Bari Weiss defends decision to pull 60 Minutes episode on El Salvador prison

CBS News’ editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, defended her decision to pull a 60 Minutes episode on allegations investigating a notorious prison in El Salvador , arguing that the network’s priority was to ensure its coverage was “comprehensive and fair”. The Free Press's Honestly with Bari Weiss (pictured) hosts Ted Cruz presented by Uber and X on 18 January 2025 in Washington DC.Photograph: Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Uber, X and The Free Press In the memo sent to staff on Christmas Eve, Weiss said news organizations needed to do more to win back the trust of the American public and vowed that “no amount of outrage” would “derail us”. “We are not out to score points with one side of the political spectrum or to win followers on social media,” according to the memo, signed by Weiss and other CBS News leadership and published in full by several media outlets . “We are out to inform the American public and to get the story right.” The internal battle over the story exploded into public view after CBS announced the segment would not be a part of the show, despite extensive promotion. Weiss’s last-minute decision to hold the episode sparked outrage and charges of censorship amid Donald Trump’s second administration, though some conservative commentators generally aligned with the president have defended the move. In a private email sent to 60 Minutes correspondents that was subsequently made public, CBS correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who spent weeks reporting the episode, called the decision a “political one”. In the memo to staff, Weiss acknowledged the uproar her decision had caused internally and externally - but she rejected the accusation that politics played a role in her determination to hold the segment. “Such editorial decisions can cause a firestorm, particularly on a slow news week,” Weiss wrote. “And the standards for fairness we are holding ourselves to, particularly on contentious subjects, will surely feel controversial to those used to doing things one way. But to fulfill our mission, it’s necessary.” Weiss has said she was concerned about the episode airing without a sufficient response from the Trump administration . But Alfonsi said it had been “screened five times” as well as cleared by CBS attorneys along with its standards and practices department. She also said her team had unsuccessfully requested comment from the White House, the US state department, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “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,” Alfonsi wrote. The episode has since appeared online, after it was published by a streaming platform owned by Global TV, the network that has the rights to 60 Minutes in Canada. In it, Alfonsi visits the prison in El Salvador and interviews deportees who offered powerful testimony about torture and abuse inside the notorious prison where the Trump administration had sent more than 200 Venezuelan migrants from the US in what a federal judge...

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