alone on the story. The ABC News live blog published a two-paragraph update repeating the claim and citing “multiple US officials familiar with [Ross’s] medical condition” – but noting that the officials “didn’t provide more details about the medical condition”.
Other news organizations, including NBC News and the New York Times, also made brief mentions of the claim. Fox News, which published a full story, cited a confirmation from the Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin – though it acknowledged that “the extent of the bleeding … was not immediately clear”.
The Guardian has not independently confirmed the report.
Since Weiss took over as editor-in-chief in early October, the network has faced accusations of favoritism toward the Trump administration. CBS has been controlled since last year by Paramount Skydance, the media conglomerate heavily bankrolled by the tech billionaire and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, a friend of the president.
On Tuesday, CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil scored an exclusive interview with Trump, who claimed he wouldn’t have recently been made anchor of the CBS Evening News if Kamala Harris had won the 2024 election. When Dokoupil pushed back, Trump conceded that he might have, “but at a lesser salary”.
