A group of former CBS News staffers are circulating an open letter urging Paramount chief David Ellison to “send a message” to CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss after she spiked a 60 Minutes segment on the infamous CECOT prison at the last minute, according to a copy of the memo obtained by The Independent.
The New York Post was the first to report on the petition and email sent to other “prominent journalists,” noting that the letter will be published on January 3.
“As a former CBS News journalist, you have no doubt followed the recent challenges at 60 Minutes,” the email states, sharing a link to the memo. “A group of prominent journalists have put together an open letter to Paramount CEO David Ellison, expressing concerns over editorial independence at CBS News.”
In the public letter, which is addressed directly to Ellison, the signatories declare that they “stand in solidarity” with the 60 Minutes team that worked on “Inside CECOT,” the story that was pulled by Weiss shortly before it was set to air on December 21. They also note that this signaled a “breakdown in editorial oversight” and risked “setting a dangerous precedent in a country that traditionally valued press freedom.”
The Independent has contacted CBS News for comment. A representative from Paramount declined to comment on the letter as they have not yet been in receipt of it.
“Seems to only be circulating around former CBS staffers,” one source with knowledge told The Independent, noting some “big names” like Dan Rather and Katie Couric might be the target for the petition.
The letter takes particular issue with Weiss’ defense for pulling the story, which centered on the Trump administration deporting Venezuelan migrants to the notorious El Salvadoran prison and the harsh treatment the detainees were subjected to.
In a memo sent to 60 Minutes staffers just before she pulled the story, Weiss wrote that “we do not present the administration's argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT” in the segment. She also recommended that they ask either Trump border czar Tom Homan or White House adviser Stephen Miller to sit for an interview, noting that she could set up a call.
“Weiss’ last-minute proposal that the story be delayed until it included a White House official, despite reported efforts by the 60 Minutes team to get comment from the Administration, was inappropriate,” the letter notes. “Her recommendation that they interview White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller proved particularly troublesome. Miller went on to call for everyone at the CBS News network who was involved in the production of this report be fired.”
Indeed, during an appearance on Fox News, Miller said that any CBS News staffers involved in a “revolt” against Weiss should be terminated and that the network should “clean house.” Weiss, the “anti-woke” founder of The Free Press who was installed by Ellison atop CBS News in October, followed up Miller’s decree with a Christmas Eve email that doubled down on her decision to yank the segment.
“[S]ometimes it means holding a piece about an important subject to make sure it is comprehensive and fair,” Weiss – who had no broadcast TV experience before taking over CBS News – wrote, saying that pulling the segment was necessary to “win back” the trust of Americans who’ve lost faith in the mainstream media.
The letter to Ellison, meanwhile, concludes with the journalists calling for Ellison to step in and preserve the independence of 60 Minutes.
“We urge you to send a message to your news management staff that CBS News must respect editorial independence,” the memo states. “The editorial interference threatening 60 Minutes doesn't just betray journalism's core principles—it endangers the crown jewel of CBS News that has helped sustain the network financially and editorially for generations.”
In an email to her 60 Minutes colleagues after Weiss’ spiked the story, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi – the segment’s reporter – noted that they had repeatedly “requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department,” adding that “government silence is a statement, not a VETO.”
Noting that the segment was “screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi stated that the story “is factually correct” and that Weiss pulling it “after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”
In a 60 Minutes meeting last week, correspondent Scott Pelley criticized Weiss over her handling of the matter, noting that she had skipped the previous screenings of the segment – which had been in the works for months – and only began weighing in just before it was set to air.
“It’s not a part-time job,” he said in the meeting. “She needs to take her job a little bit more seriously.”
Meanwhile, the timing of Weiss’ decision to pull the story – which was highly critical of the Trump administration, based on a leaked version of the segment that briefly aired in Canada – comes as Ellison is reportedly looking to curry favor with the president amid his family’s hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. Discovery.
At the same time, while the president has called David Ellison and his father Larry – the world’s second richest man and a close Trump ally – “great” people who he “loves,” he has publicly soured on the father-son duo in recent weeks following 60 Minutes stories he’s disliked.
Ellison, for his part, has tried to tamp down the president’s fury behind the scenes by claiming he and Weiss had no advanced warning about the Marjorie Taylor Greene segment that set Trump off. Shortly after that story aired, the president fumed that the new ownership of Paramount was “no better” than the previous one.
“I love the new owners of CBS,” Trump complained at a Friday night rally, just hours before Weiss axed the segment. “Something happens to them, though. 60 Minutes has treated me worse under the new ownership… they just keep hitting me, it’s crazy.”
The Monday morning after 60 Minutes aired without the “Inside CECOT” story, Larry Ellison upped the WBD offer by agreeing to personally backstop the $40 billion of equity financing in Paramount’s hostile bid for the studio giant.
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