'60 Minutes' Pulled a Segment on Immigration Detention the Day It Was Scheduled to Air

When news first broke that Bari Weiss would be taking over management of CBS News, some people were concerned about what that might mean. Now, one of the first major controversies of Weiss's tenure has erupted over a 60 Minutes story that was pulled just hours before it was scheduled to air.

CBS promised that the story, which was about Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to what the program called a “brutal” prison in El Salvador known as CECOT, would air at a later date. Now, many are wondering why it was pulled to begin with. Here's what we know.

In its initial statement, CBS said that the segment “needed additional reporting" and that it would air at a later date.

According to reporting in The New York Times, though, Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran correspondent who reported the story, rejected the notion that the story needed additional reporting in an email that was sent out internally to CBS News staff on Dec. 21.

“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” she wrote in the note. “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.”

Alfonsi further claimed that Weiss had suggested numerous changes to the story in the days before it aired, and also suggested that because the Trump administration had refused to comment on the story, it couldn't air.

In a statement published on Dec. 21, Weiss addressed the notion that she had pulled the story for political reasons.

“My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices — happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.”

Although Alfonsi did not specify what "political reasons" might have led Weiss to pull the story, the implication is that the story, which is about the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador known as CECOT, would have made the Trump administration look back. In Alfonsi's telling, Weiss seemed to feel quite strongly that the administration should be able to shape the story.

While the ultimate fallout of this call is still playing out, this plays into many of the fears people had about Weiss when she was first appointed to the job. While she has never been a firm ally of the Trump administration, her journalism has tended to favor the perspectives taken by those inside the administration.

While there are competing narratives about why the story was ultimately pulled, there remain questions about what this means about the future of both 60 Minutes and CBS News more generally.