The piece was hours from airing when CBS Editor in Chief Bari Weiss pulled it from the show’s lineup.
It was about the El Salvadoran prison to which dangerously violent illegal aliens are sent.
Media Research Center's Bill D'Agostino says correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi took shots at the Trump White House but didn't include anyone from the administration for balance.
“Honestly, I think it was objectively a fair critique. There was no commentary from Stephen Miller, no quote from Stephen Miller in there that (Weiss) wanted.
Department of Homeland Services, the White House and State Department did not respond to questions or requests for interviews, Alfonsi wrote in a letter to colleagues, The Wall Street Journal reported. She called the decision “political.”
D’Agostino says a response from both sides is Journalism 101.
“If we're going to run a piece lambasting this administration for how they handled this whole situation, then we have to at least let the White House have a quote.”
D'Agostino says this isn't the first time Alfonsi's name has come up in connection with a hit piece.
“The woman whose (story) this was, Sharon Alfonsi, has a bit of a checkered past with 60 Minutes, basically editing out whenever Republicans tried to speak their piece.”
In her letter addressed to the “News Team,” which is now making the rounds on social media, Alfonsi said the story was cleared at multiple other levels before Weiss pulled it. Weiss did not submit to Alfonsi’s request to discuss the decision, Alfonsi wrote.
“Our story 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,” Alfonsi wrote.
D'Agostino says Weiss, hired in early October, is bringing much needed change to the Tiffany Network, but there's a long way to go.
“It's good that she is forcing them to adhere to journalistic standards, but I mean, it's not as though CBS is not still employing a massive slew of people who are deeply interested in running pieces about, sob story basically pieces about, ‘look at how mean the Trump administration's deportation agenda is.’”
