Bari Weiss Defends Pulling ‘60 Minutes’ Report on ‘Horrific Treatment’ of Detainees Sent by Trump White House to El Salvador Prison: ‘We Simply Need to Do More’

Bari Weiss, recently installed as CBS News‘ editor in chief, told staffers at the news outlet that she pulled a “60 Minutes” report on “horrific treatment” of detainees sent by the Trump administration to a prison in El Salvador “because it wasn’t ready.”

About three hours before airtime Sunday, “60 Minutes” announced it was postponing a segment from correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi interviewing deportees who the Trump administration sent to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison in El Salvador. A CBS News rep said Sunday that it was halted because, “We determined it needed additional reporting.” The network said the CECOT report would air at a future date.

Weiss, after requesting “numerous changes to the segment,” spiked the report on Saturday, the New York Times reported. Among Weiss’s suggestions was that the piece should include an interview with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller or another top Trump administration official. Weiss, according to the Times, gave Miller’s contact info to the “60 Minutes” team working on the CECOT segment; Alfonsi said she already requested comment from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House and the State Department.

On an editorial call Monday morning, Weiss explained to CBS News staff why she held the piece.

“The story presented very powerful testimony of abuse at CECOT, but that testimony has already been reported on by places like the [New York] Times,” she said, as reported by CNN media analyst Brian Stelter.

Weiss continued, “The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment in this prison. So to run a story on this subject, two months later, we simply need to do more. And this is ’60 Minutes.’ We need to be able to make every effort to get the principles on the record and on camera.”

“The only newsroom I’m interested in running is one in which we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters with respect, and, crucially, where we assume the best intent of our colleagues. Anything else is absolutely unacceptable,” Weiss said. She also said, “To me, our viewers come first, not a listing schedule or anything else, and that is my North Star, and I hope it’s the north star of every person in this newsroom.’

Variety has reached out to CBS News for additional comment.

Alfonsi, in an email to CBS colleagues Sunday, said she saw Weiss’ decision to pull the CECOT story as motivated by political concerns, not journalistic ones.

“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi wrote in the message, first reported by the Wall Street Journal. “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.”

Alfonsi also wrote, “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.”