Bill…great essay today on an important topic, especially since you are directly involved!
Commenting today on some of the 7 Other Things
—————————-
The debate at large traced its roots back to the end of World War II, but this round of the debate began in 1992 with the decommissioning of the last active battleship, USS Missouri (BB-63), and ended when the last of these ships was finally completely retired in 2011.[1] The Navy decommissioned Missouri after determining that her fire support function could be replaced by ship and submarine-launched missiles and aircraft-launched precision guided munitions.
Global TV in Canada has aired the full 60 Minutes segment about immigrants sent to CECOT.
Bari Weiss killed it hours before it was set to air.
The men who risked their lives to tell their story will finally be heard.
The whole world will know they were tortured.
The whole world will know the regime sent people to a foreign concentration camp.
Thank you Canada.
(From substack)
“CBS News “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi is walking the walk.
What she has done for journalism in the last two days is about as important, and courageous as it gets. With her cherished journalistic institution threatened, and her career on the line, Alfonsi is sounding the alarm that “60 Minutes” is sliding further into an increasingly irretrievable and dark place.”
It is interesting to me that one of the few actual laws passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump has already been broken. Who holds the DOJ accountable? Is it the president? The courts?
First, the 60 Minutes segment was postponed, not “killed.” CBS publicly stated it would air at a later date pending additional reporting. That distinction matters. Newsrooms delay stories all the time when editors believe more sourcing or balance is needed. That’s editorial judgment, not censorship.
Second, the timing is being exaggerated. The decision wasn’t made “hours before air” in some dramatic midnight purge. It was pulled the day before the broadcast, after internal review. That’s not some last-second panic move...it’s a standard editorial call window.
Third, internal disagreement does not equal proof of political interference. Correspondents often clash with editors; that’s been true at 60 Minutes for decades. Elevating one reporter’s frustration into a global press-freedom crisis is a s-t-r-e-t-c-h.
Fourth, lionizing Sharyn Alfonsi as a lone truth-teller ignores that 60 Minutes has faced credibility issues before, including criticism for selective framing and advocacy-style storytelling in past segments. That doesn’t make her evil, but it does mean skepticism cuts both ways.
And finally, Canada airing the segment doesn’t magically validate every claim in it. Journalism isn’t confirmed by geography. Claims of “torture,” “concentration camps,” and “the whole world will know” deserve evidence, context, and response from all sides, not breathless moral certitude.
This isn’t about silencing stories. It’s about whether a story is ready, complete, and responsibly framed before airing, which used to be called journalism, not suppression.
And I thought you were in the news business?!? Ahem, you are welcome!
CBS announced the change three hours before the broadcast, a highly unusual last-minute switch. The decision was made after Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News, requested numerous changes to the segment. CBS News said in a statement that the segment would air at a later date and “needed additional reporting.”
But Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who reported the segment, rejected that criticism in a private note to CBS colleagues on Sunday, in which she accused CBS News of pulling the segment for “political” reasons.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Ms. Alfonsi wrote in the note, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. “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.”
Amid a swirl of questions within her newsroom, Ms. Weiss was adamant that the segment, which featured the stories of Venezuelan men deported by the United States to a prison in El Salvador, was flawed and required more reporting.
The segment, reported by the correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, was first screened for CBS journalists on Dec. 12; Ms. Weiss did not attend that screening or four others over the next week, a person with direct knowledge of the screenings said. She watched a video of the segment on Thursday night and offered suggestions, which producers integrated into the script. By Friday afternoon, “60 Minutes” had given CBS management the green light to announce and promote the segment to viewers.”
Then, around midnight at the end of Friday, less than 48 hours before the segment was set to air, Ms. Weiss weighed in again, this time with more substantial requests. She asked producers to add a last-minute interview with Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff — a relatively straightforward task for a print journalist who needs to only make a phone call, but a logistically difficult one in TV news, where a camera and lighting crew is often required.
“If we run the piece as is, we’d be doing our viewers a disservice,” Ms. Weiss wrote in her internal note, which “60 Minutes” producers viewed as a more critical assessment than the one she had offered earlier in the week.
On the 9 a.m. call, Ms. Weiss said she wanted a newsroom “where we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters and do so with respect.”
Hours later, Ms. Alfonsi — who accused the network on Sunday night of pulling her segment for “political” reasons — raised those comments during the meeting with her “60 Minutes” colleagues. She said Ms. Weiss had not contacted her directly with her concerns.
In her note, Ms. Alfonsi said that 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,” Ms. Alfonsi wrote.
“We have been promoting this story on social media for days,” Ms. Alfonsi added. “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.”
An edgelord is someone on an internet forum who deliberately talks about controversial, offensive, taboo, or nihilistic subjects in order to shock other users in an effort to appear cool, or edgy.
You may have heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect, which is that incompetent people don’t have the skills to recognize their own incompetence.
Pikes Peak is a wonderful place to hike. Done it twice from Manitou Springs.
“Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed—in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical—and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental.”
““The Failing New York Times, and their lies and purposeful misrepresentations, is a serious threat to the National Security of our Nation,” Trump wrote in a late-night social media meltdown.
“Their Radical Left, Unhinged Behavior, writing FAKE Articles and Opinions in a never-ending way, must be dealt with and stopped. THEY ARE A TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DJT.””
I can attest to the importance of #1. My daughter was born to a chain smoking birth mother. It caused very low birth weight (3lbs. 15oz.) and a whole slew of physical/mental developmental issues. One of the outcomes was that she never slept...n-e-v-e-r. To this day she will be up at 1am cooking a full meal for herself. She is grown, and a chef, so things turned out well, but that whole attention, memory and inhibition control thing is real.
#4 read with them not to them. We would sit with my son on one side so that he could, at first, pretend to be reading, then later read with us. I remember my FIL reading him a book one night. It was a nice effort, but the guy was not one for sitting and reading a book, regardless the genre or length. He started skipping pages and my son stopped him in his tracks, "papa, you forgot the part that goes...."and proceeded to recite the entire 2 pages of text that he skipped. My FIL came downstair hysterical laughing. He never tried that again.
Funny how what the “experts” say about raising kids is the way I was raised. And how I raised mine. My mother in law was aghast that I would let my kids roam the children’s rides area at the Calgary Stampede, but I knew it was good for them. They were encouraged to be independent and it has served them well. And they are both avid readers.
How sad for that girl, she will never be the same again and to have that taken from her at such an early age. Shame on the school for not taking her seriously and for not dealing with the boy in the same way. You would think adults involved with the school system would know what Snapchat is.
The thing with Japanese cars is that they drive on the opposite side of the road, so the steering wheel is on the passenger side. Makes it a challenge to use drive throughs. We see a lot of them here, I think they should be banned just for that reason. Certainly would not want to be in a head on collision in one. The Smart cat is also pretty small, probably more expensive to buy but more safety. There is definitely a market for smaller cars.
I think Trump is trying to start a war with some of his actions.
This is the way I was raised and likewise, the way my sons were raised. Somehow, they turned out just fine in spite of the mistakes we did make with them. Schools all started at 8:30 but the guys were in the bed early. They got their sleep. There was no staying up until all hours “because they wanted to”. It was our job to get them ready to be adults. Our friendship happened when they were out on their own as it should be. They are both avid readers. I read to them and when they learned to read, they read to me. I had a friend who owned a bookstore in town and she made it her business to have an excellent children’s section so we had plenty of good books. Both boys went to work when they got old enough. There was no lazing around unless it was a Sunday afternoon. They went outside and played with the neighborhood children until it got dark. We all took turns looking after them and making sure they had water and snacks in the summer. We went on trips and experienced all sorts of different things. It truly was a different time I guess.
As for the blow up at CBS over their 60 MINUTES last minute omission, Jay Kuo here on Substack said it perfectly: STATUSKUO.SUBSTACK.COM “The Streisand Effect”
I would have posted the link but for some reason my link sharing isn’t working today.
I hope everyone has exactly the holiday season they want. I’m off email for a couple of days for my mental health and a Merrier Christmas.
Bill…great essay today on an important topic, especially since you are directly involved!
Commenting today on some of the 7 Other Things
—————————-
The debate at large traced its roots back to the end of World War II, but this round of the debate began in 1992 with the decommissioning of the last active battleship, USS Missouri (BB-63), and ended when the last of these ships was finally completely retired in 2011.[1] The Navy decommissioned Missouri after determining that her fire support function could be replaced by ship and submarine-launched missiles and aircraft-launched precision guided munitions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_battleship_retirement_debate
—————————-
Global TV in Canada has aired the full 60 Minutes segment about immigrants sent to CECOT.
Bari Weiss killed it hours before it was set to air.
The men who risked their lives to tell their story will finally be heard.
The whole world will know they were tortured.
The whole world will know the regime sent people to a foreign concentration camp.
Thank you Canada.
(From substack)
“CBS News “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi is walking the walk.
What she has done for journalism in the last two days is about as important, and courageous as it gets. With her cherished journalistic institution threatened, and her career on the line, Alfonsi is sounding the alarm that “60 Minutes” is sliding further into an increasingly irretrievable and dark place.”
—Dan Rather
https://open.substack.com/pub/steady/p/one-courageous-correspondent?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer
—————————-
It is interesting to me that one of the few actual laws passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump has already been broken. Who holds the DOJ accountable? Is it the president? The courts?
Per yoozh, I'm here to help Darrell:
First, the 60 Minutes segment was postponed, not “killed.” CBS publicly stated it would air at a later date pending additional reporting. That distinction matters. Newsrooms delay stories all the time when editors believe more sourcing or balance is needed. That’s editorial judgment, not censorship.
Second, the timing is being exaggerated. The decision wasn’t made “hours before air” in some dramatic midnight purge. It was pulled the day before the broadcast, after internal review. That’s not some last-second panic move...it’s a standard editorial call window.
Third, internal disagreement does not equal proof of political interference. Correspondents often clash with editors; that’s been true at 60 Minutes for decades. Elevating one reporter’s frustration into a global press-freedom crisis is a s-t-r-e-t-c-h.
Fourth, lionizing Sharyn Alfonsi as a lone truth-teller ignores that 60 Minutes has faced credibility issues before, including criticism for selective framing and advocacy-style storytelling in past segments. That doesn’t make her evil, but it does mean skepticism cuts both ways.
And finally, Canada airing the segment doesn’t magically validate every claim in it. Journalism isn’t confirmed by geography. Claims of “torture,” “concentration camps,” and “the whole world will know” deserve evidence, context, and response from all sides, not breathless moral certitude.
This isn’t about silencing stories. It’s about whether a story is ready, complete, and responsibly framed before airing, which used to be called journalism, not suppression.
And I thought you were in the news business?!? Ahem, you are welcome!
xoxoxo
You say tomato and I say tamato…
CBS announced the change three hours before the broadcast, a highly unusual last-minute switch. The decision was made after Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News, requested numerous changes to the segment. CBS News said in a statement that the segment would air at a later date and “needed additional reporting.”
But Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who reported the segment, rejected that criticism in a private note to CBS colleagues on Sunday, in which she accused CBS News of pulling the segment for “political” reasons.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Ms. Alfonsi wrote in the note, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. “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.”
Amid a swirl of questions within her newsroom, Ms. Weiss was adamant that the segment, which featured the stories of Venezuelan men deported by the United States to a prison in El Salvador, was flawed and required more reporting.
The segment, reported by the correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, was first screened for CBS journalists on Dec. 12; Ms. Weiss did not attend that screening or four others over the next week, a person with direct knowledge of the screenings said. She watched a video of the segment on Thursday night and offered suggestions, which producers integrated into the script. By Friday afternoon, “60 Minutes” had given CBS management the green light to announce and promote the segment to viewers.”
Then, around midnight at the end of Friday, less than 48 hours before the segment was set to air, Ms. Weiss weighed in again, this time with more substantial requests. She asked producers to add a last-minute interview with Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff — a relatively straightforward task for a print journalist who needs to only make a phone call, but a logistically difficult one in TV news, where a camera and lighting crew is often required.
“If we run the piece as is, we’d be doing our viewers a disservice,” Ms. Weiss wrote in her internal note, which “60 Minutes” producers viewed as a more critical assessment than the one she had offered earlier in the week.
On the 9 a.m. call, Ms. Weiss said she wanted a newsroom “where we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters and do so with respect.”
Hours later, Ms. Alfonsi — who accused the network on Sunday night of pulling her segment for “political” reasons — raised those comments during the meeting with her “60 Minutes” colleagues. She said Ms. Weiss had not contacted her directly with her concerns.
“Disagreement requires discussion,” Ms. Alfonsi said.
In her note, Ms. Alfonsi said that 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,” Ms. Alfonsi wrote.
“We have been promoting this story on social media for days,” Ms. Alfonsi added. “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.”
— NYT
As soon as I saw "NYT" at the bottom of your missive, I knew it wasn't worth reading.
An edgelord is someone on an internet forum who deliberately talks about controversial, offensive, taboo, or nihilistic subjects in order to shock other users in an effort to appear cool, or edgy.
You may have heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect, which is that incompetent people don’t have the skills to recognize their own incompetence.
Said the smug, elitist wanna be whose penchant for projecting parallels Pikes Peak.
Pikes Peak is a wonderful place to hike. Done it twice from Manitou Springs.
“Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed—in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical—and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
““The Failing New York Times, and their lies and purposeful misrepresentations, is a serious threat to the National Security of our Nation,” Trump wrote in a late-night social media meltdown.
“Their Radical Left, Unhinged Behavior, writing FAKE Articles and Opinions in a never-ending way, must be dealt with and stopped. THEY ARE A TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DJT.””
https://apple.news/A4DNiEqpJQ6KQTqijFxuO-A
Kids...
I can attest to the importance of #1. My daughter was born to a chain smoking birth mother. It caused very low birth weight (3lbs. 15oz.) and a whole slew of physical/mental developmental issues. One of the outcomes was that she never slept...n-e-v-e-r. To this day she will be up at 1am cooking a full meal for herself. She is grown, and a chef, so things turned out well, but that whole attention, memory and inhibition control thing is real.
#4 read with them not to them. We would sit with my son on one side so that he could, at first, pretend to be reading, then later read with us. I remember my FIL reading him a book one night. It was a nice effort, but the guy was not one for sitting and reading a book, regardless the genre or length. He started skipping pages and my son stopped him in his tracks, "papa, you forgot the part that goes...."and proceeded to recite the entire 2 pages of text that he skipped. My FIL came downstair hysterical laughing. He never tried that again.
Funny how what the “experts” say about raising kids is the way I was raised. And how I raised mine. My mother in law was aghast that I would let my kids roam the children’s rides area at the Calgary Stampede, but I knew it was good for them. They were encouraged to be independent and it has served them well. And they are both avid readers.
How sad for that girl, she will never be the same again and to have that taken from her at such an early age. Shame on the school for not taking her seriously and for not dealing with the boy in the same way. You would think adults involved with the school system would know what Snapchat is.
The thing with Japanese cars is that they drive on the opposite side of the road, so the steering wheel is on the passenger side. Makes it a challenge to use drive throughs. We see a lot of them here, I think they should be banned just for that reason. Certainly would not want to be in a head on collision in one. The Smart cat is also pretty small, probably more expensive to buy but more safety. There is definitely a market for smaller cars.
I think Trump is trying to start a war with some of his actions.
This is the way I was raised and likewise, the way my sons were raised. Somehow, they turned out just fine in spite of the mistakes we did make with them. Schools all started at 8:30 but the guys were in the bed early. They got their sleep. There was no staying up until all hours “because they wanted to”. It was our job to get them ready to be adults. Our friendship happened when they were out on their own as it should be. They are both avid readers. I read to them and when they learned to read, they read to me. I had a friend who owned a bookstore in town and she made it her business to have an excellent children’s section so we had plenty of good books. Both boys went to work when they got old enough. There was no lazing around unless it was a Sunday afternoon. They went outside and played with the neighborhood children until it got dark. We all took turns looking after them and making sure they had water and snacks in the summer. We went on trips and experienced all sorts of different things. It truly was a different time I guess.
As for the blow up at CBS over their 60 MINUTES last minute omission, Jay Kuo here on Substack said it perfectly: STATUSKUO.SUBSTACK.COM “The Streisand Effect”
I would have posted the link but for some reason my link sharing isn’t working today.
I hope everyone has exactly the holiday season they want. I’m off email for a couple of days for my mental health and a Merrier Christmas.