MUTINY

‘60 Minutes’ Staff Fury at MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Is Leaked

Bari Weiss sought to distance herself from a story that was critical of the Trump administration.

Irate staff at 60 Minutes have accused CBS News boss Bari Weiss of throwing them under the bus after it faced backlash from the Trump administration over an immigration story.

On Oct. 25, the now-Trump-friendly network’s flagship magazine show ran a segment on Moussa Diawara, a migrant from Mali who lived in the U.S. for decades before being deported to Ghana over the summer.

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Diawara was then deported back to Mali, after a judge ruled in 2012 that he could not be sent there amid fears he would be persecuted if he returned. 60 Minutes reported that Diawara faced persecution because he had converted to Christianity, and that Mali is a Muslim-majority nation grappling with an Islamist insurgency.

The Department of Homeland Security had a meltdown over the segment. In a vile and juvenile post on X, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) account called the “shockingly poorly researched” 60 Minutes report “Fake & Gay” after it emerged that Diawara had applied for asylum in the U.S. from Mali on the grounds that he was homosexual. ICE also accused Diawara, who has two children with a woman he married in the U.S., of immigration fraud.

60 Minutes did not mention that Diawara stated on his asylum application that he was gay. Sources told Status that this was a deliberate decision by the 60 Minutes team, who feared disclosing the information could put him at further risk of persecution in Mali, where homosexuality is illegal.

Two days after the show aired, the New York Post reported that Weiss and 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton had been “kept in the dark” about the editorial decision not to report that Diawara had applied for asylum on sexuality grounds.

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According to Status, the Post’s story “incensed” the team at 60 Minutes, whose members considered it a “controlled leak from Weiss’ camp intended to distance her from the controversy.”

Staff also believed Weiss was trying to shift the blame solely onto new 60 Minutes contributor Gianna Toboni and veteran producer Andy Court.

Others disputed the claim that CBS News’ leadership had been completely in the dark about Diawara’s asylum claim.

Bilton and Charles Forelle, the managing editor of CBS News, were aware of “some of the details” regarding Diawara’s sexuality before the segment aired, Status reported, although it remains unclear how much Bilton was involved in the editorial decision.

The fallout comes after Weiss frequently meddled in 60 Minutes’ editorial independence as part of her efforts to overhaul the show, including shelving a segment critical of the Trump administration’s decision to deport migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

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Producers at 60 Minutes are now questioning whether it is even worth trying to cover “politically sensitive” stories if the MAGA-curious boss, Weiss, will not “stand behind them when the Trump administration inevitably lashes out.”

“Why take the risk of pursuing a tough story, the thinking goes, if the people at the top might throw you overboard at the first sign of political blowback?” wrote Status’ Oliver Darcy.

The Daily Beast has contacted CBS News for comment.

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