Overview
- In a Christmas Eve memo, Weiss—joined by CBS News president Tom Cibrowski and editors Charles Forelle and Adam Rubenstein—said no amount of outrage from activists or the White House will change the decision.
- Weiss and senior editors argued the segment lacked adequate on-camera responses from senior Trump officials and failed to include on-the-record statements from the White House, State Department, and DHS.
- The withheld report has circulated online after a distribution error briefly made it available on Canada’s Global TV app.
- Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi and other staffers criticized the hold as political and warned that treating government non-participation as a precondition for airing grants a de facto ‘kill switch’.
- CBS says the piece will air after additional reporting, and Weiss is moving to tighten standards and processes across the newsroom, including creating a formal masthead.