The Federal Communications Commission’s lone Democrat called CBS News’ decision to pull a “60 Minutes” segment detailing the Trump administration’s shipment of Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador a “strike at the heart of press freedom” in a blistering statement on Monday.
Commissioner Anna M. Gomez said the decision reflected her concern that Paramount’s merger with David Ellison’s Skydance would diminish independent journalism. Ellison, Paramount’s CEO since August, appointed Bari Weiss as CBS News’ editor in chief in October after his $150 million purchase of her website, the Free Press.
Weiss pulled the segment hours before it was set to air over her concern that it didn’t properly include the Trump administration’s perspective. But correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi told staffers the show reached out to multiple government agencies that declined to comment, calling the move “political.” Critics have also accused the network of giving the administration deference to aid Ellison’s quest for regulatory approval for his hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. Discovery.
President Donald Trump, a friend of the Ellison family, has said he’d be involved in the WBD battle between Paramount and Netflix.
“A free press cannot function if the government is able to exercise veto power over critical reporting simply by refusing to engage,” Gomez said in her statement. “That is fundamentally incompatible with the First Amendment and the role of journalists in holding those in power to account. These concerns are only heightened when a media company seeking favorable action on future regulatory approvals tempers or delays coverage critical of this Administration, raising serious questions about whether editorial decisions are being influenced by external pressure rather than journalistic judgment.”
CBS News and Paramount did not respond to immediate requests for comment.
Weiss and CBS News have said the network still intends to air the segment. Gomez asked the network to publicly explain why it made this decision and whether its newsroom will maintain its independence.
“The public has the right to question how CBS will ensure the independence and integrity of its journalism going forward,” she wrote.
