Nearly a month after CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss ignited controversy by shelving a 60 Minutes segment about Venezuelan prisoners, telling staffers that it needed more reporting, the piece finally aired on Sunday night.
Weiss had originally instructed 60 Minutes to hold the segment about the Cecot prison in El Salvador, which had already been scheduled, in part because it lacked “the administration’s argument”.
Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent who reported the segment, had described Weiss’ decision as “political” in a leaked email to colleagues, and noted that the Trump administration had declined to make officials available for interview.
But the tweaked version that aired on Sunday, which included a few minutes of new material, still did not have an on-camera comment from an administration official. “Since November, 60 Minutes has made several attempts to interview key Trump administration officials, on camera, about our story,” Alfonsi told viewers. “They declined our request.”
Alfonsi also noted that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) refused to provide the records of the 252 Venezuelan men who were sent to Cecot. “DHS deflected all questions about abuse allegations at Cecot,” she added.
While the original segment didn’t air on CBS, it could be watched online because it was inadvertently aired by a network in Canada, providing a clear basis of comparison to Sunday’s version of the piece.
Alfonsi’s opening comments were changed and updated to note the 3 January capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, though the segment included a lot of the same material. It included interviews with the same subjects, including Luis Muñoz Pinto, who described extremely harsh conditions at the prison, and Juan Pappier, Americas deputy director at Human Rights Watch.
The segment also included a statement from the White House that was issued on 18 December, in time for its original air date, though it was not included in the original version of the segment.
Alfonsi’s comments at the end of the segment were much longer in the new version – a length one CBS News staffer, not authorized to speak publicly, said was unusual.
Weiss, a provocative opinion writer and editor with no experience working in broadcast television was appointed to lead CBS News in October.
David Ellison, who controls the network’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, and bought Weiss’ Substack-based publication the Free Press in a reported $150m deal, said at the time she would bring “a relentless commitment to amplifying voices from all corners of the spectrum” – although staffers swiftly expressed concern.
While CBS normally announces the program’s lineup at least a day in advance, it did not formally confirm that the segment would air until early Sunday evening.
The network re-affirmed that it had always intended to air the segment. “CBS News leadership has always been committed to airing the 60 Minutes Cecot piece as soon as it was ready,” it said. “Tonight, viewers get to see it, along with other important stories, all of which speak to CBS News’ independence and the power of our storytelling.”
While the episode was closely watched by media industry observers interested in seeing how it differed from the original version, it likely lost some viewers to NBC, which was airing a divisional playoff game between the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears.
“60 will not have the audience it normally does,” a second network staffer, also not authorized to speak publicly, predicted.
