In less than a week, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has gutted what remained of 60 Minutes. Her rapid dismantling of the journalistic institution from the inside offers a terrifying look at the real-world cost of Donald Trump's war on the free press.
Sharyn Alfonsi Contract Not Renewed
First, news broke that CBS News would not renew the contract of 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi. Alfonsi was openly critical of Weiss's leadership after the editor-in-chief yanked her segment on torture in El Salvador's CECOT prison.
"It sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom," Alfonsi told The New York Times. "I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting."
Executive Producer Fired, Replaced by Outsider
One day later, Weiss fired the program's executive producer, who had been with the network for three decades. Her choice of replacement was tech journalist Nick Bilton, who has never worked for CBS News.
Staff and Veterans React
Staffers sent a letter expressing deep concern to Trump-friendly boss David Ellison, demanding he uphold journalistic values. Veteran journalist Scott Pelley went one step further, openly accusing Weiss of "murdering 60 Minutes" in a heated all-hands meeting. "She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that," Pelley reportedly said.
Longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft didn't mince words on the shakeup. "Since I retired, I often wondered what would happen to 60 Minutes," Kroft told Status. "But I never expected it would be executed by the president of the United States."
"There is no smoking gun," he continued. "But [Trump's] fingerprints and DNA are all over this."
Broader Context: Trump's War on Press
The president has waged war on the free press throughout his second term. As HuffPost's editor-in-chief has noted, Trump has unleashed the FCC on his critics, punished publications for exercising their First Amendment rights, threatened to jail journalists and used the law as a tool of intimidation. But CBS News' open capitulation to Trump's whims is deeply sad to watch.
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