The 60 Minutes Segment That Was Pulled by Bari Weiss Leaked Online

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I was really disturbed to learn about a 60 Minutes report CBS News decided not to air. It’s been circulating online thanks to Canada’s Global News, which actually showed it on their app – honestly, Canada’s been a source of important information this year! The report is almost 14 minutes long and focuses on CECOT, a really harsh prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi spoke to former prisoners, and 60 Minutes confirmed that the claims of “systematic torture” made by Human Rights Watch are true. What’s even more shocking is that nearly half the men held there hadn’t even committed a crime. It’s frustrating that CBS pulled the segment, but I’m glad the information is finally getting out there.

CBS pulled a segment reported by Bill Alfonsi just three hours before it was scheduled to air, saying it required further investigation and would be broadcast at a later date. According to sources at CBS who spoke with CNN, CBS News president Susan Zirinsky objected to the term “migrant detainees.” The New York Times reported that Zirinsky had requested several revisions to the segment and wanted it to feature an interview with a key Trump administration official, such as Stephen Miller. CNN reported that Zirinsky explained during an internal CBS editorial call on December 22nd that other news organizations had already covered similar stories and that the public was already aware of the harsh conditions Venezuelans faced at the CECOT detention center. She argued that a 60 Minutes report on this topic needed more substantial reporting and should include on-camera interviews with key figures.

Alfonsi had previously disagreed with this viewpoint, explaining in a December 21 email to her colleagues that she had contacted the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and the State Department for input. In the email, obtained by The Wall Street Journal, she argued that if the administration’s lack of participation became a reason to cancel a story, they would essentially have the power to stop any reporting they didn’t like. She also pointed out that the segment had been reviewed five times and approved by CBS’s legal and standards teams. She maintained that the report was accurate and believed that withdrawing it after such thorough internal review wasn’t an editorial choice, but a politically motivated one.

After David Ellison, a tech billionaire, bought The Free Press, a conservative media outlet, he appointed Weiss as the head of CBS News in October. This came after Ellison’s company, Skydance Media, acquired CBS through a merger with Paramount Global in August – a deal approved by Donald Trump. Currently, Ellison and his father are attempting to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, with Paramount arguing they have a better chance of gaining government approval than Netflix. However, Trump has recently become critical of Paramount, specifically due to the coverage on its program, 60 Minutes. Earlier this month, he criticized an interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene and labeled Paramount as no different from its previous ownership. On December 16th, Trump publicly distanced himself from Ellison on Truth Social, stating that 60 Minutes has treated him worse since the acquisition than ever before, and questioning whether they are truly friends.

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2025-12-23 20:58