CBS News pulled a planned segment from its news magazine program “60 Minutes” focused on an El Salvadorian prison linked to the Trump administration over alleged deficiencies in the reporting, according to a senior executive on Monday.
The executive, editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, said the segment fronted by Sharyn Alfonsi did not go far enough in soliciting comment from certain Trump administration officials before it was cleared to air during Sunday’s episode.
On a newsroom call Monday morning, Weiss said the story offered “very powerful testimony” on the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, a prison that has agreed to accept immigrant detainees rounded up by federal law enforcement agents at the behest of Trump.
Weiss said the decision to pull the story was intended to provide ample opportunity for the Trump administration to respond to allegations made by interviewees. In a statement, Weiss asserted the practice of holding a story for completeness “happens every day in every newsroom.”
Typically, a news organization does not decide to withhold a story once it is promoted or teased publicly — as was the case with the 60 Minutes segment — unless there are substantial changes in circumstances that warrant further investigation and reporting. Even then, most news outlets publish or air a story as it is developed, and amend it along the way.
It is not uncommon for 60 Minutes to update a news story, even on its initial broadcast, in the introduction or conclusion to a segment. The network also re-broadcasts stories from time to time, and often includes updates when those segments are repeated.
It isn’t clear why Weiss decided to pull the story just hours before it was broadcast. Several CBS News employees said the story in question was ready to air, having gone through the numerous checks and sign-offs, including approvals from the network’s Standards & Practices unit and corporate lawyers.
In several internal and external statements since Sunday evening, Weiss has attempted to characterize the move as one meant to illustrate a new, high bar for journalism that must be cleared under her oversight of the news network. But CBS News employees have interpreted it as an extreme case of news interference, one that was predicted before its parent company Paramount merged with Skydance earlier this year.
In a note to colleagues, Alfonsi complained Weiss never gave her an opportunity to defend the piece before the network announced it would not air.
“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 said.
60 Minutes is the highest-rated, non-sports broadcast on television. During Nielsen’s most-recent measurement week, the news magazine program attracted over 10 million viewers, putting it just behind National Football League (NFL) games aired on the four broadcast networks but well ahead of any scripted show or comparable news program on television.
Top-Rated Broadcast TV Programs
Rank
Network
Show
P2+ Viewers
P2+ Share
1
NFL on CBS (4:25 p.m. games)
24.5 million
7.6
2
Sunday Night Football: MIN/DAL
19.61 million
6.1
3
NFL on Fox (4:25 p.m. games)
19.41 million
6.0
4
NFL on CBS (1:05 p.m. games)
18.93 million
5.9
5
Monday Night Football: PHI/LAC
10.71 million
3.3
6
Football Night in America (pt.3)
10.18 million
3.2
7
60 Minutes
10.16 million
3.2
8
NFL on Fox (1:05 p.m. games)
9.46 million
2.9
9
The OT
8.53 million
2.7
10
