When the new owners of CBS put Bari Weiss in charge of CBS News, there was quite a bit of concern that she would use the position to further political and ideological goals rather than having fealty to, you know, the news. Well, in addition to putting low-rated interviews on the air, she does seem to be up to some mischief. The NYT reports: ‘60 Minutes’ Pulled a Segment. A Correspondent Calls It ‘Political.’
In a move that drew harsh criticism from its own correspondent, CBS News abruptly removed a segment from Sunday’s episode of “60 Minutes” that was to feature the stories of Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to what the program called a “brutal” prison in El Salvador.
CBS announced the change three hours before the broadcast, a highly unusual last-minute switch. The decision was made after Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News, requested numerous changes to the segment. CBS News said in a statement that the segment would air at a later date and “needed additional reporting.”
But Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who reported the segment, rejected that criticism in a private note to CBS colleagues on Sunday, in which she accused CBS News of pulling the segment for “political” reasons.
The entire e-mail can be found here.
One of Ms. Weiss’s suggestions was to include a fresh interview with Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff and the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown, or a similarly high-ranking Trump administration official, two of the people said. Ms. Weiss provided contact information for Mr. Miller to the “60 Minutes” staff.
Ms. Weiss also questioned the use of the term “migrants” to describe the Venezuelan men who were deported, noting that they were in the United States illegally, two of the people said.
In her note, Ms. Alfonsi said that her team had requested comment from the White House, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security. “If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient,” Ms. Alfonsi wrote.
Indeed, how many times in my life have I heard or read a story wherein the reporter notes that they had reached out to X, Y, or Z for comment, but had not received a response? The notion that such a lack of response would stop a story from being run is patently absurd and would, as Alfonsi notes, provide the administration with a veto (and a passive one at that).
Also, the word “migrant” is the appropriate English language word to describe someone who has left one country to move to another one. Legal status is not an issue with the core definition of the term.
Weiss has built her career on the notion that she is some kind of special truth-teller who has the courage to stand up to orthodoxy. But, of course, like many people who shout and complain about how they are censored or “cancelled,” she is really just a shill.
By the way, while I am sure that a CECOT piece on 60 Minutes might have gotten some additional press attention on the topic, there was no better way to draw even more attention to the entire issue than this maneuver. Indeed, from a “keep things as quiet as possible” standpoint, airing the piece on the Sunday before Christmas was probably the best case scenario for having as few people pay real attention as possible. You know, slow news cycle with lots of reporters gearing down for the holidays, people traveling, going to parties, visiting family, etc.
Heckuva job, Bari!
