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Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi made no reference to her dispute with CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss in the story about deportees who had been sent to El Salvador's notoriously harsh CECOT prison. When the segment was struck from the Dec. 21 episode on Weiss' orders, Alfonsi told her "60 Minutes" colleagues that it "was not an editorial decision, it was a political one."
Weiss had argued that the story did not sufficiently reflect the administration's viewpoint or advance reporting that had been done by other news organizations earlier.
The story shown Sunday included no on-camera interviews with Trump administration officials. But it did include statements from the White House and Department of Homeland Security that were not part of what Alfonsi had used before her story was pulled. Some of statements, which were carried in full on the "60 Minutes" website, were dated prior to Dec. 21.
The body of the story was unchanged. It included a brief clip of President Donald Trump saying the prison operators "don't play games," and one from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying that "heinous monsters, rapists, murderers, sexual assaulters, predators who have no right to be in this country" were sent there.
Alfonsi's introduction was updated to lead with the Jan. 3 US raid that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, currently held in US custody. She changed the end of the story to include the administration comment, including its explanation for not providing detailed records on the migrants sent to El Salvador.
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