Veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher has accused CBS’s new MAGA-curious boss of pulling a 60 Minutes episode to appease President Trump.
Bari Weiss intervened over a contentious story on the Terrorism Confinement Center, a notorious El Salvador megaprison that houses deportees kicked out of the U.S. In a statement, Weiss suggested that the piece needed more work before it reached the standards her new regime requires. Her involvement, however, might have initiated a staff mutiny, with employees threatening to walk.
Swisher has suggested the standards cited by Weiss are actually designed to please the president. “Putting a powerparched non-journalist—who has zero experience in investigative reporting—in charge of real reporters usually ends like this: ‘60 Minutes’ Pulled a Segment. A Correspondent Calls It ‘Political,’” she wrote on Threads.
“This is entirely to please Trump, who has voiced criticism of 60 Minutes under the new owners, who are the definition of rank amatuers, emphasis on rank. This Stephen Miller interview suggestion is idiotic in the context of this story—doing another piece with him later is fine, but to add him here after the administration declines to officially have comment is a suck up gimme.”
Weiss had reportedly urged producers to include an interview with Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and the brains behind his hardline immigration policies, as a MAGA-friendly solution to air the segment. She is said to have even forwarded Miller’s contact details to the reporting team.
Weiss defended her position in a statement suggesting the story simply wasn’t “ready” yet.
“My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason—that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices—happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready,” she said.
Swisher took issue with that on Threads, directing a jab at Weiss as “the person who has never run an actual newsroom.”
Veteran 60 Minutes journalist Sharyn Alfonsi claimed in an email that Weiss had “spiked” the story, and that when they asked her to discuss the decision, “she did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity.”
Alfonsi, 53, said the CECOT story had been screened “five times” and cleared by CBS attorneys.
“It is factually correct,” Alfonsi said in her explosive memo, which was shared in full on X by CNN Media Analyst Brian Stelter. “In my view, pulling it now—after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.“
Alfonsi also pointed out that producers had already requested responses and/or interviews with the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and the State Department.
Weiss took over at CBS News in October, launching a town hall series soon after that she christened with Erika Kirk, the widow of murdered right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Trump has had a combative relationship with 60 Minutes and CBS. In July this year, Paramount Global, the network’s parent company, paid $16 million to Trump to settle what was originally a $20 billion lawsuit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with his opponent Kamala Harris.
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