Photo: CBS
Several 60 Minutes staff members are threatening to quit after recently appointed CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss allegedly shelved a previously scheduled segment on El Salvador's maximum security prison, CECOT, and President Donald Trump's administration's deportation drive, CNN's Brian Stelter reported Sunday (December 21) night.
"Inside @60Minutes, where journalistic independence is sacrosanct, 'people are threatening to quit over this,' I'm told," Stelter wrote on his X account, reposting 60 Minutes' editor's note, which stated, "The broadcast lineup for tonight's edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our report 'Inside CECOT' will air in a future broadcast."
CBS had announced earlier in the afternoon that it planned to pull the 60 Minutes segment, which teased an inside look at "brutal and torturous conditions" at CECOT, the megaprison where Trump's administration has sent hundreds of deported migrants without trial since taking office for his second of two non-consecutive terms in January.
Weiss reportedly made the decision just three hours prior to 60 Minutes' broadcast, claiming the segment "needed additional reporting" and suggested the episode would benefit from an interview with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, according to the Daily Beast. Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent responsible for the CECOT story, said Weiss "spiked our story" and claimed the decision was political, not a journalistic judgment, in an email to colleagues on Sunday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Weiss, who co-founded the conservative-leaning website The Free Press before being named CBS News' editor-in-chief in October, issued a statement to the New York Times regarding her decision.
“My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be," Weiss said. "Holding 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. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.”
