AOC attacks Bari Weiss, falsely claims she 'killed' '60 Minutes' report on CECOT
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attacked CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss on Tuesday in a rant against the media and said the network executive "killed" a "60 Minutes" segment on El Salvador's maximum-security prison that aired in January.
Ocasio-Cortez said during an appearance on ex-CNN host Don Lemon's show that MS NOW, CNN and CBS were home to some of the "best journalists" in the U.S., before taking aim at Weiss in an argument against what she says is the "oligarchical ownership structure" of media.
"We saw what happened with that '60 Minutes' piece on [Center for Confinement of Terrorism] CECOT. Bari Weiss killed it. And she’s not there because she’s a good journalist; she’s there because she kisses billionaire butt, and she makes them look good, and she executes on the censorship agenda that they want to see put out," Ocasio-Cortez told Lemon.
The CECOT "60 Minutes" segment aired on Jan. 18, after initially being delayed by Weiss at the end of December.
CBS, BARI WEISS FACING MOUNTING BACKLASH FROM LIBERAL CRITICS OVER YANKING '60 MINUTES' SEGMENT
Fox News Digital reported that Weiss made the decision to delay the segment after determining that, while the interviews were "powerful," the story ultimately did not "advance the ball" and "was not ready." However, it aired on Jan. 18 and included previously unmentioned statements by the Trump administration.
In a comment to Fox News Digital last month, a CBS spokesperson said, "CBS News leadership has always been committed to airing the 60 MINUTES CECOT piece as soon as it was ready."
CBS News and Ocasio-Cortez's office did not immediately return Fox News Digital's requests for comment.
Ocasio-Cortez also took aim at The Washington Post, which is owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
"So now, it’s not just that these companies are very big, but that they answer to one very specifically, usually one billionaire with a very vested political agenda," she said. "And so you have Jeff Bezos, who takes over the Washington Post — not because he loves journalism, but because he needs to start controlling and ensuring that dissenting opinions do not get aired in papers of record."
"And so it’s not a coincidence, then, that you’ve got Jeff Bezos that takes over the Washington Post and then immediately takes over their opinion section, starts to take over their coverage of the 2024 election."
The Washington Post did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Bezos has owned the Post since 2013 and the paper announced in 2024 that it would not be endorsing a political candidate in the 2024 election or any election going forward. On Wednesday, it announced massive layoffs.
Ocasio-Cortez said the "same thing" happened with the Los Angeles Times. That outlet's editorial board also declined to endorse a presidential candidate in 2024.
Bezos also announced changes to the Post opinion section in early 2025, saying, "We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others."
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Ocasio-Cortez continued to criticize CBS, citing the network canceling "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
"So you’ve got Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, you’ve got Elon Musk, you’ve got people that are starting to control and take over the content of what happens. It’s not a coincidence that this consolidation happens at CBS and then Stephen Colbert, who is a major critic of the president, gets de-platformed; Jimmy Kimmel gets threatened through Disney. And this is the goal," she said.