Trevor Phillips, a longtime British writer and anchor and former U.K. politician, has been named senior global affairs correspondent at CBS News, where Bari Weiss, the unit’s editor in chief, has articulated an interest in focusing on provocative voices and thinkers, potentially over traditional newsgathering.
Phillips most recently hosted Sky News’ flagship program “Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips,” where he has examined everything from British politics to a lenient sentence given by a judge to teenage rapists.
“Trevor Phillips cuts through the noise. His decades-long career is a masterclass in seeing beyond groupthink and pursuing the truth,” said Weis, in a statement. “Trevor’s deep knowledge of geopolitics and history will be an incredible asset at CBS News, where he’ll quickly become an indispensable voice for audiences across all platform.”
Phillips has, over his career, become known as a free-speech advocate, but has also generated controversy for remarks he has made about British Muslims and has been accused of Islamophobia. He served as chair of the London Assembly from 2000 to 2001 and from 2002 to 2003. He was named head of the Commission for Racial Equality in 2003 and was the chairman of its successor organization, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, from 2007 to 2012.
He received a knighthood in 2022 for his work in equality and human rights. He has also written regularly for the The Times, The Daily Mail, The Sun and The Sunday Times.
“CBS News is a global leader in making sense of events around the world for Americans,” Phillips said in a statement. “I’m honored to be joining such a storied institution with a mandate to bring impartial reporting, analysis, and journalism to audiences that increasingly need to understand how global affairs impact their daily lives.”
In an interview with Variety in April, Weiss suggested she is on the hunt for a different category of talent than people may have come to expect from CBS News in the past. “The job is, can we be the bridge between the authenticity and the freedom and the aliveness of the new world and the scale and resources and standards of the old world?” Weiss asks. “If we can do that, we will do something really exceptional.”
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