CBS News Abandons Pro-Trans Style Guide In Favor Of Biological Reality

CBS News abandoned a pro-transgender style guide and will adopt the term “biological sex” going forward, the senior director of standards and practices wrote in a memo on Tuesday.

The senior director, Tom Burke, told staffers they must use the term “biological sex at birth” without quotations when covering the Supreme Court’s case on states banning trans-athletes from competing in women’s sports, The Wrap first reported. The move is a shift from the network’s previous compliance with the Trans Journalists Association’s (TJA) style guide, which states that coverage should use the term “assigned sex at birth” over “biological sex.”

Jan Crawford, the network’s legal correspondent, said CBS News should refrain from using terminology advocated by the TJA and instead use “biological sex,” The Wrap reported.

“We have had this discussion multiple times before, and I continue to believe we should refrain from adopting terminology advocated by the movement and continue to use ‘biological sex’ without putting it in quotes,” Crawford said.

Scoop: A senior CBS News standards director told staffers to refer to gov SCOTUS arguments on trans athletes with the phrase "biological sex at birth," a change from CBS's use of the @TransJA styleguide and follows an internal dustup in Nov on the phrasehttps://t.co/DNxby1PVYt

— Corbin Bolies (@CorbinBolies) January 14, 2026

Nicole Cutrona, a producer for “CBS Evening News,” claimed that the network is revealing its own “ignorance” by using “biological sex” in its coverage. She previously said the term is a “transphobic dog whistle,” according to The Wrap.

The style change is the latest shift made since The Free Press’ Bari Weiss became CBS News’ editor-in-chief in October. Weiss has strived to make the network’s coverage more politically balanced, prompting the elimination of the “race and culture” unit and her attempts to hire more conservatives, such as CNN’s Scott Jennings and Fox News’ Bret Baier.