CBS has announced it will finally air a controversial 60 Minutes segment investigating one of the Trump administration’s most bizarre claims.
After weeks of uncertainty following MAGA-curious Bari Weiss’s takeover of the broadcaster, the “white genocide” segment headed by outgoing 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper will air on Sunday.
The episode, which was delayed due to an “abnormal” editing process, is slated to reveal the whole story about an alleged “genocide” of the caucasian diaspora in South Africa.
“President Trump says that White farmers in South Africa are victims of a genocide,” 60 Minutes wrote in promotional copy ahead of the release.
“The South African government disputes that claim. 60 Minutes traveled to South Africa to see for ourselves.”
Weiss is reported to have delayed the release and left veteran 60 Minutes producer Michael Gavshon “exasperated” with her “extensive editorial feedback” on the episode.
The interference is thought to be partially responsible for the departure of CNN star Cooper, who has been a 60 Minutes correspondent for nearly 20 years.
Cooper had reportedly been “uncomfortable” with the “rightward direction” of CBS under Weiss and billionaire David Ellison, CEO of CBS’s parent company, Paramount.
The 41-year-old was installed by Ellison after Paramount bought her right-leaning media company, The Free Press, for a reported $150 million.
The “white genocide” narrative has been pushed by South African-born billionaire and sometime Trump ally Elon Musk for years, with the 79-year-old president sharing the claims since at least 2018.
Trump ambushed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office in May of last year with “evidence” of an ongoing genocide of white people in the predominantly Black country.
“You’re taking people’s land away from them, and those people in many cases are being executed,” Trump said, directing Ramaphosa to a video he claimed showed mass graves of white farmers.
“They’re being executed and they happen to be white and most of them happen to be farmers… I don’t know, how do you explain that?”
While violent conflict does occur in South Africa and white farmers have been killed, no robust evidence of genocide has ever been found, and independent experts have long rejected the claims.
Cooper’s segment is just one of several high-profile interventions Weiss has made into the historically independent news program.
In January, a 60 Minutes piece on the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador was delayed for weeks because Weiss demanded it include “critical context” and input from the Trump administration.
The changes at CBS have caused uproar within the news organization, with journalist Sharyn Alfonsi claiming Weiss had spiked the story three hours before it ran.
“We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state,” Alfonsi wrote at the time.
Cooper was reportedly going to be made the new face of 60 Minutes, with Weiss thought to be a big fan of his work. His eleventh-hour departure is alleged to have caused “total chaos” within the team.
“They must be p---ed,” a source told The New York Post about Weiss and president Tom Cibrowski. “They wanted to build the show around him.”
In a statement, Cooper said that he is looking forward to spending more time with his family.
“Being a correspondent at 60 Minutes has been one of the great honors of my career,” he said. “I got to tell amazing stories, and work with some of the best producers, editors, and camera crews in the business.”
His work will still appear through 60 Minutes’ 58th season, but he will not return for its 59th, which premieres this fall.
