Bari vs. Sharyn
Twelve years ago, Sharyn Alfonsi, the “60 Minutes” correspondent whose story about human rights abuses at the El Salvadorean-US concentration camp/gulag known as CETOC, delivered a commencement speech at Ole Miss, where she graduated in 1994.
The speech tells us something about the character of the woman who has taken a stand that matters a great deal to every American who understands the importance of truth, decency and justice in a free society.
What is being done in El Salvador is an evil ordered by Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi, and carried out by a network of masked agents, corrupt officials like Emil Bove, and thousands more cogs in a sinister machine that abuses human beings in the name of the American people with their tax dollars.
It is intolerable.
The “60 Minutes” story spiked by Bari Weiss is among the most important ever produced during the venerable news magazine over more than 56 years on television.
You can watch it here:
Let’s talk about Sharyn Alfonsi, and what she said to a group of graduating journalism students a dozen years before Bari Weiss would cross her path.
Actually, when I was little I dreamed of being Mrs. George Michael, but it became pretty clear when he married a man that wasn’t a great option. So, I set my sights on CBS, specifically “60 Minutes.”
I wanted to be a great reporter not an anchor, a reporter. In my mind, Mike Wallace’s blistering interviews were art. No one was cooler than Ed Bradley. But I set my sights on “60 Minutes” after watching a young Meredith Viera go head to head with casino magnate Steve Wynn. I can’t remember what she asked him, but he ripped off his mic and at one point threatened to strangle her. It was delicious. I knew in that moment, i wanted to do that — not get strangled, the other part.
Like most journeys, that of Sharyn Alfonsi did not go in a straight line while her dream held steady.
When I was applying for jobs my senior year, I sent my resume tape to two dozen television stations. Most of them did not call or write back, but one news director did write back. Here’s what he wrote — this is an excerpt from the actual letter:
Dear Ms. Alfonsi,
Thank you for your application for the news reporter position. Unfortunately, we have hired a qualified applicant. (The word qualified was underlined).
I know you are beginning your career, so please allow me to give you a bit of feedback.
Your reporting skills show some promise however, you need a lot of work. Your hair is too big, your accent too thick and overall, you look a little equine on camera.
Now for those of you who didn’t catch that, he just called me equine. He said I looked like a horse. A horse.
He went on.
Best of luck with your career in television; I look forward to seeing more of your work.
And then he signed his name, which side note: looks like the writing of a serial killer.
Now, a normal person would have finished a bottle of Maker’s Mark and started filling out applications at the racetrack, but I was actually encouraged by this letter. He said he wanted to see more of my work.
This leads me to my first piece of advice: Do not take NO for an answer.
“Do not take no for an answer.” This is great advice.
Here’s some more from Ms. Alfonsi:
People will tell you, “No, we’re not hiring.” “No, I don’t want to do an interview with you.” “No, you may not sleep on my porch and use my cat as a pillow until I change my mind.”
Keep pressing. You are applying for work in journalism, not trying to get hired as a social secretary. The people who may hire you respect grit. They respect tenacity, and in my experience, I have found they are generally unlikely to issue a restraining order.
If you, like me, were raised by a beautiful, genteel mother with exceedingly good manners, being pushy will make you wildly uncomfortable, but keep at it. Prove that you want it.
The food court at the mall is littered with journalism students who didn’t fight for it. Fight for it.
And if you somehow get an offer to do any job, no matter how small or insignificant in the field you want to work in, take it. There is no job too small.
Why though? Why does Sharyn Alfonsi like her job? What makes her tick?
Don’t take yourself too seriously. No one else will. You work in journalism. You’re not performing heart surgery.
On a good day, you will tell somebody something they don’t know. I have taxi drivers who do that regularly and they don’t get awards for it.
On a great day, you’ll dig deeper, tell a story so well it gets attention, changes lives, policy or conversation. Those days, I’m not going to lie, are golden. Strive for them.
And if you don’t know exactly how to do that right now, don’t sweat it.
One thing is certainly true: Sharyn Alfonsi has learned to tell the stories that need telling. The story of CECOT is the story of the St. Louis, of Dachau, of great evil in our time. It was spiked to curry favor with the powerful officials who are the architects of the evil. The doublespeak and corporate pablum used to justify the spiking don’t stand up to scrutiny. This is how Alfonsi described the situation to her colleagues:
News Team,
Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not reaching out earlier.
I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to air tonight. We (Ori and I) asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity.
Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. 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.
We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story.
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.
If the standard for airing a story becomes "the government must agree to be interviewed," then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.
These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.
CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that "low point." By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones.
We have been promoting this story on social media for days. 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.
I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight.
Sharyn
Precisely. The decision was political, and it cannot be defended at any level, particularly since the story can now be seen. The Weiss position is ludicrous.
Bari Weiss is a political partisan and a MAGA cast member in the sickest show on earth. Need proof?
Here’s Megyn Kelly talking about Bari Weiss and her role in the raging MAGA civil war between the NAZI faction and the old-school fascists and extremists like Ben Shapiro. Imagine this as a lunchroom table in middle school:
Bari Weiss runs CBS News? Really? The network of Murrow and Cronkite? It is incredible.
During Bari Weiss’s first meeting with the CBS News staff she infamously declared:
LET’S DO THE FUCKING NEWS.
After she spiked the story about an American-funded concentration camp on behalf of Larry and Little Larry’s ambition to own Warner Brothers and CNN she said this:
My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices — happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.
Here was Bari Weiss at the Federalist Society, delivering a speech on November 10, 2023, in which she said this:
I am a gay woman who is moderately pro-choice. I know there are some in this room who do not believe my marriage should have been legal. And that’s okay, because we are all Americans who want lower taxes [my emphasis added].
Here was Bari Weiss talking about getting a table in a Manhattan restaurant:
I thought to myself, I have a choice to make. I can stay — and in where I lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Seinfeld territory — telling people you worked at The New York Times really meant something. It got you a good table at a good restaurant, among other things. And it meant a lot to me because I felt like, wow, I made it. Or I could leave, and give up the prestige, give up the platform, have no plan for what I’m doing next — but leave with my integrity. So I left with a resignation letter sort of heard around the world. It was my Jerry Maguire moment.
Here’s Bari at Sun Valley:
Bari Weiss also attended Jeff Bezos’ wedding to Lauren Sanchez last summer.
Bari Weiss lacks judgement, stature, ethics and integrity.
Lucian K. Truscott IV is precisely correct when he compares her to Pete Hegseth. Each is a millennial version of the “Children of the Corn,” except that they are the children of Trump, broken, hollow and twisted.
In the end, Bari Weiss is a brunette version of Olivia Nuzzi. Whatever that may be, it isn’t journalism. What they produce is propaganda, and propaganda is poison in a democracy.
It took Bari Weiss 78 days to create an epic journalism scandal that is likely linked to a corrupt business deal. it is an amazing accomplishment that will one day be studied in both journalism and business schools.
Who is Bari Weiss?
She is another version of Sam Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes, Adam Neumann, George Santos, Corey Mills, Olivia Nuzzi, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Jesse Watters and Sean Hannity.
Who is Sharyn Alfonsi?
She is the person that I hope my sons and daughters aspire to be.
She has grit, integrity, courage and purpose.
However it all turns out, one thing has been etched in granite, and it cannot be erased. Sharyn Alfonsi has taken her rightful place alongside the giants of the greatest news magazine show there has ever been.
How?
Integrity.
It matters.
Thank you for telling us more about Ms Alfonsi. She is indeed someone to admire.
I saw the censored SETOC segment because I live in Canada, where there is a government that doesn't censor the press. It is brutal, as bad as anything the Nazis ever schemed up. Bari Weiss is no journalist, and she isn't fit to tie Sharyn Alfonsi's shoes. Would Bari Weiss trade her right to marry whomever she chooses in return for lower taxes?