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CBS News is in the midst of a major controversy, as “60 Minutes” reporter Sharyn Alfonsi has sharply criticized editor-in-chief Bari Weiss’ decision to delay her segment from airing about the notorious El Salvador prison CECOT.
Alfonsi, a longtime correspondent for the newsmagazine, finds herself as part of the story after she sent a note to colleagues fuming over the decision by Weiss to hold the story, “Inside CECOT,” claiming it was done for political rather than editorial reasons. The Trump administration didn’t grand CBS an interview for the segment.
The fight has leaked into the public, causing a media frenzy and creating yet another headache at the Tiffany Network.
Who is Sharyn Alfonsi?
Alfonsi is a “60 Minutes” investigative correspondent. According to her online biography, she first appeared on the program in 2015, and has won several awards, including two Emmys for her reporting about survivors of the Parkland school shooting in 2018.
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She joined CBS again after a stint at ABC News. She worked previously as a CBS correspondent in New York and other CBS-owned local outlets before going to ABC.
She’s done a range of profiles for “60 Minutes” and investigative segments, including into the death of Jeffrey Epstein, and has reported from war zones, including coverage of the Biden administration’s chaotic 2021 Afghanistan troop withdrawal. Her most recent story delved into the dangers of AI bots that chat with minors.
What is her CECOT story about?
Alfonsi’s segment “Inside CECOT” was going to feature her interviewing some released deportees from the notorious prison, “who describe the brutal and torturous conditions” there.
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“Earlier this year, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, a country most had no ties to, claiming they were terrorists. This move sparked an ongoing legal battle, and nine months later the U.S. government still has not released the names of all those deported and placed in CECOT, one of El Salvador’s harshest prisons,” the press release for the segment read.
Has Alfonsi had any controversial reporting before this?
Alfonsi came under fire in 2021 for a “60 Minutes” segment where she challenged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and painted a narrative that he had given supermarket chain Publix preferential treatment on distributing COVID vaccines because its PAC had donated $100,000 to his campaign.
However, the story came under significant criticism, including from Democrats like Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz. Publix had more than 800 locations in the state, making it an ideal location for distributing the vaccines to a state with a high senior population.
Also, Publix fired back against the notion that it essentially bribed DeSantis, calling the suggestion “false and offensive.”
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CBS stood by the story at the time, even though the “pay-for-play” narrative was debunked. In addition, DeSantis accused CBS of cheaply editing a back-and-forth that aired between him and Alfonsi that omitted context about the story.
What did she write about her story and Bari Weiss?
In a memo that quickly leaked to the media Sunday night, Alfonsi told her colleagues that Weiss had spiked the story and not given her an opportunity to discuss it further.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi 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.”
She added that “60 Minutes” made requests for comment to the White House, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department. Their silence was their statement, she wrote, and allowing that to delay the story was effectively giving them veto power.
“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 wrote.
Abandoning the sources who spoke with them at personal risk, Alfonsi said, would be wrong.
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“We have been promoting this story on social media for days,” Alfonsi wrote. “Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of ‘gold standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet.”
In her memo, she also invoked the infamous Jeffrey Wigand saga, when “60 Minutes” was pressured by corporate executives not to air an interview with the tobacco industry whistleblower for fear of litigation. The scandal was a black eye for the network and was the subject of the 1999 movie “The Insider.”
What did Bari Weiss say about the story?
Weiss has defended the decision to hold the segment, saying it was not ready for air and didn’t advance the story in a meaningful fashion.
“My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be,” she said in a statement on Sunday. “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.”
On Monday, she told staffers on a morning editorial call, “The only newsroom I’m interested in running is one in which we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters with respect, and, crucially, where we assume the best intent of our colleagues. Anything else is absolutely unacceptable.”
“I held a ‘60 Minutes’ story because it was not ready. While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball — the [New York] Times and other outlets have previously done similar work. The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more. And this is ‘60 Minutes.’ We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera. Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else. That’s my north star and I hope it’s yours, too.”
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According to reports, Weiss viewed the story on Thursday and ultimately decided it wasn’t ready to go to air, citing that there wasn’t an on-the-record Trump administration response.
Executive producer Tanya Simon, according to the Washington Post, said during a private meeting that she stood by the story but wasn’t able to assuage Weiss.
“In the end, our editor in chief had a different vision for how the piece should be, and it came late in the process, and we were not in a position to address the notes,” said EP Tanya Simon, according to a partial transcript of the meeting obtained by the Post. “We pushed back, we defended our story, but she wanted changes, and I ultimately had to comply.”
Weiss is already a lightning rod given her opinion background and pushback against “woke” ideology, and some of her moves and rhetoric during her brief tenure atop CBS News have irked media liberals.
What other controversies has “60 Minutes” been embroiled in lately?
The show is still smarting from President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the network over how it edited an interview with 2024 opponent Kamala Harris. Trump accused the network of election interference for how it aired portions of Harris’ answer about Israel on two separate nights leading up to the election.
Trump sued parent company Paramount and CBS for an eye-popping $20 billion. In the background, Paramount was seeking Trump adminisration approval for its merger with Skydance Media. Ultimately, Trump received a $16 million settlement that covered legal fees, costs of the case, and contributions to his future presidential library or charitable cause.
The saga left “60 Minutes” staffers fuming that their corporate parent had paid, as late-night host Stephen Colbert put it, a “big fat bribe” to get the merger through, despite the network’s lawyers saying the suit was meritless.
Fox News Digital reached out to CBS and Alfonsi for comment.
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