Adrienne Roark, CBS News’ president of editorial and newsgathering, is leaving the company for a senior position at Tegna. Her exit comes just seven months after being named president of the operation.
Her departure comes at a time when CBS is facing a $20 billion lawsuit from President Trump, who has claimed CBS and “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with Kamala Harris leading up to the 2024 election. Roark’s exit also comes as Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, and Skydance Media are moving closer towards a planned merger — a deal that was given the green light by the Securities and Exchange Commission last week.
Roark began her career at CBS. After managing newsrooms in major markets, she returned in 2021 to become president of CBS Stations. She was then named president of content development and integration for CBS News, Stations and Media Ventures in 2023, before earning her most recent promotion in August 2024.
One notable moment during Roark’s brief run as the head of CBS News’ newsgathering operation was the handling of journalist Tony Dokoupil’s interview with author Ta-Nehisi Coates. Dokoupil received some pushback from his co-workers for telling Coates that sections of his latest book, “The Message,” would “not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist”; CBS News eventually said the interview did not meet its editorial standards.
Roark, in an internal staff call following Dokoupil’s interview with Coates, said, “We will still ask tough questions. We will still hold people accountable. But we will do so objectively, which means checking our biases and opinions at the door.”
The call was made on Oct. 7, 2024 — the one-year anniversary of when Hamas fighters broke into Israel, slaughtered people and took hostages. Roark also said that CBS News staff had reached out about the interview with Coates to raise concerns and then added, “I want to acknowledge and apologize that it’s taken this long to have this conversation.”
A CBS spokesperson confirmed Roark’s exit to TheWrap, but did not mention who would be elevated to replace her as president.
Roark’s exit on Wednesday was first reported by Breaker and, later, the Status newsletter.
