Top Senate Democrat moves on legal action over Epstein files release – US politics live | Jeffrey Epstein

CNN reports that some CBS staffers are “threatening to quit” over the controversial cancellation of a 60 Minutes investigation into the brutal CECOT prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has deported hundreds of migrants.

Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss’s decision to pull the story – taken last night three hours before broadcast – has been blasted by members of Congress and the veteran correspondent involved, Sharyn Alfonsi, who had interviewed people deported by the Trump administration to the notorious mega-prison about the “brutal and torturous conditions” they faced.

The New York Times reported that Weiss had seen the segment on Thursday and raised questions about it to its producers, asked for new material to be added, and suggested a new interview with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the rightwing architect of Trump’s anti-immigration policy.

The NYT also reported that Weiss questioned the use of the term “migrants” to describe the approximately 252 Venezuelan men who were deported on flights to El Salvador’s Cecot in March and April this year.

CBS said in a statement that the story “needed additional reporting” and will air at a later date.

Alfonsi said in a private note to her CBS colleagues yesterday that the episode “was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”

Elsewhere in the note, Alfonsi said her team had requested comment from the White House, the state department, and the Department of Homeland Security. “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,” she said.

“We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of ‘gold standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet.”

“I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight,” she wrote.

Weiss, whose appointment sparked controversy among some CBS journalists who feared its owners were taking the network in a more conservative direction, said in a statement: “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.”