CBS News said Sunday that it had pulled a scheduled 60 Minutes report about the “brutal and tortuous conditions” at an El Salvador prison where the Trump administration had deported alleged illegal immigrants. The announcement was made just a few hours before the broadcast was scheduled.
“EDITOR’S NOTE: The broadcast lineup for tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our report ‘Inside CECOT’ will air in a future broadcast,” a message posted on the 60 Minutes X account reads. The message was posted at 1:31 p.m. PT on Sunday, about three hours before the broadcast was scheduled to air.
Asked for additional information, CBS News told The Hollywood Reporter: “The 60 Minutes report on ‘Inside CECOT’ will air in a future broadcast. We determined it needed additional reporting.”
CBS News announced the segment as part of Sunday’s 60 Minutes episode last week. The description: “Earlier this year, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, a country most had no ties to, claiming they were terrorists. This move sparked an ongoing legal battle, and nine months later the U.S. government still has not released the names of all those deported and placed in CECOT, one of El Salvador’s harshest prisons. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi speaks with some of the now released deportees, who describe the brutal and torturous conditions they endured inside CECOT. Oriana Zill de Granados is the producer.”
The moves comes a few months after Bari Weiss was named editor-in-chief of CBS News by new Paramount CEO David Ellison. The hiring was met with concern among many employed at CBS News as well as media watchers.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Alfonsi had written an email to other 60 Minutes correspondents, including Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley and Anderson Cooper, that she had found out the day prior that Weiss “spiked our story.” In her email, Alfonsi stated that she thought the decision was politically motivated, and not editorially driven. (Read her full memo below.)
A teaser of the segment that can still be found online includes Alfonsi reporting in voice-over: “It began as soon as the planes landed. The deportees thought they were headed from the U.S. back to Venezuela, but instead they were shackled, paraded in front of cameras and delivered to CECOT, the notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador, where they told 60 Minutes they endured four months of hell.”
Instead, 60 Minutes aired a segment on the Kanneh-Mason family, seven siblings under 30 who are all classical musicians, in addition to a story on the sherpas of Mount Everest.
The move to not air the CECOT segment has come under scrutiny on the heels of Trump suing Paramount Global, the parent company of 60 Minutes, over the editing of an interview with 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The lawsuit resulted in parent company Paramount Global settling in a $16 million payout. Part of the settlement agreement included stipulations for Paramount to release 60 Minutes transcripts of interviews with presidential candidates post-air.
Here’s the text of Alfonsi’s full memo:
News Team,
Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not reaching out earlier.
I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to air tonight. We (Ori and I) asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity.
Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. 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.
We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story.
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.
If the standard for airing a story becomes “the government must agree to be interviewed,” then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.
These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.
CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that “low point.” By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones.
We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of “Gold Standard” reputation for a single week of political quiet.
I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight.
Sharyn
