Weeks after abruptly pulling a 60 Minutes segment about Venezuelan migrants deported by the Trump administration to the notorious El Salvadorian prison CECOT, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss gave the greenlight for the newsmagazine to quietly air the “Inside CECOT” story this past Sunday.
Hours before the report finally ran, however, Weiss called several journalists to help shape coverage of the decision, according to Status News. It was during these private briefings – conducted on background with the condition that reporters wouldn’t directly attribute the information to Weiss – that she took the opportunity to criticize Sharyn Alfonsi, the 60 Minutes correspondent behind the piece.
“Status has learned that during these conversations with reporters, Weiss expressed significant frustration with Alfonsi, who had declined to make changes to her piece at Weiss’ behest,” Status News’ Oliver Darcy reported.
The Independent has reached out to representatives for CBS News and Weiss for comment.
The broadside against Alfonsi in the background calls – like Darcy, this reporter did not take part in these discussions and learned about them independently – comes after Weiss has been on the receiving end of withering press coverage and internal criticism over her leadership of the Tiffany Network’s newsroom.
The relentless scrutiny of her approach as editor-in-chief – a position the anti-woke columnist was granted by Paramount chief David Ellison in October despite her dearth of experience in broadcast news – reached a fever pitch last month when she dramatically pulled the “Inside CECOT” segment at the last minute, even though it had been cleared by the network’s legal team and promoted on CBS airwaves.
Amid widespread blowback both internally and externally, Weiss repeatedly defended her decision that the segment was “not ready” to air, citing the lack of on-the-record comments from the Trump administration defending their actions and legal justifications. Meanwhile, Alfonsi fumed in a memo to her 60 Minutes colleagues that Weiss's decision to spike the segment appeared to be politically motivated.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” she wrote. “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 also noted that if the White House’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,” adding that the network goes “from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.”
The fiasco around the segment prompted network employees and insiders to suggest that Weiss could face a “revolt” from 60 Minutes staff, which was already suffering from plummeting morale following a year’s worth of controversies, such as Paramount paying Donald Trump $16 million to settle a “meritless” lawsuit over the program’s interview with rival Kamala Harris.
Meanwhile, with Weiss coming under additional fire over the “MAGA-coded” reboot of CBS Evening News – which has suffered a rocky rollout replete with internal discord, technical mishaps, cringey pro-Trump segments and soft ratings – The Free Press founder has grown increasingly frustrated with the overwhelmingly negative media coverage she’s received.
Therefore, after finally giving the “Inside CECOT” story the green light to run this past Sunday – with little promotion and up against the NFL playoffs – Weiss rang up several journalists to offer her own perspective on the controversy and “do her own PR,” as one Weiss associate explained to Status.
In general, this type of behind-the-scenes outreach by a network chief amid a media firestorm in which they are embroiled is unusual, as attempts at public relations spin are typically left to spokespeople and communications staff. Making it even more eyebrow-raising from Weiss, however, was what was said during those calls – namely, the criticism of Alfonsi.
“While it is no secret that Weiss and Alfonsi are at odds, the fact that the network’s top editorial executive would voice irritation with one of her marquee correspondents to outside journalists is, to put it mildly, extraordinary. Sure, disputes with subordinates happen at virtually every organization,” Darcy pointed out. “But strong leaders keep disagreements within the house. They don’t complain to the press about them—especially when the subordinate is barred from advocating in the press on her own behalf.”
Indeed, with morale sinking at CBS News as a whole amid the network’s conservative shift under Ellison, who has been accused of trying to curry favor with Trump as he seeks regulatory approval in his hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, Weiss’ criticism of Alfonsi in her reporter briefings isn’t going over well with staff.
“She is so out of her depth it’s astounding. Her inexperience is on full display,” one network reporter told The Independent. “How long must we endure this fiasco?”
Another 60 Minutes staffer told Status that Weiss was “deflecting” the widespread backlash she has faced since joining CBS by “blaming us,” adding that she should have expected some pushback from the show’s staff due to their experience and accolades.
“They know exactly what they’re doing, and they do it exceptionally well. That’s why the show has been No. 1 for as long as it has,” that staffer said.
“Of course, there’s going to be friction when Bari walks in acting like she owns the place. These are the people who built it,” the staffer continued. “You don’t gain and build trust when you insult us, come in and say we’re biased, don’t learn the place [and] how we work, the fact-checking and research involved.”
Another network staffer, who spoke to The Independent on the condition of anonymity to speak freely, stated that it seemed pretty apparent who Weiss had spoken to over the weekend based on the stories that were published about the situation.
“Clearly those lines in news reports about 'people who work with Bari say she admits she got involved too late in the 60 process and wasn’t aware of the effect a late decision would have on the 60 process' is from her private briefings with reporters that Status refers to,” the staffer stated.
“Trying to show it’s an honest mistake and I’m learning - f*** that - it’s not a difficult thing to understand how your involvement can f*** things up,” they added. “Firstly, you don’t need to have worked in TV to get that and secondly, it reveals her arrogance because she could have asked what the ramifications were or listened when people protested.”
In the end, while she held the story for four weeks, Weiss ultimately allowed it to air largely intact. While the report itself remained unchanged from the previously submitted version, which briefly ran on a Canadian network before CBS News pulled it back, 60 Minutes added portions to the front and back of the segment. The bookended sections included additional comments from the Trump administration and details about an “offensive tattoo” that one of the Venezuelan migrants interviewed by Alfonsi had removed.
At the same time, though, Weiss’ push to have a Trump official sit down for the story proved unsuccessful in the end. Despite her making it a top priority for the report to air, and the biggest reason she claimed it needed additional work to be ready to run, the Trump administration rebuffed 60 Minutes’ efforts to score an interview.
In fact, as several outlets recently reported, Weiss reached out to the administration to get DHS chief Kristi Noem or border czar Tom Homan to speak with the program – with Alfonsi making her way to Washington to conduct the interviews.
“Since November, ‘60 Minutes’ has made several attempts to interview key Trump administration officials on camera about our story,” Alfonsi said during the aired segment on Sunday. “They declined our requests.”
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