Outrage after CBS pulls 60 Minutes segment on El Salvador’s Cecot prison | CBS

CBS News was dealing with internal and external turmoil after pulling the investigation at the last minute for its flagship 60 Minutes show on Monday. Tough prison in El Salvador It’s where the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans from the United States earlier this year.

The episode on the Cecot mega prison was due to air on Sunday night. But in an “editor’s note” Published on X Late that afternoon, the broadcaster’s official account announced that “tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our ‘Inside Cecot’ report will appear in a future broadcast.”

Outrage followed, including from Sharyn Alfonsi, the key reporter for the planned episode. He had interviewed some of those recently released about “brutal and torturous” prison conditions. The Paramount Plus website had said on Sunday that the episode was scheduled to air at 7:30pm ET that evening.

Bari Weiss controversially appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News in october Despite a lack of experience at the storied TV network and fears of politicization, owner Paramount addressed the issue Monday morning after acquiring conservative startup Free Press.

He spoke at the company’s morning staff call amid reports that journalists at the news channel were threatening to resign and that parent company Paramount Skydance was changing parts of its bid in a corporate battle to seize control of Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns film and streaming assets as well as news rival CNN.

“I kept this story and kept it because it wasn’t ready,” Weiss said. He said the story provided “very strong evidence” of abuse at Cecot, but said problems had already been reported and more was needed. But he later said: “We need to make every effort to record and film the principles.”

This expanded on points and later statements made by a CBS News spokesperson on Sunday that the segment “needed additional reporting.” reporting The New York Times said the piece should include interviews with relevant leaders from the Trump administration. Alfonsi previously said the administration had no comment despite numerous requests and invitations from 60 Minutes.

Weiss said the public was already aware of what was going on in the prison after the Trump administration accused more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants in the United States of being gang members and sent them to El Salvador without due process and based on questionable evidence, making a deal with authorities there to hold them in a notorious prison for terrorism suspects.

Weiss’ speech to employees Monday echoed remarks made by a CBS News spokesperson on Sunday about reporting that the division “needs additional reporting” and pressure from the White House to include voices.

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.” He instructed those who wanted to get more comments from him to approach Weiss.

Reactions from outside CBS were also swift. Weiss’s appointment had already raised concerns that he would shift the news cycle to the right. But corporate politics were also at play, with regulatory approval needed for Paramount’s merger with Skydance in July, and now Paramount Skydance’s rival bid for Neflix’s Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal that also needs approval from Trump administration regulators.

In an oblique reference to Donald Trump’s increasingly autocratic agenda and associated opposition, Brian Schatz, a Democratic Hawaii U.S. senator, wrote of Schatz added: “This is still America and we don’t like that kind of nonsense.”

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey saw the shadow of corporate deals.

HE said in an X post He called it a “sad day for 60 Minutes and for journalism,” adding that the Trump administration’s involvement in approving Skydance’s $8 billion deal to acquire Paramount was a preview of that decision.

Media commentator Kara Swisher sent The following statements were made in Threads: “This is entirely to please Trump, who has expressed his criticism of the emphasis on rank and the new owners of 60 Minutes, which is the definition of a rank amateur.” And he included a reference to Weiss’ pressure for CBS to interview White House deputy chief of staff and anti-immigration adviser Stephen Miller as part of a review of the episode, according to a New York Times report.

“The suggestion to interview Stephen Miller is stupid in the context of this story; doing another run with him later is fine, but adding him here after management has officially refused to comment is a terrible play,” Swisher wrote.

Weiss called for newsroom collaboration in Monday’s editorial conference comments.

“The only newsroom I’m interested in running is one where we can have contentious disagreements on the toughest editorial issues and do so respectfully and, most importantly, assume the best faith of our colleagues. And anything short of that is absolutely unacceptable to me and should be unacceptable to you,” he said, according to a recording of the call.

In a highly mainstream media environment, 60 Minutes remains a highly watched news program, averaging more than 8 million weekly viewers in its 57th season, and thus remains a valuable media tool that political forces seek to influence.

Accusations of political profit-seeking at Paramount-Skydance and staff concern about Weiss’s arrival at CBS News come as accusations of bias in the media have become commonplace.

Much of it consists of the outdated and perhaps always misleading idea of ​​aspirational journalistic independence, said Bob Thompson, a media professor at Syracuse University.

“A lot of what’s coming from social media feeds or Fox News, CNN, MS Now, it’s not coming from that old-school, just-telling-the-facts idea,” he said. “But before we get nostalgic for those days, one needs to remember that much of Edward R. Murrow’s best work was actually advocacy journalism with a heavy dose of opinion in it.”

But the idea that political interests seek high ground in a flooded media plain should come as little surprise.

“This is disturbing and contrary to what we consider a healthy journalistic institution (the fourth estate of the Republic), but it is also contrary to common sense,” Thompson added. “Of course, that’s what these people are doing. Each of the power connections is trying to secure a significant portion of the action.”