CBS News delays 60 Minutes segment featuring investigation into El Salvador’s Cecot megaprison | CBS
CBS News is facing backlash from one of its own reporters and others after canceling an upcoming 60 Minutes investigation into El Salvador’s brutal Cecot megaprison, where the Trump administration has deported hundreds of immigrants.
The episode of the flagship show was set to air on Sunday night. But in an “editor’s note” Published on X“The cast for tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our ‘Inside Cecot’ report will appear in a future broadcast,” the broadcaster’s official account said.
A CBS News spokesperson said in an email that the segment “needed additional reporting.”
The now-infamous terrorism hotspot known as Cecot is Latin America’s largest prison, with a capacity of 40,000 inmates. In March, the Trump administration struck a deal to send more than 250 Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador, whom it accused of terrorism and gang membership.
Since then, horror stories have emerged about the abuse they allegedly suffered; Lawyers for some of the men who were later released described the conditions as “state-sanctioned torture”.
On Sunday, CBS removed the link to the “Inside the Cecot” segment page. The page that previously contained a trailer now displays a “Page not found” message. However, a previous statement on the Paramount Plus website stated that the episode was scheduled to air on Sunday at 7:30pm ET.
Reporter Sharyn Alfonsi was scheduled to speak to recently released deportees about the “brutal and torturous” conditions they suffered in prison.
an introduction preview of the episode It began: “The deportees thought they would return from the United States to Venezuela, but instead they were chained, displayed in front of cameras, and handed over to Cecot… where they told 60 Minutes they endured four months of hell.”
In a private memo to colleagues at CBS on Sunday, Alfonsi said the episode “has been shown five times and has been approved by both CBS lawyers and Standards and Practices. This is actually true. In my view, pulling it now, after all stringent internal controls have been met, is not an editorial decision, but a political one.”
Elsewhere in the memo, Alfonsi said his team had requested comment from the White House, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. “If management’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to push a story, we have effectively given them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they deem inappropriate,” he said.
“We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our audience expects it. When it is not published without a credible explanation, the public will accurately describe it as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of our ‘gold standard’ reputation for a single week of political silence.”
“I care too much about this publication to watch it be distributed without a fight,” he wrote.
CBS News is currently led by Bari Weiss, who was appointed editor-in-chief of the US news network in October after parent company Paramount acquired her startup Free Press. Weiss’ appointment sparked controversy among some CBS journalists who feared that the owners were taking the network in a more conservative direction. Weiss had made a name for himself as a heterodox columnist and had no previous experience in publishing.
Weiss said in a statement: “My job is to make sure all the stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding back stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason, such as because they lack sufficient context or miss critical voices, happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to publishing this important article when it’s ready.”
The cancellation of the Cecot investigation division sparked swift criticism and accusations of censorship on social media.
“This is really bad. For the country. For the legacy of CBS News and 60 Minutes,” said crime writer Don Winslow. In a post on X.
Political commentator Krystal Ball wrote: “Bari’s CBS broadcast the Cecot report, which includes interviews with immigrants tortured in this concentration camp. The Trump regime does not want you to know what is being done to these people.”
Reporter Brian Stelter requested In X it was said that “people” at 60 Minutes were “threatening to quit over this.”
