Deadline has reported that Bari Weiss has doubled down on her decision to pull a 60 Minutes story about the Trump administration’s deportations to El Salvadorian prisons. Weis sent out a memo to the company on Christmas Eve, citing America’s current lack of trust in mainstream media.
“It isn’t because they’re crazy. To win back their trust, we have to work hard. Sometimes that means doing more legwork. Sometimes it means telling unexpected stories. Sometimes it means training our attention on topics that have been overlooked or misconstrued. And sometimes it means holding a piece about an important subject to make sure it is comprehensive and fair,” via Deadline.
According to Deadline, she expanded on her reasoning later in the memo. “Such editorial decisions can cause a firestorm, particularly on a slow news week. And the standards for fairness we are holding ourselves to, particularly on contentious subjects, will surely feel controversial to those used to doing things one way. But to fulfill our mission, it’s necessary. No amount of outrage—whether from activist organizations or the White House—will derail us. We are not out to score points with one side of the political spectrum or to win followers on social media. We are out to inform the American public and to get the story right. Restoring the integrity of the news is a difficult task. We can’t think of a more important one.”
Deadline has reported that Weiss, at one point, noted that in “our upside-down moment, this may seem radical.” In addition to Weiss, who acts as Editor-in-Chief of CBS News, Tom Cibrowski, Charles Forelle, and Adam Rubenstein were also signatories on the message.
Weiss has stated that she did advance the piece because it was “not ready”. Sharyn Alfonsi, the journalist who worked on the piece, has retorted that she believed the decision was political, via Deadline.
According to Deadline, the episode circulated briefly online due to leaks. Global TV, the carrier of 60 Minutes in Canada, streamed the piece on its app for a short period before it was removed.