• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Declining trust in news media continues its downward trend for viewers. But are other business effects at work as well?

For example, how do advertisers really figure into this equation?

We look at this now as it concerns CBS’ “60 Minutes” over a recent decision by the new editor in chief to pull a segment about the brutal conditions in an El Salvador prison called CECOT.

This is where the Trump Administration sent immigrant deportees -- and according to many sources and reports, it is a very rough prison.

But Bari Weiss, editor in chief of CBS News, told the press it was necessary for the "integrity" of the news to do more. She killed the story.

The CBS correspondent on the story did not agree -- that there was, in fact, rigorous fact-checking at work -- including eyewitnesses held at the prison.

“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Sharyn Alfonsi wrote in the message, first reported by The Wall Street Journal. “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”

Weiss has not provided details about what was missing -- and why she pulled the story at the last minute after weeks of production, journalism and process -- only that a Trump Administration official needed to be on the record and on camera, perhaps including senior Trump aide Stephen Miller.

Alfonsi did try numerous times to get Trump Administration officials to talk. All requests were turned down.

So should it have been killed because of that? No.

Good investigative journalism has never been only about “on-the-record” comments. It’s about truths that can be confirmed from trusted sources. Since when does one always need to have officials in front of a camera to be correct?

One can always make the claim that a new story that has been cleared and screened five times isn’t enough. If you have six different trusted sources confirming a key fact, one can always say, why didn’t you go for seven?

Weiss says it's all about “integrity.” Fine. Let’s get specific, shall we?

CBS representatives did not respond to TV Watch by press time for comment.

Now, let’s skip ahead a bit -- even beyond those issues where new Paramount Skydance executives want to get on the good side of the Trump Administration -- especially when it comes to future media merger deal-making in the wake of regulatory concerns.

Do national TV advertisers that regularly buy “60 Minutes” and CBS News care about the situation? More importantly, overall TV viewership and engagement have been trending down for linear TV for sometime.

Estimates from EDO Ad EnGage show that 12-month ad spend on “60 Minutes” was $65.7 million (1,210 airings) for the most recent 12-month period. And the year before? It was nearly the same -- at $65.5 million (1,116 airings).

Have there been significant defections of TV advertisers from “60 Minutes” or other CBS news content because of “integrity” issues?