Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter: 60 Minutes tonight

Nearly a month has passed since Bari Weiss made the extraordinary decision to hold Sharyn Alfonsi’s “60 Minutes” story about Venezuelan men deported by the US to a hellish prison in El Salvador. “I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready,” Weiss said.

Evidently, it’s ready now. The “Inside CECOT” report is slated to air tonight, according to sources at CBS.

It’s still not 100% official – and CBS News PR has not sent out any listings for the broadcast – but the finishing touches are being made this morning, the sources said.

The process to get to this point has been exasperating. After all, the other people involved in the production thought the piece was done before Christmas.

As Alfonsi wrote in her Dec. 21 internal memo claiming “corporate censorship,” the piece had been fact-checked and legally vetted; it had even been shipped off to the Canadian network that re-airs “60 Minutes,” which is how a bootlegged copy got online, further embarrassing CBS.

That Canadian copy also means media critics will be able to compare the original report to the Weiss-approved version that airs tonight.

Scrambling for Trump admin comment

Weiss detractors at CBS say she didn’t realize that shelving the CECOT piece would be a big deal, a direct reflection of her TV inexperience, given that the piece had already been announced to the world. Those detractors wonder whether Paramount’s political calculations and President Trump’s pressures are the real explanations for what’s going on.

Weiss allies reject that, saying no journalist should object to her call for “more reporting” that would strengthen the story. They blame Alfonsi — whose contract is up in just a few months — for inflaming the situation and being overly stubborn.

Alfonsi was certainly reluctant to make changes to the original report. But on Thursday, she was tasked with interviewing a Trump official, such as Kristi Noem or Tom Homan.

Weiss said she would personally book an interview, two sources said. So “60 Minutes” producers flew to DC from New York, and Alfonsi flew in from Texas. But the promised interview did not materialize. Everyone went home empty-handed.

I get where Weiss was coming from. She was trying to ensure that CBS had exhausted every avenue for comment from the Trump admin.

But Alfonsi had warned about this in her December memo: “Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. 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.”

I heard about the DC trip when I asked around about the status of “Inside CECOT” last Thursday night. I was told in no uncertain terms that the piece was not airing this Sunday. “They keep making excuses” to hold the story, a person supporting Alfonsi said.

Others dispute that. On Friday morning, two other sources said management was prioritizing a more timely story about ICE and Minneapolis for this Sunday’s broadcast. I was about to report all of this in Friday morning’s newsletter when I got a call saying that something had changed. “Inside CECOT” was back in play for Sunday.

By Friday evening, observers knew something was up because PR hadn’t sent out listings for Sunday’s show. I’m sure more of the backstory will come out in due time. But at this moment, at least, the story is expected to air tonight.

Speaking of CBS…

‘We’ll sue your ass off’

The NYT’s Michael Grynbaum and Ben Mullin delivered a big weekend scoop on Trump’s recent chat with Tony Dokoupil in Michigan. Moments after finishing up the 12-minute interview, WH press secretary Karoline Leavitt approached the “CBS Evening News” anchor and his team to relay a message from the president: “He said, ‘Make sure you guys don’t cut the tape, make sure the interview is out in full,'” Leavitt said, according to audio the NYT obtained.

After Dokoupil confirmed CBS intended to run it in full, Leavitt replied, “He said, ‘If it’s not out in full, we’ll sue your ass off.'” Dokoupil joked in response, “He always says that!” And “Leavitt did not laugh,” the NYT added.

Paramount’s July 2025 settlement with Trump is the crucial context, of course. “Once a president is willing to sue a news outlet, and the outlet is willing to settle, the calculus for its journalists has indelibly, inexorably changed,” Grynbaum and Mullin wrote…