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60 Minutes on Sunday, a story about the Trump administration’s deportation was suddenly pulled from the press last month, a move that set off an internal battle over political pressure that came to light.
Reporter Sharyn Alfonsi didn’t talk about her dispute with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss over a story about deportees sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.
When the segment was aired on the December 21 episode at Weiss’ behest, Alfonsi told her that 60 Minutes colleagues “it wasn’t a planning decision, it was political.”
Weiss argued that the story did not adequately reflect the management’s perspective or advance reporting that other news organizations had previously done.
The story that aired Sunday did not include on-camera interviews with Trump administration officials. But it included statements from the White House and the Department of Homeland Security that were not part of what Alfonsi had used before his case was released.
Other statements, which were carried out in full in 60 Minutes website, was written before December 21.
“Since November, 60 Minutes made several attempts to interview key Trump administration officials on camera about our story,” Alfonsi said. “They refused our requests.”
Alfonsi did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press on Sunday. He said in his email that management’s refusal to allow on-camera interviews was a ploy designed to kill the story.
CBS says it was always going off the air
In a statement, CBS News said “their leadership has always been committed to broadcasting the program 60 Minutes CECOT piece as soon as it is ready. Tonight, viewers will see it, along with other important stories, all of which speak to the independence of CBS News and the strength of our storytelling.”
Alfonsi’s report was the second of three on Sunday’s show, with the lead story being Minneapolis’ Cecilia Vega’s report on ICE enforcement efforts and protests against its tactics.
The initial decision to shelve Alfonsi’s CECOT story was a historic one for critics who said the appointment of Weiss, the founder of the Free Press website who had no prior experience in television news, represented an attempt by the carrier’s new leadership to curry favor with Trump.
When it was taken off the air in December, Alfonsi’s original story was accidentally found online. CBS News had given Global Television a version of the newspaper, a broadcast network 60 Minutes in Canada, posted it on its website before a last-minute change pulled the piece.
That allowed keen observers to see what Weiss had rejected, and provided an opportunity to compare it. 60 Minutes finally put it in the air.
The body of the story was unchanged. It included a short clip of President Donald Trump saying prison workers “don’t play games,” and White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt saying “monsters, rapists, murderers, sex offenders, abusers who have no right to be in this country” were sent there.
Alfonsi’s presentation was updated to lead up to the January 3 US attack that led to the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, who is currently imprisoned in the US. He changed the end of the story to include comments from the administration, including an explanation for not providing detailed records of migrants sent to El Salvador.
Authorities also provided photos of tattoos worn by two migrants Alfonsi interviewed, including one of a swastika that the interviewee said he got as a child without knowing what it meant.
A CBS management relationship has been in place
Since Weiss’ appointment, Trump administration officials have been featured heavily on CBS News, in interviews that he sometimes helped arrange. The president himself was interviewed by Norah O’Donnell on 60 Minutes on November 2.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that after Trump interviewed him last week CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil, Leavitt told the network that “we’re going to sue you” if the exchange wasn’t aired in full.
The entire 13-minute interview aired Tuesday, a rare move for the broadcast network’s evening news, a half-hour summary of the day’s biggest news. CBS told the Times it decided to conduct the interview off-schedule when it was booked.
Trump has previously disputed how his interviews were edited – including releasing an unedited transcript of an interview conducted by Lesley Stahl of the. 60 Minutes in 2020.
