A politically influenced call by the MAGA-curious head of CBS News may have been behind the abrupt axing of an anti-Trump 60 Minutes segment on Sunday, according to an email sent by one of its correspondents.
CBS had promoted a report on 60 Minutes that covered the infamous El Salvador megaprison CECOT, which houses immigrants booted out of the U.S. by Donald Trump.
The network said the segment on the Terrorism Confinement Center—dubbed CECOT or Terrorism Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo in Spanish—will now be aired at a later date instead, claiming it needed additional reporting.
However, reports on Sunday night suggest Bari Weiss, the new editor-in-chief at CBS, flexed her muscle to yank the segment off the air.
60 Minutes journalist Sharyn Alfonsi sent an email on Sunday stating that Weiss “spiked our story” and that the motivation was a political decision, not an editorial call, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Alfonsi reportedly sent the email to fellow correspondents Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, and Anderson Cooper.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct,” she reportedly wrote, noting that if the standard for airing a story became the government agreeing to be interviewed, the network would lose its editorial control. “We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state,” Alfonsi wrote.
Puck journalist Dylan Byers suggested the CECOT segment reflected “very negatively” on the Trump administration.
“The admin had declined to comment,” Byers posted on X. “Bari Weiss saw segment on Friday and, I’m told, decided to hold it.”
Byers also disputed the official CBS statement that the piece needed additional reporting, quoting a well-placed source who said, “It did not need additional reporting. It went through every layer of fact-checking and was reviewed by all the lawyers.”
Semaphor’s Max Tani also posted that Weiss “had concerns” about the CECOT piece airing on 60 Minutes.
“The network decided to hold the segment pending, among other things, comment or an interview with White House officials next year,” he wrote on X on Sunday.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and CBS for comment.
The post ‘60 Minutes’ Reporter Denounces CBS Boss for Pro-Trump Censorship appeared first on The Daily Beast.
