From the Liveblog of
Monday, December 22, 2025
CBS pulls ’60 Minutes’ report on El Salvador jail; reporter: Segment cut for ‘political’ reasons
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
CBS News pulls a “60 Minutes” report on El Salvador’s CECOT prison just hours before its scheduled broadcast, saying it would air at a future time.
“The broadcast lineup for tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated,” the program posts on social media. “Our report ‘Inside CECOT’ will air in a future broadcast,” the program posts on X and other social media platforms three hours before it was slated to air.
A CBS News spokesperson says in an email that the segment “needed additional reporting.”
The New York Times, quoting from a copy of a note written by Sharyn Alfonsi, a correspondent who reported the segment, says CBS pulled the segment for “political” reasons.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi writes in the note, a copy of which was obtained by the Times.
“It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”
She tells the newspaper: “I refer all questions to Bari Weiss.”
CECOT is a mega-prison in El Salvador where the US has sent hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants without trial. It has been condemned by human rights groups for its harsh conditions.
Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss raised several concerns with “60 Minutes” producers about Alfonsi’s segment and requested a substantial amount of new material to be added, NYT reports, citing sources.
She suggested adding an interview with White House official Stephen Miller or another senior Trump administration figure, the report says. Weiss further questioned the use of the term “migrants” to describe the Venezuelan men who were deported, noting they were in the US illegally, the report adds.
In her note, Alfonsi states that her team had sought comments from the White House, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.
“If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient,” Alfonsi is quoted as saying.
CBS News and Alfonsi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report outside normal business hours.
The Times of Israel Community.