{"id":45732,"date":"2025-12-23T12:43:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=45732"},"modified":"2025-12-23T12:43:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T20:43:06","slug":"one-courageous-correspondent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/12\/23\/one-courageous-correspondent\/","title":{"rendered":"One Courageous Correspondent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What happened inside \u201c60 Minutes\u201d this weekend<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Dan Rather<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Team Steady<\/a> Dec 22, 2025<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Credit: Michele Crowe\/CBS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBS News \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi is walking the walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What she has done for journalism in the last two days is about as important, and courageous as it gets. With her cherished journalistic institution threatened, and her career on the line, Alfonsi is sounding the alarm that \u201c60 Minutes\u201d is sliding further into an increasingly irretrievable and dark place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Steady team spoke to sources inside the broadcast today to find out exactly what happened when the new CBS News boss, Bari Weiss, spiked a highly promoted piece at the last minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On background, we learned that Alfonsi and producer Oriana Zill de Granados had for months been working on a story about the Trump administration\u2019s illegal deportations of Venezuelan migrants to CECOT, a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They interviewed former inmates about the brutal and torturous conditions inside the notorious prison. This is the place where Trump sent hundreds of Venezuelans he alleged were terrorists with gang ties. Human Rights Watch found that the 252 men were subject to \u201carbitrary detention and enforced disappearance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the reporting, they repeatedly asked the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department for comment, but received no response. That is no surprise since this story would be another black mark on Trump\u2019s draconian immigration agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last Thursday, after the story had been fully fact-checked and legally vetted by CBS lawyers and its Standards and Practices team, the piece was screened for a fifth and final time for CBS News executives. Weiss was supposed to attend but did not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She did, however, screen the story several hours later. At 11:50 p.m. Thursday, Weiss emailed the broadcast\u2019s executive producer, Tanya Simon, outlining a few issues she had with the piece that she called \u201cincredibly powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday morning, Alfonsi made several changes to the script to address Weiss\u2019s concerns, believed it was ready for air, and recorded her in-studio introduction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The listing of Sunday night\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d pieces was released, which included Alfonsi\u2019s \u201cInside CECOT.\u201d Promos began to air, including on social media. The \u201cInside CECOT\u201d clip on Instagram quickly racked up 4 million views, significantly more than usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But by Saturday morning, something changed. In an unprecedented move, Weiss reached out to Simon again. Her biggest issue now was the lack of response from the Trump administration. It was the first time she raised this concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI realize we\u2019ve emailed the DHS spox, but we need to push much harder to get these principals on the record,\u201d Weiss wrote. She even provided phone numbers for Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump\u2019s immigration policies, and border czar Tom Homan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not long after, Weiss killed the story, though promos kept running and the piece was still listed as airing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Late on Sunday afternoon, just three hours before air time, \u201c60 Minutes\u201d posted an editor\u2019s note on social media: \u201cThe broadcast lineup for tonight\u2019s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our report \u2018Inside CECOT\u2019 will air in a future broadcast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within two hours, Alfonsi sent an email to her fellow correspondents and the production team that worked on the piece. \u201cOur story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now \u2014 after every rigorous internal check has been met \u2014 is not an editorial decision, it is a political one,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She continued, \u201cOur viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of \u2018gold standard\u2019 reputation for a single week of political quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alfonsi then addressed Weiss\u2019s issue with the administration\u2019s decision not to respond. \u201cGovernment silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. If the administration\u2019s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a \u2018kill switch\u2019 for any reporting they find inconvenient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alfonsi is the definition of courage. Kudos to her for speaking truth to power. The hard-won reputation of America\u2019s most trusted television news program, and a big-time money maker for Paramount, is suddenly on the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the CBS News morning editorial call on Monday, Weiss defended her decision. \u201cI held a \u201860 Minutes\u2019 story because it was not ready\u2026 We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing happens in a vacuum in Trump World. The killing of the CECOT piece is no exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August, David Ellison, the scion of Oracle founder and Trump supporter Larry Ellison, purchased CBS parent company Paramount. The acquisition by Ellison\u2019s Skydance needed administration approval, which Trump\u2019s regulators signed off on to the deep-pocketed Ellisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They signed off only after CBS agreed to settle a specious lawsuit in which Trump accused the network of deceitfully editing a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview with Vice President Kamala Harris during the presidential campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As per usual, Trump\u2019s warm and fuzzy feelings toward his sycophants was fleeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor those people that think I am close with the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called \u2018takeover,\u2019 than they have ever treated me before,\u201d Trump posted on social media last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday night, at a rally in North Carolina, Trump said, \u201cI love the new owners of CBS. Something happens to them, though. \u201860 Minutes\u2019 has treated me worse under the new ownership\u2026 they just keep hitting me, it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Trump feels about the Ellisons is especially important right now as Paramount Skydance attempts a hostile takeover of another media giant, Warner Bros. Discovery. And once again, the Ellisons, who have been major donors to Trump, need governmental approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president\u2019s hatred of the revered news magazine seems to have been rekindled by a recent Lesley Stahl interview with the president\u2019s newest nemesis, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right after that interview aired, he posted, \u201cTHEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP. Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not coincidentally, \u201cBari Weiss got personally involved,\u201d with stories about politics after the Greene interview, a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d insider told CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brings us back to Alfonsi\u2019s piece, which had the unfortunate luck of being scheduled to air the evening before David Ellison upped his bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. Staying in Trump\u2019s good graces is, well, paramount at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day Skydance bought Paramount was a dark day for CBS News and journalism as a whole. When Weiss, with no television reporting or news production experience, was installed as CBS News editor-in-chief, my heart sank again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Trump administration doesn\u2019t want to comment, they won\u2019t, and didn\u2019t. It happens dozens of times a day, every day to every journalist trying to cover this facts-adverse administration. No amount of wishing, or asking, or begging will make it happen. Weiss\u2019s knee-jerk reaction was just an excuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day has been filled with talk of journalists walking away from \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d As one insider told us, we have got nothing left but our integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened to Alfonsi\u2019s piece is no less hard to take even though anyone could see it coming. The barbarians are no longer at the gate. They have breached the walls and are now running the show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What happened inside \u201c60 Minutes\u201d this weekend Dan Rather\u00a0and\u00a0Team Steady Dec 22, 2025 Credit: Michele Crowe\/CBS CBS News \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi is walking the walk. What she has done for journalism in the last two days is about as important, and courageous as it gets. With her cherished… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45734,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45732\/revisions\/45734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}