Just a day and a half before the broadcast, Bari Weiss stopped a planned 60 Minutes feature about the CECOT prison, where the Trump administration has sent Venezuelan migrants.
"60 Minutes" had sought comment from the Trump administration on the report but did not receive a response. Weiss believed that a comment was required for the report to be aired, according to two people with "insight" who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In an email seen by public service radio station NPR, reporter Sharyn Alfonsi condemned the decision as “political rather than editorial,” writing that “if refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to stop a story, we have effectively given them an ‘off button’ for any reporting they deem uncomfortable.”
The decision comes in light of Trump's previous lawsuit against CBS and a high-profile settlement.
Weiss was appointed editor-in-chief under the new ownership of CBS by Paramount CEO David Ellison, and she has been tasked with making CBS more "balanced."
