When CBS News Executive Editor Bari Weiss addressed the staff on Monday’s 9 a.m. conference call, she began by talking about “trust,” both “our trust in each other and our trust in the public.”
But Weiss already shook that confidence the day before when “60 Minutes” announced it was abruptly retracting veteran correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi’s report on the “brutal and torturous conditions” endured by Venezuelan migrants after the Trump administration deported them to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
“I ran an article on 60 Minutes because it wasn’t ready,” Weiss told staff Monday, suggesting the article “didn’t move the ball forward” beyond what other media outlets had reported. “We need to be able to record the principals and film them,” she added. “Our viewers come first. Not the broadcast schedule or anything else. That’s my North Star and I hope it’s yours too.”
And then? Crickets.
“Everyone in the New York newsroom noticed the executives’ silence after Bari’s speech,” a staffer told TheWrap. Weiss turned to Wendy Fisher, senior vice president of editorial at CBS News and Stations, who continued the editorial call focused on the news of the day, and without addressing a decision that shook the newsroom.
Saving a story for additional reporting or commentary happens all the time in newsrooms. But the circumstances surrounding Weiss’ decision are anything but normal. Weiss arrived at CBS News in October with a political background and no television broadcasting experience. It was Weiss’s first major test as a network executive, weighing the merits of an investigative report from “60 Minutes” that could inflame the president — and she blew it.
Even if Weiss had legitimate journalistic concerns, as she claims, and as one insider says she expressed behind the scenes, she mishandled them by allowing the story to be widely promoted for days before abruptly removing it Sunday night with little explanation beyond the segment requiring “additional reporting” and vague plans to air it on a “future broadcast.”
Into this void came a leaked email from Alfonsi, an award-winning correspondent with decades of experience in television news. Alfonsi suggested that Weiss made a “political” decision to keep his story, noting that the segment “was screened five times and cleared both by CBS lawyers and by Standards and Practices.” Outside the network, critics feared Weiss was appeasing Donald Trump.
Weiss has been under the microscope since David Ellison, fresh after merging Skydance with Paramount, purchased her anti-woke news and opinion site, The Free Press, for $150 million in October and installed her in the newly created position of executive editor of CBS News. She didn’t stay behind the scenes, taking it upon herself this month to interview Erika Kirk, the wife of slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, rather than entrusting the job to a veteran correspondent or anchor.
This isn’t surprising since Weiss is a media personality who has never shied away from giving his opinion on social media, podcasts, or prominent platforms like Bill Maher’s HBO show. She became a magnet for controversy during her time at the New York Times, where she was an opinion editor and editor-in-chief, and has continued to stir controversy since the launch of the right-wing outlet Free Press on Substack in 2022.
Weiss may be new to television news, but she’s not naive when it comes to politics. Surely she must have known that randomly pulling a hard-hitting story would cause a firestorm and be seen as a political move by Trump, who has had a tumultuous relationship with “60 Minutes.” And holding the story would inevitably shine a spotlight on his and Trump’s dealings with the Ellisons, as well as how CBS parent Paramount has responded in the past to the president’s demands.
CBS News initially dismissed Trump’s 2024 lawsuit against “60 Minutes” as “meritless” but ultimately settled with the president for $16 million in July as Paramount sought FCC approval to merge with Ellison’s Skydance. One of Ellison’s first moves was to appoint a former CEO of a conservative think tank as the network’s ombudsman, a role the company pledged to fill during the regulatory process.
In November, Trump gushed about the new ownership during an appearance on “60 Minutes,” telling Norah O’Donnell that he “sees good things happening.”
Trump spoke favorably of Weiss and Ellison, the son of billionaire Trump supporter and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. David Ellison’s Paramount is currently trying to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, with Larry’s support, while Trump invested in the deal in an unprecedented way. Trump said CNN, a WBD affiliate, should be put under new management as part of a deal. Larry and David Ellison reportedly discussed with Trump officials the possibility of making sweeping changes at CNN.
Meanwhile, Weiss wants Paramount to launch WBD, as TheWrap previously reported, given that joining forces with a global media outlet like CNN could mean more resources and opportunities. And Trump wants to be treated better by “60 Minutes,” saying twice last week that the new leadership had treated him worse, including at a rally Friday in North Carolina.
Given this multitude of potential conflicts of interest, Weiss’s decision caught the attention of Anna M. Gomez, the FCC’s only Democratic commissioner, who said Monday that “amid increased government pressure, reports that CBS News interfered with the editorial judgment of 60 Minutes are deeply alarming and strike at the heart of press freedom.”
Gomez added that “the public has the right to question how CBS will ensure the independence and integrity of its journalism in the future” and hopes the network “will provide its viewers with a clear accounting of how this decision was reached and demonstrate how it will safeguard the independence of its newsroom.”
CBS News did not make Weiss available for an interview.
The Bari connection
Since Weiss made the decision to keep the story, audiences will see his fingerprints on how it ultimately gets released — and especially if it doesn’t.
On Monday, “60 Minutes” executive producer Tanya Simon attempted to allay staff concerns, according to the Washington Post, while defending Alfonsi’s report. Simon said Weiss “had a different vision of how the room should be” and, despite her misgivings, she “ultimately had to conform to it.”
What’s next? Is Weiss using her influence in the Trump White House to convince, say, senior adviser Stephen Miller, to discuss deportations on camera? If so, how would the administration’s perspective be considered alongside the people who Alfonsi said “risked their lives” to participate? What if Team Trump still refuses to play ball? Is the part just not working?
The deportation story, which Trump officials apparently didn’t want to talk about, could continue to come up when the network puts Trump officials on the air. Vice President JD Vance is already scheduled to attend the upcoming CBS News and Free Press town hall.
A second staffer told TheWrap that they considered Weiss to be “incredibly neglectful” since she became the editor-in-chief of CBS News, which is why the “60 Minutes” intervention was so striking. “Damn, what a good time,” the staffer said.
Now, when the segment airs, and in what form, could be a litmus test for Weiss’ relationship with the newsroom.
“Let’s see how long it takes to air,” the employee said.
Corbin Bolies contributed reporting
