Just a day and a half before it was set to be broadcast, new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss pulled a planned 60 Minutes investigative segment centering on allegations of abuses at an El Salvador detention center where the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants last March.
Weiss told colleagues this weekend the piece — planned for Sunday night's show — could not run without an on-the-record comment from a Trump administration official. That's according to two people with knowledge of events at the network who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing job security.
The correspondent on the story, Sharyn Alfonsi, condemned the decision in an email to 60 Minutes colleagues on Sunday evening, saying she believed it was "not an editorial decision, it is a political one." (The email was obtained by NPR and other news organizations.)
A press release sent out Friday morning from CBS News' publicity team had promoted the story, promising a look inside CECOT, "one of El Salvador's harshest prisons." The network ran a video promotion which has since been taken down on the air and on social media. The announcement cited "the brutal and tortuous conditions" some recently released deportees said they endured there. The release has since been revised.
The story had undergone repeated formal reviews by senior producers and news executives, as well as people from the legal and standards division, according to the two people at CBS, echoing Alfonsi's account.
Alfonsi wrote that she and her colleagues on the story had sought comments and interviews from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House and the State Department.
"Government silence is a statement, not a VETO," Alfonsi wrote in the email. "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." (Alfonsi did not respond to an emailed request for comment.)
A CBS spokesperson declined comment but noted that the revised programming announcement said the story would air at a later date.
As a private citizen, Donald Trump sued CBS last year over the editing of 60 Minutes's interview with his opponent in the presidential elections, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Earlier this year, the network's news chief and top executive at 60 Minutes resigned as the network explored settlement talks with Trump's legal team.
Paramount's previous owners paid Trump $16 million to settle the case, although legal observers almost unanimously agreed he had little chance of prevailing in court. (The settlement did not include an apology or admission of wrongdoing.)
That settlement helped controlling owner Shari Redstone smooth the sale to the Ellison family through a federal anti-trust review.
Weiss's arrival at the network this year under the new ownership of Paramount chief David Ellison has drawn sharp scrutiny.
Weiss created the online publication The Free Press, a compendium of views and news reporting, on the premise that much of the mainstream media is too reflexively liberal. While the site publishes some stories that are critical of President Trump, she has also indicated she believes much news coverage is distorted in opposition to him.
Ellison's father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is one of the world's richest people. The elder Ellison is also a financial supporter and adviser to the president. Over the summer, David Ellison made promises to the nation's top broadcast regulator that the network would become more hospitable to conservatives as he won federal approval to take over CBS's parent company, Paramount Global, this summer.
Weiss says news organizations such as CBS can earn back the trust of the public by exploring debate between the center-right and center-left rather than polarized extremes.
Even so, Trump has kept the Ellisons guessing as they also seek federal approval - and his blessing - to take over CNN's corporate parent, Warner Bros. Discovery. He blasted the new Paramount owners — though not by name — over a recent episode of 60 Minutes which gave air time to a former ally-turned-critic, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
"THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME!" Trump posted this month on Truth Social. "Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!"
Weiss only made her decision known by early Saturday morning - just a day and a half before the broadcast of the fabled newsmagazine, the most storied franchise in television news. Its stories are usually highly produced and can take weeks or months to deliver to air.
CBS announced its decision late Sunday afternoon, two hours before broadcast.
In an earlier review of the CECOT report, Weiss had objected to the men being called "Venezuelan migrants" rather than "illegal immigrants" — a term favored by the Trump administration. Many of those sent to the Salvadoran prison were not in this country illegally and had applied for asylum, awaiting a decision on their applications.
Weiss joined CBS News in October when Ellison's Skydance Media acquired the Free Press. Its coverage has been blended into the CBS News website.
The CBS job represents Weiss' first within television and the network news division is far larger than the Free Press. That said, she remains the editor of the Free Press and recently hosted a highly promoted interview broadcast on CBS with the conservative activist Erika Kirk, the widow of the slain Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk.
Weiss has also announced plans to build on that template with more newsmaker interviews at CBS, including Vice President JD Vance and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat.
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