Bari Weiss, the Editor-in-Chief at CBS News, recently provided further explanation regarding her unexpected decision to cancel a segment focusing on the harsh conditions within a Salvadoran prison. This facility has become notable for its role in housing individuals deported by the Trump administration.

During CBS’s routine 9 a.m. editorial meeting on Monday, Weiss, who is 41, clarified her reasoning. According to a report from The New York Times, she concluded the segment was not worth airing as it did not offer new insights or significantly contribute to the ongoing conversation.

Weiss emphasized that similar work had been previously published by outlets like the Times, underscoring her commitment to pursuing innovative and thought-provoking stories as her guiding principle.

“To present a story on this topic two months later, we need to provide additional depth,” Weiss explained to her team. The decision to pull the segment sparked some controversy, prompting a managerial meeting later in the day, as reported by The Guardian.

This decision did not sit well with some members of the journalistic community. Panelists on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” saw it as a setback for journalism. Joe Scarborough highlighted 60 Minutes Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi’s assertion that the piece was “factually correct” and had successfully passed five standards reviews.

Mika Brzezinski, co-host of the show, echoed these sentiments, stating, “I’ve been in those screening sessions. Having worked there myself, I can attest that they are incredibly challenging.”

CBS News employees, meanwhile, have threatened to quit over Weiss’s decision,  CBS sources told CNN. Insiders told the Guardian that Weiss promised to air the story as the backlash continues.

CBS News boss Bari Weiss, 41, told colleagues on Monday that she spiked a segment about a prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has deported illegal immigrants because it contained no new information

Panelists on MS NOW’s Morning Joe, however, had a different stance. Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Jonathan Lemire and Pablo Torre all slammed the decision as unethical

‘The most rigorous, most difficult process, it is an important process. And every frickin’ word, every frame of video is picked apart by editors to make sure it is correct. I mean, that I- they promoted it? I mean, come on,’ Brzezinski complained on Monday.

The report was set to speak on ‘brutal’ conditions at the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, and was spiked on Saturday, after the story had been fully vetted by researchers and lawyers, sources who spoke with CNN said.

Contributor Pablo Torre griped that Weiss was ‘not a reporter, not a journalist, [and] is cosplaying as one and is poisoning the well of one of the last bastions of investigative reporting that gets funded.’

‘And Sharyn Alfonsi is a very good reporter,’ Brzezinski added.

Weiss’s Monday call elaborated on a Sunday note she sent to top 60 Minutes brass that claimed Afonsi’s team did not get enough administration officials on the record for the ‘important piece.’

‘At present, we do not present the administration’s argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT,’ Weiss wrote in the memo, according to Axios.

‘What we have is Karoline Leavitt’s soundbite claiming they are evildoers in America (rapists, murderers, etc.). But isn’t there much more to ask in light of the torture that we are revealing? Tom Homan and Stephen Miller don’t tend to be shy.

‘I realize we’ve emailed the DHS spox, but we need to push much harder to get these principals on the record.’

Earlier in the day, an internal memo sent by Alfonsi to her fellow staffers was leaked to the press.

Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent who reported the story, argued the las-minute move from Weiss was a form of censorship

Alfonsi, the correspondent who reported out the story, slammed Weiss’s decision as a form of censorship.

Weiss – a former New Yorker Times opinion writer who is only weeks into her CBS News tenure – told the Times late Sunday night: ‘My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. 

She said that ‘folding 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.’

She maintained that the 60 Minutes team would get the greenlight to publish the piece when it adheres to her standards.

But, according to Alfonsi and the two CBS sources who spoke with CNN, the story ‘was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices’ as of Friday.

The sources also that the number of screenings before the initial signoff was somewhat out of the ordinary, with other shows being screened fewer times..  

Despite the enhanced scrutiny, Weiss still had questions about the following morning, the sources said. It was lack of a response from the Trump administration that was her chief, CNN reported.

Alfonsi argued that she and her team ‘requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department.’

Pictured, police officers escorting a prisoner at the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador. US officials have deported alleged illegal immigrants to the prison in recent months, amid reports of ‘brutal’ conditions

The segment was set to follow a group of Venezuelan men who thought they were being sent back to their home country – only to end up at the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador

‘Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story,’ she told colleagues. 

‘If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a “kill switch” for any reporting they find inconvenient.’ 

The segment was set to surround a group of Venezuelan men who thought they were being sent back to their home country, only to end up at the Terrorism Confinement Center, widely known as CECOT.

Following Weiss’s statement to the Times, it remains unclear when it will air.    

Weiss was hired by Paramount CEO David Ellison back in October.

She is the founder of the right-leaning Free Press, which was bought by Ellison during for $150million. Ellison, 42, is the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison. He took the helm after the merger between Paramount and Skydance over the summer.

The deal caused over the editorial direction of CBS. The network was accused of bowing to pressure from the Trump administration by settling a suit with the president over a 60 Minutes interview in 2024 with Kamala Harris he said was ‘deceptively’ edited.

Days after the suit was settled, the $8billion merger Paramount-Skydance was approved by the FCC. 

Paramount is now launching a hostile takeover bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN.