Bari Weiss, the editor-in-chief of CBS News, defended her last-minute choice to pull a 60 Minutes investigative segment about alleged abuses at El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison, where the Trump administration sent Venezuelan migrants. The report, which was led by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, was pulled just one day before it was supposed to air on Sunday because it didn’t have an on-the-record response from Trump officials. This caused a lot of media outrage and accusations of political censorship.
Weiss said on a Monday editorial call that the story “did not advance the ball” and needed input from people like Stephen Miller to make sure it was fair and good. She stressed the importance of having strong debates in the newsroom while assuming that everyone meant well, saying that the delay was normal for unfinished work.
In an internal email, Alfonsi shot back, saying that the government’s silence shouldn’t stop reporting and calling the move a “kill switch” for stories that are inconvenient for the administration. Insiders said that Weiss pushed for Trump’s views, even though she has been critical of media bias since joining CBS under new ownership.
The incident makes people pay more attention to Weiss, a founder of the Free Press who is known for questioning liberal media stories. Critics call the pull “political,” and fans slam CBS online. Weiss says the segment will air when it’s ready, even though there are still debates about what standards should be used in journalism after Trump’s reelection
