Dueling memos, leaked to the news media this weekend, reveal growing conflict within CBS News and specifically inside the network’s top rated news program 60 Minutes.
A few hours before air time, a story about the Venezuelan men deported earlier this year to the CECOT prison in El Salvador, was pulled by the network’s new editor in chief Bari Weiss. Weiss reportedly said the story could not air without an on the record comment from someone in the Trump administration.
Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent who reported the story, claims the decision was “political” and not grounded in good journalism. Alfonsi sent out a note to her CBS colleagues that included this argument, according to NPR:
“Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. 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, who has been with 60 Minutes since 2015, told colleagues that her story passed all the normal pre-publication tests including legal and standards and practices reviews.
In April, 60 Minutes reported most of the 238 men sent to the CECOT prison had no criminal records. A CNN report on the Alfonsi situation says “people are threatening to quit” over Weiss’s decision.
And so it begins…
Photo: Alfonsi Instagram
