NEW: CBS News Memo and The Epstein Files

Good afternoon, and Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate!

Two matters today: CBS News employees received a memo from top CBS News executives and editors, which I have shared in full below (but please read my analysis first), and President Trump’s Department of Justice says that prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and the FBI have uncovered over one million new documents related to the Epstein matter.

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First, CBS News…

In the aftermath of a story about CECOT — El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), where Venezuelan and other deportees were sent by the Trump administration — being pulled at the last minute from 60 Minutes by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, a firestorm within the network’s news division has continued.

Weiss’s decision resulted in an email from 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi to her fellow correspondents being leaked, and a portion of the story getting out due to the fact that it was shipped to Canada’s Global TV app and not pulled back.

In case you’re new to this story, here’s the email Alfonsi sent, and here’s the segment.

Today, top CBS News executives and editors sent a memo to CBS News employees stating that, “No amount of outrage—whether from activist organizations or the White House—will derail us. We are not out to score points with one side of the political spectrum or to win followers on social media.”

The tone of the email, and that specific quote, has angered several CBS News employees who spoke to me, one of whom sent me the email they received.

These employees, who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity, told me they feel that their genuine concerns about CBS News standards, and the influence of Paramount CEO David Ellison — who will need the Trump administration’s approval of his attempt to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery assets — are being ignored and treated like a comment on an Instagram post that can be deleted.

The memo’s comment about “winning followers on social media” is a common response from top news editors in the last decade to most controversies related to their editorial decisions — most notably, in my experience, Dean Baquet, who served as The New York Times executive editor from 2014 to 2022. Baquet dealt with significant frustration from liberal readers over the way the Times reported on President Trump.

Sometimes the assessments of editors are correct; these matters can be niche online issues (although the idea that they shouldn’t at least understand what’s being said online is foolish).

But in my analysis, this CBS News 60 Minutes matter crossed over into a widespread issue, with normies who rarely pay attention to the day-to-day expressing grave concern. (You know you have a problem when you find people on Facebook who rarely post about political matters discussing a story, which happened in this case.)

The full memo is below, but I do want to note something based on my experience.

As my longtime followers and subscribers know, I have done a tremendous amount of reporting on CBS and CBS News over the years.

For those of you who are new to my page, my reporting ranges from scoops like John Dickerson being named as Charlie Rose’s replacement on CBS This Morning, to stories about Bianna Golodryga’s deal with the network, rumors of her exit, which was denied by CBS News, and then finally her exit, to reporting on Les Moonves’s attempts to undermine Janet Jackson after her Super Bowl performance and wardrobe mishap, to Susan Zirinsky, the newly named CBS News president, making sweeping changes to the network, to Zirinsky telling people at the network that she regretted accepting the job (something she and the network denied, but which was later also confirmed by The New York Times), to behind-the-scenes reporting on Sharon Osbourne’s conduct at The Talk.

Bottom line, and at the risk of sounding smug, I know the network and the news division well.

Putting aside the matter of the 60 Minutes CECOT story, network news divisions are like U.S. government agencies — presidents come and go, cabinet secretaries shuffle in and out, but the longtime staff remains, and there will always be an institutionalized culture that won’t change.

To be clear, there are spectacularly talented journalists, producers, and staff at CBS News.

Regardless, the more suspicious they become of you, the less likely you are to survive, or at least survive successfully. That is a tale as old as time in the network news business, and it’s not going to change no matter who owns CBS.

And for those of you who don’t follow the news business closely, while the idea of serving as a network news division’s president or editor in chief may sound glamorous, there are very few people who want these positions anymore.

A few years ago, when there was talk of who would replace Jeff Zucker as CNN’s president, one media figure whose name was being mentioned as a possible replacement told me that there wasn’t any amount of money he could be offered (within reason) to take the job.

“There’s no way to win in these jobs anymore,” he told me.

Here’s the email, and beneath that, you will find the news about the Department of Justice’s Epstein files announcement.

Subject: Building Trust

Sender: Weiss, Bari [please note the four signers at the end of the email]

1:18 PM

Hi all,

Right now, the majority of Americans say they do not trust the press. It isn’t because they’re crazy.

To win back their trust, we have to work hard. Sometimes that means doing more legwork. Sometimes it means telling unexpected stories. Sometimes it means training our attention on topics that have been overlooked or misconstrued. And sometimes it means holding a piece about an important subject to make sure it is comprehensive and fair.

In our upside-down moment, this may seem radical. Such editorial decisions can cause a firestorm, particularly on a slow news week. And the standards for fairness we are holding ourselves to, particularly on contentious subjects, will surely feel controversial to those used to doing things one way. But to fulfill our mission, it’s necessary.

No amount of outrage—whether from activist organizations or the White House—will derail us. We are not out to score points with one side of the political spectrum or to win followers on social media. We are out to inform the American public and to get the story right.

Restoring the integrity of the news is a difficult task. We can’t think of a more important one.

Merry Christmas—and thank you, especially, to everyone who is working over this holiday.

Yours,

Bari [Weiss - CBS News Editor in Chief]

Tom [Cibrowski – President and Executive Editor of CBS News]

Charles [Forelle – Managing Editor at CBS News]

Adam [Rubenstein – Deputy Editor at CBS News]

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Epstein Files Update

This afternoon, President Trump’s Department of Justice sent a press release stating that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York and the FBI have uncovered over 1 million new documents that are related to the Epstein matter.

As a result, the DOJ says they need a few more weeks to review the documents and to release them. A reminder: the federal law President Trump signed stated that all unclassified Epstein documents had to be released by December 19, 2025.

Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia, who serves as the Ranking Member on the House Oversight Committee, released a statement in response to the news saying that the White House is openly engaging in a cover-up.

As the conspiracies around the Epstein matter continue to grow, this will, of course, only add to them in a way that is obviously concerning for government transparency, the rule of law, and the trust Americans have in their institutions.

This will also be a political concern for the Trump coalition; some of his supporters have been angered by the way he has handled this matter, and they have remained angry and skeptical.

And, as much as some of you don’t want to hear this, it is concerning for the safety of American Jewry, given that so many of the conspiracies surrounding this matter are antisemitic in nature.

U.S. Department of Justice Statement:

“The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI have informed the Department of Justice that they have uncovered over a million more documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. The DOJ has received these documents from SDNY and the FBI to review them for release, in compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, existing statutes, and judicial orders. We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible. Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks. The Department will continue to fully comply with federal law and President Trump’s direction to release the files.”

Statement from Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee:

“The White House is openly engaged in a cover-up protecting Epstein’s co-conspirators and the powerful men who abused women and girls. It’s outrageous that the DOJ has illegally withheld over 1 million documents from the public. Every day we see lies, incompetence, missed deadlines, and illegal redactions. Pam Bondi needs to testify to Congress under oath to explain herself. Oversight Democrats also want to hear from whistleblowers or anyone at the DOJ who can assist us in bringing justice for the survivors. You are protected by the law.”

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