A “60 Minutes” segment on the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador, where the Trump administration has sent hundreds of illegal immigrants, was postponed by CBS News on Sunday, sparking controversy within the newsroom now led by Bari Weiss.
The segment was spearheaded by reporter Sharyn Alfonsi, who interviewed some of the illegal immigrants who were sent to CECOT and have since left the prison where they say they endured “brutal and torturous conditions” while incarcerated, The Wall Street Journal reported. CBS News said Alfonsi’s segment would air at a later date after the company “determined it needed additional reporting.”
Democrats and the legacy media have focused much of their criticism of Trump’s massive deportation operation on the Salvadoran prison, where Trump has sent planeloads of people. The prison is used by El Salvador’s right-wing president, Nayib Bukele, to hold violent gang members and drug traffickers. Earlier this year, Bukele agreed to take in illegal immigrants deported by the Trump administration and place them in CECOT.
Weiss, who became CBS News editor-in-chief in October, was concerned about apparent bias in the “60 Minutes” CECOT piece and suggested adding an interview with a White House official, such as Stephen Miller, according to The New York Times. In a statement on Sunday, Weiss said that it’s common to hold stories and segments that “lack sufficient context” or “are missing critical voices.” She added that she looks forward to airing the CECOT prison segment “when it’s ready.”
“My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be,” she said.
Alfonsi, however, called the last-minute decision to pull the segment from Sunday’s show “political,” saying that the segment had already undergone extensive fact-checking and legal review.
“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,” Alfonsi wrote. The journalist said that they had reached out to the Trump administration for comment, arguing that if they hold a story because the government has not commented on it, they are becoming a “stenographer for the state.”
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CBS News appears to be changing its approach to how it covers the Trump administration under Weiss after “60 Minutes” has faced criticism for its seemingly anti-Trump tilt. Last year, “60 Minutes” was ripped for its editing of an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. President Donald Trump sued CBS News’ parent company, Paramount, over the edits that he argued made Harris’ answers sound more coherent. Paramount settled the lawsuit for $16 million amid a massive shakeup at the company, with billionaire David Ellison taking over.
After Ellison and Weiss took the reins of CBS News, leftists expressed concern about the network’s direction, while many people on the Right celebrated the change as a potential return to unbiased news reporting. President Trump, however, believes that CBS News has “gotten worse” under Ellison’s leadership. After “60 Minutes” aired an interview with Trump ally-turned-critic Marjorie Taylor Greene earlier this month, Trump said that CBS News is “NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME!”
“Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!” he added. “Oh well, far worse things can happen.”
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