Bari Weiss, two months into her put up as CBS News‘ editor-in-chief, was accountable for spiking a “60 Minutes” phase on the “brutal and tortuous situations” at a jail in El Salvador the place the Trump administration has deported alleged unlawful immigrants for detention, in response to reviews.
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 modifications to the phase,” spiked the report on Saturday, the New York Occasions reported. Amongst Weiss’s recommendations: that the piece ought to embody an interview with White Home deputy chief of workers Stephen Miller or one other senior Trump administration official. Weiss, in response to the Occasions, gave Miller’s contact data to the “60 Minutes” group engaged on the CECOT phase; Alfonsi mentioned she already requested remark from the Division of Homeland Safety, the White Home and the State Division.
Alfonsi, in an electronic mail to CBS colleagues Sunday that was first reported by the Wall Road 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 test has been met, will not be an editorial choice, it’s a political one.”
Alfonsi additionally wrote, “We have now 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 appropriately determine this as company censorship. We’re buying and selling 50 years of ‘Gold Normal’ status for a single week of political quiet.”
Staffers at “60 Minutes” are “threatening to stop 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 (mum or dad of CBS), “60 Minutes has truly gotten WORSE!”
Final week, Trump blasted the Ellisons again over “60 Minutes,” writing in a Dec. 16 put up on his Fact Social account, “For these folks that suppose I’m shut with the brand new homeowners of CBS, please perceive that 60 Minutes has handled me far worse for the reason that 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 mentioned: “The published 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 mentioned, “The ’60 Minutes’ report on ‘Inside CECOT’ will air in a future broadcast. We decided it wanted extra reporting.”
In accordance with the U.S.-based Nationwide Immigration Regulation Heart, in March and April 2025, the U.S. authorities despatched greater than 280 younger males to CECOT, “a international 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),” according to the organization.
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 not too long ago been vital of the president on a variety 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 enable a present like this to air. THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP.” Trump additionally identified that Paramount Global, seeking to complete its deal with Skydance Media, this summer 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 prompted 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 News’ editor in chief. Trade observers speculated that was supposed to enhance CBS Information’ standing with Trump and the MAGA motion.
In the meantime, just some 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 cope with 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 beneath 30, all celebrated classical musicians whose expertise is really 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 larger 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.
