On Sunday, CBS announced that the segment would not air just three hours before it was scheduled to run. The New York Times reports that Weiss had requested several changes to the segment; CBS said the segment would run at a future date with “additional reporting.” This framing was quickly rejected by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who reported the segment. “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi wrote in a note to colleagues, which was obtained by the Times. “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.” CNN’s Brian Stelter posted on X last night that “people are threatening to quit over this.”
Sunday night, Weiss issued a statement saying that holding a story like this “for whatever reason” is something that “happens every day in every newsroom.” This morning, she further expanded on her decision in a call with staffers. “While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball—the Times and other outlets have previously done similar work,” Weiss said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more. And this is 60 Minutes. We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera. Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else. That’s my north star and I hope it’s yours, too.”
Indeed, the conditions at CECOT are known to those who have read or watched the work from those other outlets. Not long after taking office the second time, Donald Trump and his administration sent several people residing in the United States to the prison—including people like Kilmar Ábrego Garcia, who the government claimed had gang ties and then admitted was sent to the facility in an “administrative error,” per the Associated Press. Before joining CBS News, Weiss founded the right-leaning outlet The Free Press. Trump has since professed himself a fan of her work.
