MS NOW’s ‘Morning Joe’ panel skewered the new boss of CBS News on Monday after she abruptly pulled a segment that was critical of the president’s administration.
Bari Weiss has defended her decision to stop the segment from running on Sunday evening, claiming the ‘60 Minutes’ report on deportations to a notorious El Salvador prison was simply not “ready.” But pushback from a veteran correspondent who said Weiss’ decision was blatantly “political” has intensified concerns of the new editor-in-chief running interference for the Trump administration.
The segment was pulled just three hours before it was due to air, despite having gone through what staff described as an extensive editorial and legal review process.
“This is something that was edited and promoted. The fact that video footage aired, that is so unusual that they would then pull this down,” Morning Joe co-host Jonathan Lemire said of the decision on Monday morning. He poked holes in Weiss’ argument that the story needed to be held because it lacked comment from the Trump administration, noting that it’s common for the White House not to comment on reports.
Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who worked on the segment, told colleagues in an internal email that the administration had been contacted multiple times for comment. Host Joe Scarborough read from the leaked message on air, noting that Alfonsi said the story was “factually correct” and had cleared standards review five times.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski cited her own experience at CBS News to question Weiss’ reasoning. “I’ve been there in those screenings. Personally, I worked there, and they are a living hell,” Brzezinski said.
“It’s rigorous!” several co-hosts added.
Brzezinski said the standards process leaves little room for error. “The most rigorous, most difficult process, it is an important process. And every frickin’ word, every frame of video is picked apart by editors to make sure it is correct,” she said. “I mean, they promoted it? I mean, come on.”
The sharpest criticism came from contributor Pablo Torre, who framed the dispute as part of a broader media problem. He accused wealthy owners of undermining major news organizations and singled out Weiss’ role at CBS.
“Billionaires are compromising the most important journalistic institutions we have left in this country,” Torre said. “The game is obvious, and in this case, Bari Weiss, who was, by the way, not a reporter, not a journalist, is cosplaying as one and is poisoning the well of one of the last bastions of investigative reporting that gets funded.”
“And Sharyn Alfonsi is writing it down, saying, just for posterity, this is what’s going on,” Torre said.
The controversy has reportedly unsettled CBS News staff, with reports of internal unrest following Weiss’ intervention. The segment remains unaired, but in a statement, the CBS boss said she looks forward to releasing it when it’s ready.
CBS and representatives for Weiss have been contacted for comment.
The post ‘Morning Joe’ Trashes ‘Cosplaying’ CBS Boss for ‘60 Minutes’ Censorship appeared first on The Daily Beast.
