What Bari Weiss Got Right

"Hours before the show aired, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss pulled a story about the Trump administration's deportation of hundreds of immigrants to CECOT, a notoriously harsh prison in El Salvador. CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who reported the story, said Weiss's decision was "political" rather than "editorial," and that Weiss was trying to "shield an administration" from critique. "We are trading 50 years of 'Gold Standard' reputation for a single week of political quiet," Alfonsi wrote in a memo to colleagues,"

"It relied heavily on the testimony of a single Venezuelan deportee, Luis Muñoz Pinto, who described beatings, blood, vomit, pummeling of the genitals, and promises from Salvadoran prison officials that he would die there. These claims align with previous inmate accounts. The deportee is now in Colombia, and his story is buttressed by interviews with researchers and activists. The most dramatic and repulsive footage is from inside CECOT itself."

CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss pulled a 60 Minutes segment about the Trump administration's deportation of hundreds of immigrants to CECOT, a harsh prison in El Salvador. Reporter Sharyn Alfonsi called the decision political and accused Weiss of trying to shield an administration, warning that the network risked its reputation. The segment leaked via Global TV in Canada after an apparent streaming oversight. The report centers on Venezuelan deportee Luis Muñoz Pinto, who described severe beatings, blood, vomit, genital abuse, and threats to be killed, with researchers and activists corroborating inmate accounts and footage from inside CECOT.

Read at The Atlantic