The controversial decision to pull a planned 60 Minutes segment on a brutal Salvadoran prison where the U.S. has sent migrants was necessary to “win back” the trust of Americans who have no faith in the media, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss wrote in a Christmas Eve email to staff obtained by The Independent.
“[S]ometimes it means holding a piece about an important subject to make sure it is comprehensive and fair,” the message reads.
Weiss added that “in our upside-down moment,” this commitment to fairness may “seem radical” and “will surely feel controversial to those used to doing things one way,” but that “no amount of outrage — whether from activist organizations or the White House” should deter them.
As The Independent has reported, Weiss’s decision to hold the segment over editorial concerns, which came after it had passed through numerous layers of review, has set off threats of a “revolt” in the newsroom.
Her Christmas message, a staffer told The Independent in a text message, only added to the agitation.
“She really has no idea how insulting she comes across,” the individual said.
The Independent has contacted CBS News and 60 Minutes for comment.
The controversy around the segment has touched off a political firestorm.
Critics argue that the decision is a sign of political pressure on Weiss and CBS News from the Trump administration.
Weiss, who lacks previous TV news experience, was installed as the new editor of CBS News this fall, following a controversial merger process over the summer between CBS parent company Paramount, which had recently settled a Trump lawsuit against 60 Minutes, and Skydance, which was founded by David Ellison, son of the billionaire tech mogul and Trump supporter Larry Ellison.
President Donald Trump has consistently criticized 60 Minutes, even after it came under new ownership.
“I love the new owners of CBS,” Trump said at a Friday rally. “Something happens to them, though. 60 Minutes has treated me worse under the new ownership… they just keep hitting me, it’s crazy.”
Reporter Sharyn Alfonsi, who interviewed inmates about the abuse they claim to have suffered within CECOT’s walls, accused top Trump officials of avoiding her requests for comment on the story to dodge scrutiny of the deportations to El Salvador, in which hundreds of people, many without criminal records or clear evidence of past wrongdoing, were sent to CECOT without trial, where the men said they were tortured.
“Government silence is a statement, not a veto. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story,” Alfonsi said in an email to 60 Minutes staff.
“If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient,” she added.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a key architect of the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown, said he wasn’t aware of attempts to reach the administration for the story and has called on 60 Minutes to fire any dissenting producers.
“Every one of those producers at 60 Minutes engaged in this revolt — clean house and fire them, that's what I say,” Miller raged Tuesday evening on Fox News.
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He blasted what he said were “60 Minutes producers who are living in comfort and security in their west end condos trying to make us feel sympathetic for these monsters.”
Weiss has publicly defended her handling of the segment, which she reportedly held over concerns it didn’t provide enough new information and that it didn’t do enough to “present the administration’s argument.”
“[H]olding 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 told The New York Times over the weekend, adding that she looks “forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.”
In a leaked version of the segment that briefly aired on a Canadian news app, the CECOT detainees described enduring what they said was physical and psychological abuse inside the mega-prison.
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