The freak-out over CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss holding back a 60 Minutes segment on the CECOT prison in El Salvador continues. How dare she ask that the segment include some mention of the on-the-record statements given by the White House, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security?
We've heard a lot of hot takes about Weiss — including that she'd kill the story of escaped inmates from Dachau staggering into a newsroom in 1930s Berlin — but we're also learning about journalism itself. Guardian US columnist Margaret Sullivan's take on Weiss is that the role of the journalist is to "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted." Is that what they teach in journalism school?
Journalism is supposed to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted,” but Bari Weiss seems believe the opposite. My new column https://t.co/fraEqtVgpP
— Margaret Sullivan (@Sulliview) December 23, 2025
Sullivan writes:
A broadcast-news neophyte, Weiss has no business in that exalted role. She proved that beyond any remaining doubt last weekend, pulling a powerful and important piece of journalism just days before it was due to air, charging that it wasn’t ready. Whatever her claims about the story’s supposed flaws, this looks like a clear case of censorship-by-editor to protect the interests of powerful, rich and influential people.
…
Journalism is supposed to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted”, but Weiss seems to have it backwards.
What happened to the five Ws: who, what, where, when, and why? Ever since Watergate, budding journalists seem to think their job is to take down Republican presidents.
Who told you that, and why did you believe them?
— 100 Proof 🥃 (@ChampionCapua) December 24, 2025
no, journalism is supposed to report the facts and the truth
— Daniel Greenfield - "Hang Together or Separately" (@Sultanknish) December 24, 2025
you're confusing journalism with your politics
This is why "journalism" has been terrible for decades.
— J (@ARaised_Eyebrow) December 24, 2025
Margaret was asleep for four years and now pretends to do journalism.
— DuncanDowntown (@DuncanDowntown) December 24, 2025
Don't be like Margaret.
The airheaded @Sulliview never disappoints!
— PhilipTerzian (@PhilipTerzian) December 24, 2025
And in truth, @bariweiss may be the most lethal threat to professional hackery (and flag-bearer for principled journalism) since HL Mencken.
That’s actually not our job. Our job is to report. Period.
— John Hook Fox 10 (@JohnHookfox10) December 24, 2025
That is not what journalism is supposed to do.
— WonderMutt (@WonderMutt20) December 24, 2025
So "the afflicted" are supposed to open up their copies of The New York Times in the morning and feel comforted? We're pretty sure their subscriber base is the comfortable.
Marxist tripe. No shock to see either the publication or the writer in this case.
— Will Collier (@willcollier) December 24, 2025
This piece has already proven not to have aged well at all.
— MamaSass (@j5_jazzy) December 24, 2025
Journalism is supposed to honestly inform the public without prejudice or agenda of any kind. What you describe is not journalism, it is activism.
— Gary in DFW (@LakerGMC_) December 24, 2025
You aren't describing journalism, you're describing activism, and journalism as activism is nothing more than propaganda.
— Charles Rense (@CharlesRense) December 24, 2025
Democrats are so used to the establishment media being their exclusive tool to push partisan agendas, the idea of one less pro-illegal simp story seems like censorship.🤦♂️
— NormieUtah (@NormieUtah) December 24, 2025
Today's journalists sure do think highly of themselves.
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