The newly installed MAGA-curious head of CBS News is continuing to belabor her staff over her last-minute decision to axe a 60 Minutes segment critical of the Trump administration.
In a memo sent to CBS staff and signed by Bari Weiss, CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, and editors Charles Forelle and Adam Rubenstein, the editor-in-chief called on her journalists to “win back” the trust of the American people.
“Right now, the majority of Americans say they do not trust the press. It isn’t because they’re crazy,” the email, shared to X on Wednesday by Zeteo reporter Prem Thakker, begins.
“To win back their trust, we have to work hard. Sometimes that means doing more legwork. Sometimes it means training our attention on topics that have been overlooked or misconstrued,” she wrote. “And sometimes it means holding a piece about an important subject to make sure it is comprehensive and fair.”
Weiss defended her decision to yank the 60 Minutes segment, which investigated the alleged abuse endured at an El Salvador megaprison by deportees booted by President Donald Trump.
“In our upside-down moment, this may seem radical. Such editorial decisions can cause a firestorm, particularly on a slow news week,” she continued. “And the standards for fairness we are holding ourselves to, particularly on contentious subjects, will surely feel controversial to those used to doing things one way. But to fulfill our mission, it’s necessary.”
“No amount of outrage—whether from activist organizations or the White House—will derail us. We are not out to score points with one side of the political spectrum or to win followers on social media. We are out to inform the American public and to get the story right.”
Weiss concluded the Christmas Eve message by stressing the importance of their “mission” to “restore the integrity of the news.”
Reps for CBS and 60 Minutes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Weiss faced intense backlash for her decision to shelve the 60 Minutes report, which she said “needed additional reporting.”
During an editorial call with staffers earlier this week, she argued that the story “wasn’t ready” and that the subject of abuse at the Terrorism Confinement Center—also known as CECOT—“had already been reported on by places like The [New York] Times.”
“The only newsroom I’m interested in running is one in which we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters with respect, and, crucially, where we assume the best intent of our colleagues. Anything else is absolutely unacceptable,” Weiss said, according to CNN, adding that her journalists needed to “do more.”
“The public already knows Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment in this prison,” she said.
Longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi disagreed with her boss’s assessment of the piece, criticizing the decision as “political.”
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” she wrote in a leaked memo to the 60 Minutes team. “It is factually correct. 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 clarified that the team had requested comments from the White House, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security, but that all requests had gone unanswered.
Weiss reportedly asked the reporting team to interview Stephen Miller, the mastermind behind the CECOT deportations, to balance the segment—even providing them with his contact information.
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