Bari Weiss, two months into her put up as CBS Information‘ editor-in-chief, was chargeable for spiking a “60 Minutes” phase on the “brutal and tortuous circumstances” at a jail in El Salvador the place the Trump administration has deported alleged unlawful immigrants for detention, in line with experiences.
The CBS Information program abruptly introduced on Sunday — three hours earlier than airtime — that it was delaying the phase for a future airdate. The report, as beforehand introduced, was to have featured correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi interviewing deportees who the Trump administration has despatched to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) jail in El Salvador.
Weiss, after requesting “quite a few adjustments to the phase,” spiked the report on Saturday, the New York Occasions reported. Amongst Weiss’s options: that the piece ought to embrace an interview with White Home deputy chief of employees Stephen Miller or one other senior Trump administration official. Weiss, in line with the Occasions, gave Miller’s contact information to the “60 Minutes” workforce engaged on the CECOT phase; Alfonsi stated she already requested remark from the Division of Homeland Safety, the White Home and the State Division.
Alfonsi, in an e mail to CBS colleagues Sunday that was first reported by the Wall Avenue Journal, wrote, “Our story was screened 5 instances and cleared by each CBS attorneys and Requirements and Practices. It’s factually appropriate. For my part, pulling it now, after each rigorous inner verify has been met, isn’t an editorial choice, it’s a political one.”
Alfonsi additionally wrote, “We now have been selling this story on social media for days. Our viewers expect it. When it fails to air with out a credible clarification, the general public will accurately establish this as company censorship. We’re buying and selling 50 years of ‘Gold Customary’ status for a single week of political quiet.”
Staffers at “60 Minutes” are “threatening to give up over this,” CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter tweeted.
CBS Information didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The incident got here after President Trump two weeks in the past complained about what he perceived was unfair therapy by “60 Minutes” — and asserted that since David Ellison and his father, rich Trump supporter Larry Ellison, shut the deal to amass Paramount (guardian of CBS), “60 Minutes has truly gotten WORSE!”
Final week, Trump blasted the Ellisons once more over “60 Minutes,” writing in a Dec. 16 put up on his Fact Social account, “For these those that assume I’m shut with the brand new house owners of CBS, please perceive that 60 Minutes has handled me far worse because the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they’ve ever handled me earlier than. If they’re associates, I’d hate to see my enemies!”
In an announcement Sunday, “60 Minutes” shared an “Editor’s Observe” that stated: “The printed lineup for tonight’s version of ‘60 Minutes’ has been up to date. Our report ‘Inside CECOT’ will air in a future broadcast.” The assertion was posted on social media round 4:30 p.m. ET Sunday. The episode was slated to air at 7:30 p.m. ET on the East Coast (or following the conclusion of NFL protection on CBS).
Requested earlier why the phase was postponed, a CBS Information spokesperson stated, “The ’60 Minutes’ report on ‘Inside CECOT’ will air in a future broadcast. We decided it wanted further reporting.”
In line with the U.S.-based Nationwide Immigration Legislation Heart, in March and April 2025, the U.S. authorities despatched greater than 280 younger males to CECOT, “a overseas jail infamous for torture, in secret, with no discover to their family members or attorneys. There, they have been held incommunicado and tortured.” 4 months later, 252 of the boys have been launched from the jail and “despatched to their native Venezuela (notably, a rustic that a variety of the boys had initially fled, fearing persecution),” in line with the group.
Earlier this month, Trump slammed Lesley Stahl’s “60 Minutes” interview that aired Dec. 7 with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), the one-time Trump supporter who has just lately been important of the president on a spread of points. The president wrote on Fact Social that the “Trump-hating” Stahl interviewed “a really poorly ready Traitor, who in her confusion made many actually silly statements.”
Trump continued: “My actual downside with the present, nevertheless, wasn’t the low IQ traitor, it was that the brand new possession of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would permit a present like this to air. THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP.” Trump additionally identified that Paramount International, looking for to finish its take care of Skydance Media, this summer time paid the president $16 million to settle his lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview in October 2024 with Kamala Harris, which Trump claimed was deceptively edited and thus precipitated him private hurt and represented interference with the 2024 election.
David Ellison in October introduced a deal reportedly value $150 million to amass Weiss’ contrarian outlet The Free Press. He additionally appointed Weiss as CBS Information’ editor in chief. Business observers speculated that was meant to enhance CBS Information’ standing with Trump and the MAGA motion.
In the meantime, only a few months after closing the Skydance-Paramount deal, David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance has launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, trying to persuade shareholders to reject WBD’s take care of Netflix, which is about to amass the Warner Bros. studios operations and HBO Max.
Sunday’s “60 Minutes,” instead of the report on CECOT, aired a phase from correspondent Jon Wertheim, described like this: “Jon Wertheim travels to Nottingham, England, to go to the Kanneh-Mason household — seven siblings, every nonetheless underneath 30, all celebrated classical musicians whose expertise is actually music to the ears. Supporting each other in concord as they take to the world’s stage, this extraordinary septet, as Wertheim discovers, is an orchestra higher than the sum of its elements.”
The Dec. 21 episode of “60 Minutes” additionally featured a double-length phase on “The Sherpas of Everest,” for which correspondent Cecilia Vega trekked to Everest Base Camp guided by a 19-year-old sherpa.
