60 Minutes on Sunday aired its story about Trump administration deportations that was abruptly pulled from the newsmagazine's lineup a month ago, a move that had triggered an internal battle about political pressure that spilled out into the open, the AP reports. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi made no reference to her dispute with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss in the story about deportees who had been sent to El Salvador's notoriously harsh CECOT prison. When the segment was struck from the Dec. 21 episode on Weiss' orders, Alfonsi told her 60 Minutes colleagues that it "was not an editorial decision, it was a political one." Weiss had argued that the story did not sufficiently reflect the administration's viewpoint or advance reporting that had been done by other news organizations earlier.
The story shown Sunday included no on-camera interviews with Trump administration officials. But it did include statements from the White House and Department of Homeland Security that were not part of what Alfonsi had used before her story was pulled. Some of statements, which were carried in full on the 60 Minutes website, were dated prior to Dec. 21. "Since November, 60 Minutes has made several attempts to interview key Trump administration officials on camera about our story," Alfonsi said. "They declined our requests."
Alfonsi did not immediately return a message from the Associated Press on Sunday. She said in her email that the administration's refusal to consent to on-camera interviews was a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. CBS News, in a statement said, that its "leadership has always been committed to airing the 60 Minutes CECOT piece as soon as it was ready. 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." (Click for more details on how the segment aired Sunday differed from the original.)
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