‘60 Minutes’ Report Yanked by Bari Weiss Leaks Online After It Was Accidentally Streamed on Canadian TV App
Bari Weiss’s “60 Minutes” report on the “horrific treatment” of detainees deported from the United States to a prison in El Salvador was leaked online after airing on a Canadian TV app. Canada’s Global News aired the “60 Minutes” episode without the episode on television, as did CBS, but the network’s Global TV app mistakenly uploaded the wrong episode to its streaming app.
Footage of the roughly 14-minute episode spread on social media, even though it was pulled from the CBS News schedule about three hours before Sunday’s broadcast time. Inside sectionReviewed by DiversityReporter Sharyn Alfonsi interviewed a man who was forcibly removed from the United States by the Trump administration and sent to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison, despite having no criminal record.
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“There was blood everywhere, screaming, people crying, people who couldn’t stand it, urinating and vomiting,” said Luis Munoz Pinto, a Venezuelan college student who is seeking asylum in the United States. He said he was detained at customs for six months before being deported, awaiting the decision on his asylum case.
“Four guards caught me and beat me until I bled. They smashed our faces against the wall. That’s when they broke one of my teeth,” Pinto added.
CBS News has yet to comment on the leak.
On Monday morning, the channel’s editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, said: I told the employees On Saturday, he canceled the report “because it wasn’t ready,” but “60 Minutes” reporters felt it was a “political decision” and “not an editorial decision.” According to The New York Times, Weiss suggested “numerous changes to the episode” and wanted it to include an interview with Stephen Miller or another senior Trump administration official. He said the article focused on information previously reported by the Times and that “we just need to do more.”
Alfonsi said he has already sought comment from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House and the State Department. One leaked email “Our story has been viewed five times and has been approved by both CBS lawyers and Standards and Practices. It is actually true. In my view, pulling it now after all stringent internal controls have been met is a political decision, not an editorial decision,” Alfonsi wrote to CBS colleagues on Sunday.
The last-minute decision to pull a “60 Minutes” segment critical of the Trump administration followed repeated complaints from the president about “unfair treatment” by David Ellison’s network. On December 16, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “To those who think I’m close to the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me worse than ever since the so-called ‘takeover.’ If they’re friends, I hate to see my enemies!” A week before that, Trump blasted “60 Minutes” for an interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whom he called “a very ill-prepared traitor” and said of parent company Paramount: “IT’S NOT BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP.”
Ellison’s Paramount Skydance launched a hostile takeover bid Warner Bros. On behalf of Discovery, its shareholders, WBD, agreed to negotiate with Netflix on behalf of Warner Bros. is trying to persuade him to reject a deal to acquire the studio’s operations and HBO Max. Trump has previously suggested he would “participate” in approving the merger and acquisition deal, which would require approval from regulators including the US Department of Justice and the FTC.
Earlier this year, Ellison’s Skydance Media acquired Paramount Global in an $8 billion deal. A few months later, Ellison announced a deal reportedly worth $150 million to acquire Weiss’ independent media outlet The Free Press and appointed Weiss editor-in-chief of CBS News. These moves were seen as an attempt by CBS News to improve its standing with Trump and the MAGA movement. Since then, Weiss has moderated a town hall with Erika Kirk, CEO of the right-wing advocacy group Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk’s widow, and has promised future events with guests like J.D. Vance and Sam Altman.
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