Bari Weiss met this week with top “60 Minutes” editors in an effort to advance the newsmagazine’s pulled story on Venezuelans being deported by the Trump administration to an El Salvadorian prison, TheWrap has learned.
A source with direct knowledge of the discussions told TheWrap that Weiss’ intention is to run the piece, not kill it.
“If it ends up dead, it’s not dead now,” the individual said. “That’s not the conversation that’s happening now.”
Conversations regarding the segment, titled “Inside CECOT,” are still ongoing and the segment is “actively” being worked on. Weiss, who pulled the story Dec. 21 hours before it was slated to air, met with “60 Minutes” Executive Producer Tanya Simon, Executive Editor Draggan Mihailovich and CBS News President and Executive Editor Tom Cibrowski on Wednesday for a process meeting, where bringing the segment to a publishable state was discussed.
The embattled CBS News editor-in-chief has not yet met with the wider “60 Minutes” staff or the segment’s correspondent, Sharyn Alfonsi, as reported by Status earlier Thursday, but TheWrap has learned CBS News still wants to get the story on the air. The continued holdup is the Trump administration refusing to discuss the deportations on record — something Weiss requires to advance the story.
Weiss faced blowback last month for her decision to spike the “60 Minutes” segment, as she made the decision hours before it was set to air and after it had already been promoted over the weekend. However, Weiss stood by her decision in multiple comments to CBS News staff, saying the piece was just “not ready.”
“While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball — the [New York] Times and other outlets have previously done similar work,” she wrote at the time. “The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more.”
Weiss defended that the piece needed an “on-the-record” statement from someone within the Trump administration.
Following Weiss’ decision, CBS News maintained that the segment — which temporarily aired on Canada’s Global TV’s streaming service by mistake — would air in an upcoming installment of “60 Minutes.”
Sharon Waxman contributed reporting to this story.
The post CBS News Insider: Bari Weiss Met With ‘60 Minutes’ Top Editors to Advance CECOT Story appeared first on TheWrap.
