CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss is under fire over her decision to pull a “60 Minutes” segment on the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador, with one critic calling it “government-controlled TV.”
Weiss reportedly made the decision to pull the segment, which promised to reveal “brutal and torturous conditions” inside El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, due to a lack of administration voices. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said in a note to staffers that the White House, Department of Homeland Security and the State Department were given an opportunity to respond to questions or provide an interview.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi wrote in an email to correspondents. “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.”
Weiss said in a statement to the New York Times on Sunday that her job was 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,” she said. “I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.”
CBS News and the White House did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
Weiss’ decision follows Donald Trump claiming last week the “60 Minutes” had treated him “far worse“ under new management. David Ellison, whose father, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is a supporter of Trump, took over CBS News-parent Paramount this summer when the company merged with Skydance. Paramount bought Weiss’ site, the Free Press, in October and appointed her editor-in-chief of CBS News. Ellison is currently seeking to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent-company of CNN.
Several critics interpreted Weiss’ move as intended not to upset the Trump administration.
“This is what government-controlled TV looks like,” liberal commentator Brian Tyler Cohen wrote on X.
“If this decision is not reversed, if CBS News will only run a piece if WH comments, giving them veto power over journalism, any staff member w integrity will likely quit, bc it isn’t a news division anymore,” veteran media reporter Bill Carter wrote on X, comparing CBS News to the Russian state-controlled outlet TASS.
“This CBS thing does merit an explanation right away,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) wrote on X. “It’s a pretty big deal to pull a story at the request of the White House. And if that’s not what happened everyone should know that too.”
“Travesty,” writer James Surowiecki wrote on X. “Trump dumping people in CECOT without any trial or hearing, and without any authority to do so, was one of the very worst things he’s done as president (which is saying a lot). The fact that this story was spiked is truly egregious.”
“This is really bad,” author Don Winslow wrote on X. “For the country. For the legacy of @CBSNews and @60Minutes. For the memory of Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow. And for the train wreck that is @bariweiss.”
Some political and media figures came to Weiss’ defense. Conservative podcaster Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, slammed Alfonsi for going public with her frustrations.
“When you want to become the story, you’ve lost any shred of journalistic integrity,” she wrote on X over a post with Alfonsi’s full email. “The Legacy Media loves talking about themselves and is openly hostile to anyone who dare question their utter righteousness. 60 Minutes is a clear partisan program masquerading as impartial journalism.”
The Dispatch’s Jonah Goldberg said he wanted to see what the final piece looked like, arguing on X that Weiss may have had a valid reason to pull it.
“I know lots of folks are freaking out about this,” he wrote. “I think Bari Weiss deserves the benefit of the doubt. 60 Minutes, contrary to a lot of people around here, is not flawless and beyond reproach. It’s swung and missed more than once. We’ll all be able to judge the segment when it airs. And lord knows anything legitimately significant that ends up being cut, will also end up being leaked.”
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