(Gilberto Tadday/TED)

A leaked memo sent Sunday to senior producers shows CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss arguing that the completed 60 Minutes segment she pulled this week’s show, covering Trump administration deportations, required more context and balance and was not broadcast-ready.

The segment, which focused on the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador’s high-security CECOT prison, was pulled shortly before broadcast. The decision led to immediate resistance inside the newsroom.

In the memo, acquired by Axios, Weiss argued the report did not sufficiently reflect the administration’s position or legal reasoning, and said the segment “paints an incongruent picture” after journalists failed to robustly secure on-the-record responses from senior Trump officials.

In a pointed internal email, also leaked, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who crafted the report, pushed back on that point and argued that “government silence is a statement, not a VETO.”

“Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story,” she wrote.

Weiss’s critique, however, went a little further.

“At present, we do not present the administration’s argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT,” the editor-in-chief wrote.

She questioned whether the segment relied too heavily on limited soundbites, adding: “What we have is Karoline Leavitt’s soundbite claiming they are evildoers in America (rapists, murderers, etc.). But isn’t there much more to ask in light of the torture that we are revealing?” Weiss urged producers to intensify efforts to obtain comment from figures such as border czar Tom Homan and Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller.

“We need to do a better job of explaining the legal rationale by which the administration detained and deported these 252 Venezuelans to CECOT,” she said, stressing that the issue went beyond a simplistic reading of the Alien Enemies Act.

“There’s a genuine debate here,” she added, calling for competing legal interpretations to be presented side-by-side.

Read Weiss’s full memo below:

Hi all,

I’m writing with specific guidance on what I’d like for us to do to advance the CECOT story. I know you’d all like to see this run as soon as possible; I feel the same way. But if we run the piece as is, we’d be doing our viewers a disservice.

• Last month many outlets, most notably The New York Times, exposed the horrific conditions at CECOT. Our story presents more of these powerful testimonies—and putting those accounts into the public record is valuable in and of itself. But if we’re going to run another story about a topic that has by now been much-covered we need to advance it. Among the ways to do so: does anyone in the administration or anyone prominent who defended the use of the Alien Enemies Act now regret it in light of what these Venezuelans endured at CECOT? That’s a question I’d like to see asked and answered.
• At present, we do not present the administration’s argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT. What we have is Karoline Leavitt’s soundbite claiming they are evildoers in America (rapists, murderers, etc.). But isn’t there much more to ask in light of the torture that we are revealing? Tom Homan and Stephen Miller don’t tend to be shy. I realize we’ve emailed the DHS spox, but we need to push much harder to get these principals on the record.
• The data we present paints an incongruent picture. Of the 252 Venezuelans sent to CECOT, we say nearly half have no criminal histories. In other words, more than half do have criminal histories. We should spend a beat explaining this. We then say that only 8 of the 252 have been sentenced in America for violent offenses. But what about charged? My point is that we should include as much as we can possibly know and understand about these individuals.
• Secretary Noem’s trip to CECOT. We report that she took pictures and video there with MS-13 gang members, not TdA members, with no comment from her or her staff about what her goal on that trip was, or what she saw there, or if she had or has concerns about the treatment of detainees like the ones in our piece. I also think that the ensuing analysis from the Berkeley students is strange. The pictures are alarming; we should include them. But what does the analysis add?
• We need to do a better job of explaining the legal rationale by which the administration detained and deported these 252 Venezuelans to CECOT. It’s not as simple as Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act and being able to deport them immediately. And that isn’t the administration’s argument. The admin has argued in court that detainees are due “judicial review”—and we should explain this, with a voice arguing that Trump is exceeding his authority under the relevant statute, and another arguing that he’s operating within the bounds of his authority. There’s a genuine debate here. If we cut down Kristi Noem analysis we’d have the time.

My general view here is that we do our viewers the best service by presenting them with the full context they need to assess the story. In other words, I believe we need to do more reporting here.

I am eager and available to help. I tracked down cell numbers for Homan and Miller and sent those along. Please let me know how I can support you.

Yours,

Bari

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