LENOIR, N.C. – The head of CBS News, Bari Weiss, pulled an investigative piece scheduled to run last evening on 60 Minutes. According to NPR, the piece was “ … a planned 60 Minutes investigative segment centering on allegations of abuses at an El Salvador detention center where the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants last March.”

According to the article, “Weiss told colleagues this weekend the piece could not run without an on-the-record comment from a Trump administration official.”

That is not how news gathering and reporting works. Upon learning of this, I researched to see if perhaps the CBS News correspondent had not attempted to seek comment from administration officials. Had that been the case, it would be appropriate for Weiss to hold the story until such outreach had been done.

The problem is, according to Sharyn Alfonsi, the journalist responsible for the story, “ … she and her colleagues on the story had sought comments and interviews from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House and the State Department.”

Alfonsi argued, “Government silence is a statement, not a VETO.” She added, “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.”

Exactly. That is why reporters are taught in journalism class to do everything possible to seek comments from all subjects of a story. Conversely, from my first article written for my high school paper in 1971, I learned quickly that when a subject is avoiding you by refusing to comment or return calls, they’re stalling. And it raises – rightfully – suspicions in the mind of the reporter.

Every refusal to speak implies cover-up.

So, since the reporter had made every effort to get the government on record, this isn’t about her not doing her job. It’s about CBS News and Weiss being fearful of Donald Trump and not doing their job of protecting their reporter.

CBS News is simply no longer worthy of that name. It is cowardly.

It is entirely appropriate to proceed with a story despite the refusal of corporate, government or church officials to concede to an interview.

Some examples from my career:

During the 1990s, when working for our local newspaper, I covered education. I was an investigative reporter as well. I got wind that our local school system was in violation of the law. I went to the school system, met with the public information officer, shared with her what I knew and what I suspected. I asked to see the document, a public record. She acknowledged it existed, but asked that I review it in her office. That was reasonable, so she went to the person responsible for the document and brought it to me to review. It didn’t take long to suspect the school system was breaking the law. Our attorney at the Associated Press agreed, as I wrote the next day.

So, I had the story. But it became so much more because of the employee’s arrogance. The employee working on the project walked into the PIO’s office, jerked the notebook off my lap and told me I couldn’t see it. I told him it was public record and the PIO confirmed that. He took it anyway. Word spread quickly in the building, so the superintendent and his deputy jumped in their car and tried to speed away. I met them in the driveway. They declined comment. Again, a mistake. Now, I had a much better story that demonstrated the school system’s disregard for the law and the public. In fact, I had two. The first one was the behavior of the individual who took back the notebook and the evasive action of the superintendent. The second one was about the policy, because after the first story came out, they had boxed themselves in and had no choice but allow me full access to the draft policy.

Yet, this nonsense continues. As you can see, all of those stories have headlines, meaning I wrote and published them, despite “authorities” running like cockroaches when the lights were turned on. They had found me to be inconvenient.

That is why the role of a journalist is to disseminate information, not withhold it.

Is Doddridge County, W.Va. Ready for a Disaster? Official’s Silence Makes it Seem Unlikely

The Floodplain Manager and Director of the Office of Emergency Services (OES) in Doddridge County, W.Va. would not answer my questions about whether the county had prepared for potential disasters that could be caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline. He found me to be bothersome and inconvenient.

‘Following the Water’ Provides a Trail Straight to the MVP in West Virginia Flash Floods

A story on the same topic, the MVP denied being responsible for flooding of a farmer’s land despite clear, scientific evidence to the contrary. An inconvenient truth.

Who Tells Our Story? Are Self-Anointed Caretakers of Appalachian History Hiding the Truth?

In this article, Black Hat coal miner, sociologist and historian Wess Harris is double-crossed by The Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and Services (CASS) at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) because the truth of the Esau scrip system of institutionalized rape in the coal industry was inconvenient. Despite a legally binding agreement obtained from documents provided by Mr. Harris and also of the rude behavior by the ETSU staff towards Mr. Harris I personally witnessed, CASS leaders found answering my questions to be too inconvenient.

New Details of W.Va. Priest Case Raise More Questions About Diocesan Response to Abuse Allegations

Here, working with the late Michael Iafrate of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia, we exposed the decades-long sexual abuse crimes of the late Fr. Charles E. “Chuck” McCallister, covered up for years by the Catholic leaders in West Virginia. This was not convenient for Michael, me or the Diocese. I’d been chasing that story for decades and Michael was relentless.

West Virginia Pipeline Project Cited for Numerous Violations

Based on sources developed in my reporting on the Stonewall Gas Gathering pipeline in West Virginia, I learned, proved and reported that The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) had issued at least 12 Notice of Violations to the contractors of the Stonewall Gas Gathering (SGG) pipeline. The violations were for not following best practices and for causing conditions which pollute the state’s streams. This was not convenient for the people’s land being ruined.

Here in Lenoir, the former hospital CEO refused to speak to me about why they quit delivering babies a few years ago. She eventually resigned and the new CEO immediately agreed to meet and explain the situation. He did not find informing the public inconvenient. Indeed, I need to finish that story. And, more recently, two of our county commissioners got in a fist fight in an official public meeting. Again, they refused to talk. I took the story down from our website, believing it was more embarrassing for our residents; offering no comment, the commissioners apparently find the public they are supposed to serve to be inconvenient.

So, turn off CBS News. They find reporting the truth to be inconvenient.

Election countdown

• 1,047 days until Americans elect a new president; Election Day will be Nov. 7, 2028
• 316 days until the mid-term election on Nov. 3, 2026

© Michael M. Barrick, 2025