CBS flagship newsmagazine 60 Minutes is facing fresh internal turmoil after its editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, abruptly pulled a segment on migrants in an El Salvador prison just hours before airtime, prompting sharp criticism from veteran correspondent Scott Pelley.
According to Fox News, The New Yorker detailed growing friction inside CBS News since Weiss formally assumed control in October under the newly restructured Paramount Skydance, led by CEO David Ellison. Those tensions reportedly spiked when Weiss yanked a 60 Minutes report on migrants sent to the El Salvador mega-prison CECOT by the Trump administration, a move that raised questions about editorial judgment and possible political sensitivities.
The day after the segment was pulled, staff gathered for a meeting in which Pelley allegedly confronted the new leadership over its handling of the broadcast. "[D]uring a '60 Minutes' staff meeting, Scott Pelley, a longtime correspondent, expressed frustration that Weiss hadnt attended any of the screenings of the segment or communicated directly with ['60 Minutes' correspondent Sharyn] Alfonsi. 'She needs to take her job a little bit more seriously,' he said," the article read.
Pelleys reported rebuke marked a notable departure from his earlier, more optimistic assessment of the networks new corporate structure. Just weeks before the controversy, he had publicly praised the relative freedom 60 Minutes enjoyed under Paramounts revamped leadership, suggesting that corporate meddling had been minimal.
"However, I will say that in that season, last season, all of our stories got on the air. We got them all on the air," Pelley said on Dec. 12. "We got them on the air with an absolute minimum of interference, nothing anyone in this room would be alarmed by. So, our company is the new Paramount, and we were all very concerned at 60 Minutes about what that meant."
"Its early yet, but what I can tell you is, we are doing the same kinds of stories with the same kind of rigor, and have experienced no corporate interference of any kind. So that has been a tremendous way to start this season," he continued. That earlier reassurance now stands in stark contrast to the uproar over the pulled CECOT segment, which critics inside and outside the network see as a potential example of exactly the kind of interference Pelley had dismissed.
Fox News Digital reached out to CBS News for comment. The network has not publicly explained why the piece, which examined migrants sent to CECOT during President Trumps tenure, was shelved at the last minute, a decision that inevitably fuels speculation about political pressure and ideological bias in legacy media.
The New Yorker also claimed that a former CBS staffer penned an open letter to Ellison to express concerns about "a breakdown in editorial oversight" stemming from Weiss' decision. An anonymous former CBS executive reportedly told the publication that pulling the "60 Minutes" segment risked charges of "corporate interference."
"It makes you wonder, did someone call once they saw the promo on the air, and then she spent more time on it because there was some big complaint?" the executive reportedly said. For conservatives long wary of liberal gatekeeping in corporate newsrooms, that question underscores a familiar concern: that controversial stories touching on President Trump or tough-on-crime policies are uniquely vulnerable to behind-the-scenes pressure.
Sources added that Weiss reportedly "readily realizes and admits that she was not as knowledgeable as she should have been about the timing of the marketing and promo process at 60 Minutes." "She brings the sometimes chaotic energy and work ethic of a startup, but she also realizes she needs to work on having more executive discipline," the sources said.
The "60 Minutes" segment, titled "Inside CECOT," finally aired Sunday night. Yet the episode has left lingering doubts about whether powerful media institutions can be trusted to present politically sensitive stories without succumbing to internal activism or external influence, a concern that will only deepen scrutiny from viewers already skeptical of the corporate press.
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