This Is How the News Gets Killed

Bari tries to bury a story

Technically, I didn’t go to journalism school. But I did go to CBS News. And I wouldn’t trade the education I got there for anything.

Which is why I am heartbroken today, watching what many of us had long feared come to fruition. As some of you may have heard, last night the network’s flagship newsmagazine, 60 Minutes, one of the most storied institutions in American journalism, was set to air exactly the kind of story this moment demands: an investigation into the brutal prison in El Salvador where the Trump regime has sent deported Venezuelan nationals.

But at the last minute, the story was pulled from the broadcast because the new president of CBS News, Bari Weiss, wanted the story changed. She was installed in the job by David Ellison, who recently acquired CBS News and its parent company, Paramount, in a deal approved by the Trump administration. Weiss had been running a right-wing (though she would not call it that) opinion site on Substack. All of these maneuvers should be understood as friendly to the regime now running the country.

I cannot stress enough how unprecedented these actions are. Stories are held all the time at 60 Minutes because they need more reporting. That was not the case here. The story had gone through rigorous internal reviews. It was in the lineup. Promos had been running for days. This is the equivalent of pulling an airplane off the runway after passengers have boarded, engines are on, and the tower has cleared it for takeoff, because someone who should not have power over the flight plan decided at the last second that the destination was inconvenient.

It will be interesting to see what happens now. Will there be resignations? Where will all the blame ultimately lie? One thing is certain. Weiss has no idea what she is doing. She has never run a news organization, and if she believes she can quietly deploy an authoritarian playbook, she will learn, painfully, how wrong she is. This decision has already drawn far more attention to the story. Which leads to another certainty. The truth will come out.

CBS News is full of dedicated reporters who will not be cowed or intimidated. Chief among them is the correspondent on the El Salvador prison story, Sharyn Alfonsi. I have known Sharyn for years. She is a true professional. She is not a firebrand or an opportunist. She is committed to factual reporting.

In an age when so many powerful institutions, including law firms and universities, have kowtowed to Trump without a fight, Alfonsi stands as a model of courage. Yesterday, she sent an email laying out in stark terms not only what happened, but what the stakes mean for CBS News and for journalism more broadly. It stands as a clear and powerful statement of the work that is essential to democracy. I share it here in full.

News Team,

Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not reaching out earlier.

I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to air tonight. We (Ori and I) asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity.

Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards

and Practices. 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.

We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story.

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.

If the standard for airing a story becomes “the government must agree to be interviewed,” then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.

These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.

CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that “low point.” By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones.

We have been promoting this story on social media for days. 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.

I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight.

Sharyn

I was thrilled to see the final line in the New York Times piece about the story:

“Reached on Sunday evening, Ms. Alfonsi said, ‘I refer all questions to Bari Weiss.’”

Damn right. Let Weiss answer for all of this mess. This story is not going away. And in the end, those who have chosen to align themselves with this tyrant will have to answer for their actions, and ultimately also answer to history.