CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss addressed the furor over her decision to pull a planned 60 Minutes segment on the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants to a harsh prison in El Salvador.
The correspondent on the story, Sharyn Alfonsi, blasted the decision in a memo to colleagues on Sunday evening, calling it “political” and a case of corporate interference.
In a call with staffers on Monday, Weiss said, per a summary of the call provided to Deadline, that the “only newsroom I’m interested in running is one in which we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters with respect, and, crucially, where we assume the best intent of our colleagues. Anything else is absolutely unacceptable.”
She told staffers that she held the story because it was “not ready.”
Weiss said that while the story “presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT,” it did not advance the topic, as The New York Times and other outlets have done similar work. “The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more. And this is 60 Minutes. We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera.”
“Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else. That’s my north star and I hope it’s yours, too.”
In her note, Alfonsi wrote that the piece had been screened five times and cleared by standards and practices and network attorneys. “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”
In the note, Alfonsi suggested that the reason for pulling the segment was that the administration had refused to participate, and Weiss wanted to wait until they got a response. “We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver destined to kill the story,” Alfonsi wrote.
She protested such a rationale for delaying it, writing, “if the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient.”
The decision to pull the piece — highly unusual so close to its air date — quickly drew criticism over the motives and whether the network was put under pressure from the White House.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) posted on X, “This CBS thing does merit an explanation right away. It’s a pretty big deal to pull a story at the request of the White House. And if that’s not what happened everyone should know that too.”
CBS News announced the segment on the 60 Minutes schedule last week. Per the network, the segment’s logline was: “Earlier this year, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, a country most had no ties to, claiming they were terrorists. This move sparked an ongoing legal battle, and nine months later the U.S. government still has not released the names of all those deported and placed in CECOT, one of El Salvador’s harshest prisons.”
The segment was to feature Alfonsi speaking to deportees who told of “brutal and tortuous conditions,” per the network. In its place is a segment from Nottingham, England, where correspondent Jon Wertheim interviewed a family of celebrated classical musicians.
Last year, Trump sued 60 Minutes over edits made to an interview with his 2024 presidential rival, Kamala Harris. Although CBS had initially dismissed the lawsuit as baseless, its parent company Paramount Global settled the litigation for $16 million, as it sought Trump administration approval for its merger with Skydance.
Trump has continued to rail against 60 Minutes, most recently for Lesley Stahl’s interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), now one of the president’s high profile critics from the right.
Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this month, “My real problem with the show, however, wasn’t the low IQ traitor, it was that the new ownership of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would allow a show like this to air. THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME!”
Paramount’s new owners are currently making a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, having now offered a personal financing guarantee from Larry Ellison, Paramount CEO David Ellison‘s father and a friend of Trump’s. The president has said that he will be part of the regulatory review process of any deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. Netflix entered into a deal earlier this month to purchase the studio and streaming assets of WBD, as well as HBO.
