ADVANCING THE STORY
That’s the ballgame. A media outlet whose primary business is reporting the news needs to be able to provide the consumer with new information.
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Welcome to a special bonus edition of Unfit to Print.
A recent spat between CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss and the network’s flagship television program, 60 Minutes, ripped the veil off modern journalism.
Here’s what you need to know.
ADVANCING THE STORY
60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi wrote an email to her news team earlier this week, accusing her new editor, Bari Weiss, of engaging in censorship. Weiss, she alleged, killed a story about alleged torture in El Salvador’s CECOT prison to protect the Trump administration.
Alfonsi stated in the email that Weiss’s objection to the piece was that the government did not respond to interview requests.
“If the standard for airing a story becomes ‘the government must agree to be interviewed,’ then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast,” she said. “We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.”
I’m going to put my editor hat on for this one and share a personal anecdote to explain precisely why Alfonsi’s CECOT package should have been nixed or delayed.