CBS News Sunday abruptly pulled a “60 Minutes” investigation into President Donald Trump’s deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. The network had promoted the segment for days, saying several of the migrants described to “60 Minutes” the “brutal and torturous conditions they endured” inside the megaprison. In a memo to colleagues Sunday, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss “spiked our story” because the Trump administration had declined to comment.
Who said what
“Inside CECOT” was “screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi said in the widely leaked email. “It is factually correct,” and “in my view, pulling it now” is “not an editorial decision, it is a political one.” The administration’s refusal to participate “is a statement, not a VETO,” she added, and if that’s now a “valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient.” Weiss had “asked for a significant amount of new material to be added,” The New York Times said, including an interview with Trump immigration czar Stephen Miller, for whom she “provided contact information.”
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison hired Weiss, a conservative opinion entrepreneur, after the Trump administration approved his purchase of CBS’s parent company. Ellison is now “courting” Trump’s support for his hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, the Times said, “but the president has used recent episodes of ‘60 Minutes’ to suggest he is displeased” with Ellison’s “stewardship of CBS.”
What next?
Alfonsi referred “all questions to Bari Weiss.” In a statement, Weiss said it was normal for newsrooms to hold stories that “lack sufficient context” or “are missing critical voices,” and she looked forward to “airing this important piece when it’s ready.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
