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After CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss created a complete crisis and instigated a “rebellion” By running a 60 Minutes segment on the notorious CECOT prison at the last minute, hosts and pundits on his network which in the morning She was reprimanded for “cosplaying” as a journalist and “poisoning the well” at CBS.
“Not good at all,” said co-anchor Joe Scarborough, while his colleagues called Weiss’s decision “unusual” and “unusual.”
just a few hours ago 60 minutes There was a program to broadcast a story on El Salvador’s infamous mega-prison complexwhich the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants as part of its mass deportation campaign, the network announced that the segment had been removed.
That decision, which was made by Weiss over the weekend, prompted CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi – the lead reporter on this story. send a blast email His colleagues defended the segment while criticizing the move to postpone the broadcast. Alfonsi also claimed that Weiss would not explain his reasoning at the time.
“We [producer Oriana Zill de Granados and herself] Asked to call to discuss your decision. He did not give us that courtesy/opportunity,” Alfonsi wrote. “The story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS lawyers and the network’s Standards and Practices unit.”
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He said, “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now – after every rigorous internal investigation is not an editorial decision, it is a political decision.”
Weiss, the “anti-woke” founder of The Free Press Was installed as leader of CBS News by Paramount chairman David Ellison in Octoberdefended its decision in a statement Sunday night and during an editorial call Monday morning.
After emphasizing Sunday evening that “holding on to stories that for whatever reason are not ready — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they lack critical voices — it happens every day in every newsroom,” Weiss said Monday. hair appeared to grow On the public leak of Alfonsi’s scathing emails. At the same time, he also reiterated his reason for tossing the story, which was due to the White House not attending when reached for comment.
Weiss announced on Monday, “We need to be able to make every effort to get the principals on the record and on camera. To me, our audience comes first, not a listing schedule or anything else.” “And that’s my North Star, and I hope it’s every person’s North Star in this newsroom.”
With Weiss coming under fire from both CBS News staffers and media observers, the flagship morning show of MS Now (formerly MSNBC) took aim at the controversial CBS News editor and questioned his journalistic credentials.
Weiss, who was an opinion columnist wall street journal And new York Times Before launching The Free Press a few years ago, did No experience in broadcast journalism Last fall, Ellison tapped him as editor-in-chief (and bought The Free Press for $150 million).
which in the morning The panel said the cancellation comes at the same time as Donald Trump has once again begun to attack 60 minutesAs long as Alison is there want to take the president’s side among His hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. DiscoveryTrump, who had Ellison and Weiss were attacked first As for “great people”, they have since complained that the new Paramount leadership is “no better” than the old owners.
“So here you have David Ellison who wants to get Donald Trump in the way, and he said this after the Netflix deal was announced, he said, ‘Oh, the White House would never approve this.’ Or something along those lines,” Scarborough said. “And then Donald Trump attacked 60 minutes twice. This story was published on Friday. And then it was escalated on Saturday because the White House decided they would not comment.
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Meanwhile, co-host Jonathan Lemire said it was “unusual” to pull the plug so late in the process, especially when it was clear that “the piece was done and ready” and the only issue – according to Weiss – was that she did not have a voice in the White House story.
“You know, it’s often the case that the administration has no comment,” Lemire said. “This is something that was edited and publicized. The fact that video footage circulated is so unusual that they would then take it down.”
While Scarborough and wife/co-anchor Mika Brzezinski defended 60 minutes’ A “rigorous” editorial process, indicating that the segment was checked multiple times before airing, which in the morning Regular Pablo Torre was unrepentant in his criticism of Weiss.
Torre declared, “Billionaires are compromising the most important journalism institutions we have left in this country.” “The game is clear, and in this case, Bari Weiss, who, by the way, was not a reporter, was not a journalist, is pretending to be one and poisoning the well of one of the last bastions of investigative reporting that is funded.”
After Brzezinski praised Alfonsi as a “very good reporter”, Torre said that it appeared the CBS News journalist had sent his email to colleagues to keep a record of Weiss’s own misdeeds.
“And Sharyn Alfonsi is writing this and saying, just for posterity, this is what’s going on,” he concluded.