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⏱️ Inside the '60 Minutes' crisis

Earlier this month, after President Trump blasted "60 Minutes" for interviewing Marjorie Taylor Greene, correspondents noticed a change behind the scenes. "Bari Weiss got personally involved," specifically with stories about politics, a source at the program said.

It was her prerogative as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News, but it prompted some concern among employees, and it turns out they were right to be concerned.

Over the weekend, as you've surely heard, Weiss sparked a crisis inside "60 Minutes" by shelving Sharyn Alfonsi's report about Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador. 

Alfonsi said in an internal memo that "the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship." Indeed, this is a severe blow to CBS's credibility, and it's being treated as a top story across many major news sites. 

Weiss, who reports directly to Paramount CEO David Ellison, pushed back by saying that "holding stories that aren't ready" is something that "happens every day in every newsroom." That's both technically true and terrifically insulting to the CBS veterans who said the story was ready. The piece was even being promoted by PR.

So let's walk through the timeline here, because I have picked up several bits of reporting that are relevant...

Timing is everything, part one

Alfonsi's story, "INSIDE CECOT," was many weeks in the making. Two of my best sources inside CBS News says Weiss first screened the segment on Thursday night. The LAT's Stephen Battaglio has the same reporting: "Weiss viewed the segment late Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter."

Weiss had some notes, but the story moved forward. In total, the story "was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices," Alfonsi wrote in her memo. "It is factually correct."

At "60," segments are usually screened several times before air, but five screenings is an unusually high number, I'm told.

Come Friday, the staff thought the story was good to go. Alfonsi taped her intro. Executive producer Tanya Simon gave CBS News PR the OK to publicize the segment. That's one of the great things about "60 Minutes": The stories are announced in advance, usually on Fridays, for promotional purposes.

And that's why the next part is so baffling. On Saturday morning, Weiss messaged Simon with additional concerns about the story, two CBS sources told me. One of the main issues was the lack of a response from the Trump admin to the reporting. She also "took issue with the phrasing of 'migrant detainees,'" one of the sources said.

Again, it's her prerogative. But everyone at CBS News knows how "60 Minutes" works: How the pieces are screened, when the PR listings are sent out, what the processes are like. Alfonsi, I'm told, had already flown home to Texas by the time Weiss blew everything up.

Alfonsi told colleagues that she "learned on Saturday" that Weiss "spiked our story." Alfonsi and producer Oriana Zill de Granados "asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity."

My sense is that the change wasn't finalized until Sunday. A planned segment by Jon Wertheim was slotted into Alfonsi's place. Then CBS PR shared the revised plan and said, "Our report 'Inside CECOT' will air in a future broadcast."

Newsroom staffers who hadn't already heard about the turmoil were astonished — even more so after Alfonsi's memo made the rounds. Her account sounded like the shattering moment that staffers have feared all year...

Timing is everything, part two

Weiss pushed back on Alfonsi's memo late Sunday night by saying, "My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding 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. I look forward to airing this important piece when it's ready."

It's unclear when that will be. But it means Weiss is at odds with her own producers and editors in a very visceral way. "People are threatening to quit over this," one of the CBS sources told me.

On this morning's 9 a.m. editorial call, Weiss seemed frustrated about the leaking. "The only newsroom I'm interested in running is one in which we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters with respect, and, crucially, where we assume the best intent of our colleagues. Anything else is absolutely unacceptable," she said, according to CBS.

"I held a 60 Minutes story because it was not ready," she continued. "While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball — the Times and other outlets have previously done similar work. The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more. And this is '60 Minutes.' We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera."

In other words, Weiss confirmed her insistence on adding Stephen Miller or another Trump admin voice to the story. But Alfonsi's team did ask for comment, and "their refusal to be interviewed" was "a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story," she wrote in the memo. "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."

Weiss said on this morning's call, "Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else. That's my north star and I hope it's yours, too."

But this begs the question: Why were the listings sent out, then? Why did the story get promoted on social media? To state the obvious, some CBS staffers wonder if Weiss was pressured by the Trump admin and/or by the Paramount C-suite to hold the story once it was publicized...

Timing is everything, part three

Trump didn't just start to gripe about "60 Minutes" earlier this month. He started to vent specifically about the Ellisons. He did it again on Friday night at his rally in NC. "I love the new owners of CBS," Trump said. "Something happens to them, though. '60 Minutes' has treated me worse under the new ownership than… they just keep treating me, they just keep hitting me, it's crazy."

Trump isn't complaining in a vacuum. He is complaining as Paramount publicly argues that it has the inside track for government approval of its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN's parent. 

The "60 Minutes" crew came under tremendous pressure last season as the old Paramount owners were trying to get a deal done. They perceive that it's happening again now with the new owners.

David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, said of the Alfonsi story's shelving, "It's hard to ignore that this happened just as Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Bros. was slipping away, with Kushner pulling out of the financing and Trump bad-mouthing CBS. Time to please the king again."

NYT alum Max Fisher remarked on X, "Pulling it at the last second is not an accident. Forces a change to broadcast schedule that turns it into news, and therefore a public demonstration of fealty to Trump."

'There's NO stopping reporting'

Weiss defenders insist this episode is being blown out of proportion. But I'm gonna be honest: I'm not hearing much from them. I'm hearing far more from alarmed CBS staffers, some of whom are drawing comparisons to the time Mike Wallace's interview with a tobacco industry whistleblower was shelved by corporate. (If you want to rewatch the movie about that real-life drama today, "The Insider" is streaming on Hulu.)

As Bill Carter observed overnight, "this decision is sure to have ripple effects." 

"If CBS News will only run a piece if WH comments, giving them veto power over journalism, any staff member with integrity will likely quit, because it isn't a news division anymore. It's TASS," Carter wrote.

On the other hand, as a CBS staffer texted me this morning, reporters have "direct access" to their audiences now. "There's NO stopping reporting," they said.

Paramount beefs up WBD bid 

This morning Paramount "upped the ante in its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery" by saying that Larry Ellison "will personally guarantee the tens of billions of dollars he is putting up to bankroll the transaction," CNN's David Goldman reports. "The Ellisons will also let shareholders peer into the finances of their family trust."

The guarantee doesn't change Paramount's $30-per-share offer, but it does attempt to quell WBD's concerns about the Ellisons' financing. WBD shares surged back toward the $30 mark when the market opened. I'm told WBD is likely to respond to the revised offer in some fashion later today...

 >> Meantime, "Netflix said it has secured up to $25 billion in bank financing in preparation to fund its proposed acquisition for much of Warner Bros. Discovery," the WSJ reports.

 >> Lucas Shaw asked more than 700 industry experts who they think will end up winning the WBD bidding war. The verdict: Netflix, with 52% of the vote. (Bloomberg)

IN OTHER NEWS...

Ezra Klein says 'the Trump vibe shift is dead'

That's what Ezra Klein declares in his newest column, which doubles as a tidy recap of the political year. He also hits on the media currents, including Democrats like Gavin Newsom who are learning how to "win the attention wars." 

"Closed and cruel are on their way out," Klein wrote. "What comes next, I suspect, will present itself as open, friendly and assertively moral."

On a perhaps related note, I was struck by CNN's new polling about 2028 showing that half of Americans have given some thought to the next presidential election, "but most don't have a candidate in mind." Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 22% named VP JD Vance, 4% named Marco Rubio and only 3% named Trump ("even though he is barred by the two-term limit proscribed by the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution.")

Will this new name stick?

The Kennedy Center renaming is a bit like the "Gulf" controversy that Trump instigated back in January... except this time the name has been plastered onto the front of the performing arts center. Now, WaPo's Scott Nover wrote, "media and cultural institutions face a dilemma:" Whether to use the Trump Kennedy Center name in coverage, in listings, etc.

"Across the internet, the name was largely unchanged," Nover rightly noted. Ticket sites like StubHub still say Kennedy Center. I said on CNN last night that the whole thing reminds me of National Airport, which was renamed in Ronald Reagan's honor in the late '90s, but is still just "National" to me (and maybe you too)...

The Atlantic's position on the matter:

Editor Jeffrey Goldberg shared this comment with a Trumpian flourish at the end: "At The Atlantic, the Department of Defense is the Department of Defense, the Kennedy Center is the Kennedy Center, and the Gulf of Mexico is the Gulf of Mexico. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

 >> Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell, meanwhile, spent the weekend defending the name change on X and insisting that it's legal because the physical memorial to John F. Kennedy is not "impacted."

White House pushes Smithsonian 

The Trump admin "has signaled to the Smithsonian Institution that the White House could withhold federal funding from the museum organization if it does not comply with the administration's unprecedented, sweeping review," CNN's Piper Hudspeth Blackburn reports. The admin claims the Smithsonian's responses to date have fallen "far short of what was requested..."

MAGA's ongoing civil war...

Last we heard from TPUSA's AmericaFest, Ben Shapiro was going scorched earth on Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Steve Bannon and Candace Owens. The rest of the weekend similarly put the MAGA infighting on full display.

"Speakers bad-mouthed one another from the stage, clashed over whether to engage with conspiracy theorists, argued over who belongs in the GOP and America and sparred openly over Israel’s influence on US foreign policy," CNN's Steve Contorno reported from Phoenix.

Meanwhile, Alex Jones — yes, that Alex Jones — says he's concerned about Owens and her conspiracy theorizing about Kirk's death. "I hate watching you destroy yourself like this," he said in a video pleading with her to stop doubling down on debunked claims. Hmm...

Briefly…

 >> "The Israeli government has approved the closure of the country's Army Radio after 75 years of broadcasting, in a move that shutters one of Israel's oldest media institutions at a time of mounting concerns over press freedom," Tal Shalev and Eugenia Yosef report. (CNN)

 >> As Dan Bongino exits the federal government, Jeremy Barr asks: Can he "regain his stature in the conservative media world?" (The Guardian)

 >> iHeartMedia has "extended its relationship" with Charlamagne tha God for five more years, Todd Spangler writes. (Variety)

Today's tech talk

 >> Instagram boss Adam Mosseri says "maybe we'll need" premium longform video on the app one day, and suggested TikTok's stalled US sale has given Meta time to fine-tune its social algorithms. This interview is full of rich detail. (Semafor)

 >> "Extremists are using AI voice cloning to supercharge propaganda," which experts told Ben Makuch is "helping them grow." (The Guardian)

 >> An open-source engine found that "a pirate activist group has scraped and released metadata from Spotify," Mitchell Peters reports. (Billboard)

Kimmel's Christmas dissent

"A very British holiday tradition will get an American twist this year, when the late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel offers the alternative holiday message, in which he will speak out against fascism on Britain's Channel 4 on Christmas Day," the NYT's Ali Watkins writes.

Channel 4's "so-called alternative Christmas message" is a "uniquely British tradition," a "direct counter to the royal Christmas message" that airs on the BBC...

Entertainment notes and quotes

 >> "Avatar: Fire and Ash" won the weekend box office, bringing in "an estimated $88 million domestically," CNN's Auzinea Bacon reports. It also earned "roughly $257 million internationally, bringing its global opening to $345 million,” and will “likely remain a top draw for moviegoers during the holidays." (CNN)

 >> Paramount's "The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants" debuted with $16 million (and my kids loved it) but it wasn't the highest-grossing animated flick of the weekend: That honor went to religious movie "David," which finished second overall with $22 million. (CNN)

 >> "Ahead of its wide release on Christmas Day, A24's 'Marty Supreme' opened on six screens in New York and Los Angeles and scored a spectacular platform launch, earning the best per-theater average of the year with $875,000 grossed." (TheWrap)

>> "SNL" remembered Rob Reiner, who hosted the program's third episode, in the closing moments of the show's holiday edition. (LateNighter)

 >> Speaking of which: "Bowen Yang got teary-eyed during the final sketch... which was his last." (CNN)

This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.