On Monday, Bari Weiss, CBS News’ editor-in-chief, used the network’s morning call to defend the temporary pulling of a 60 Minutes story scheduled to air on Sunday night.
“I held the story because it was not ready,” Weiss said, according to a transcript from the call reportedly obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
She added that the story, which revolved around the Trump administration deporting Venezuelan men to the maximum security prison CECOT in El Salvador, “did not advance the ball” and needed more, including getting a response from a government official on camera.
“This is 60 Minutes,” Weiss said. “We need to be able to make every effort to get the principals on the record and on camera.”
NEW: Bari Weiss addresses her decision to hold last night’s CECOT story on the CBS News morning editorial call: “Our viewers come first, not a listing schedule or anything else…” pic.twitter.com/TGfHHNcVgG
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) December 22, 2025
News broke on Sunday that Weiss had shelved the story on Saturday about the abuse at CECOT, which was reported by Sharyn Alfonsi and had been heavily promoted days before.
The network put out a statement, saying, “The 60 Minutes report on ‘Inside CECOT’ will air in a future broadcast. We determined it needed additional reporting.”
In an email obtained by Axios, Weiss on Sunday shared guidance with 60 Minutes staffers on advancing the CECOT story, including seeking out Trump officials, obtaining more details about the 252 Venezuelans sent to CECOT, and outlining the legal arguments for sending them to that specific prison. She added, “We do our viewers the best service by presenting them with the full context they need to assess the story.”
New: See the memo Bari Weiss sent to some 60 Minutes staff on Sunday: pic.twitter.com/3ERieIGXLh
— Isabella Simonetti (@thesimonetti) December 22, 2025
Meanwhile, over the weekend, Alfonsi emailed her colleagues to confirm the story’s pulling, reportedly saying she and her producer, Oriana Zill de Granados, had requested a meeting with Weiss to discuss the reason for the story’s spike, but the CBS News editor-in-chief did not grant them that opportunity.
