‘Everything She’s Touched Has Turned to Shit’: 60 Minutes Vets Unload on Bari Weiss
Six former staffers describe the destruction of America’s most-watched news program. Here’s what you can do about it.
Hey, it’s John.
I want to walk you through a story that broke this morning, because it explains exactly why Raw America exists.
Variety just published interviews with six former 60 Minutes staffers — award-winning correspondents, producers, executives — about what Bari Weiss has done to the most-watched news program in America.
They’re calling it “Black Thursday.”
On May 28, Weiss fired a half-dozen senior staff in a single day. Sharyn Alfonsi. Cecilia Vega. Executive producer Tanya Simon, daughter of legendary correspondent Bob Simon. No explanation given. None.
Alfonsi clashed with Weiss over a report on migrants tortured in a Salvadoran prison. Weiss yanked the story hours before air.
Then Scott Pelley stood up and accused Weiss of “murdering 60 Minutes.” He was fired the next day.
I want you to be part of the response.
You’re my type of people. Join our community and help us fight back.
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You’ve seen our fearless coverage of Trump. Our reporting from Capitol Hill. Our truth-telling on craven billionaires.
You know what we’re doing here.
We’re not standing down. We’re standing up.
When Weiss spiked the CECOT story, we covered the torture of immigrants anyway.
When the corporate press softened the Epstein story, we kept connecting the dots.
When Weiss cut correspondents, we hired more.
I want you to be part of it.
Alfonsi’s warning to her colleagues should chill you: if the administration’s refusal to comment can kill a story, we’ve handed them a “kill switch” for any reporting they find inconvenient.
This is what democratic erosion looks like. Firings. Spiked stories. Falsehoods inserted into scripts. A newsroom of seven correspondents whittled down to three.
Weiss is likely to lead CNN. The same person who injected political bias into America’s most trusted newsmagazine is about to control a leading network.
“We have to acknowledge that 60 Minutes needed a bit of a facelift, and there were potentially positive ways to improve the program, but it’s the way they have gone about it,” a former 60 Minutes staffer said. “You don’t give a facelift with a f—ing machete.”
Another former staffer put it this way: “Everything she’s touched has turned to shit.”
I’ve watched this happen for twenty-two years. A wealthy buyer comes in. They promise editorial independence. Then the firings start, the stories die, and the people in power breathe easier.
The Los Angeles Times. The Washington Post. CBS. Now CNN.
You can’t march Bari Weiss out of a newsroom. But you can fund the newsrooms she’ll never control.
That’s Raw America.
No billionaire backer.
No corporate parent.
No phone call we’re afraid to get.
We have a reporter on Capitol Hill right now, and we just aired exclusive interviews with Senator Mark Kelly, Ben Rhodes, and Liz Oyer — people the regime wishes would stay silent.
All of it funded by readers. Only by readers.
If you’ve been reading Raw America for free, today is the day I’m asking you to step up.
Here’s the math: if just 5% of the people reading this email became paid subscribers, we could fund this work well into next year. One in twenty. That’s it.
A paid subscription isn’t a donation. It’s an investment in journalism that no billionaire can fire, no merger can compromise, and no administration can switch off.
They just murdered 60 Minutes. CNN is next.
Independent media is democracy’s last line of defense.
And it only survives if you fund it. Get your subscription 15% off today, and join us in the fight.
Thank you for being here. We’re just getting started.
— John Byrne / Founder, Raw America and Raw Story
👉 P.S. If you can’t afford to subscribe today, we completely understand. Please share this email with someone who still thinks 60 Minutes is independent. Every reader we reach is one the billionaires can’t buy off.
P.P.S. Here’s the full Variety story on 60 Minutes if you want to check it out.