In an almost unprecedented move, CBS News on Sunday announced that it was pulling a 60 Minutes segment that was set to air that night, one that had already been advertised. The segment was about the prison in El Salvador to which Venezuelan men have been deported by the Trump Administration.
According to the New York Times, the decision was made by CBS News’ editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, who determined that the segment needed additional reporting. CBS announced that the segment will air at a later date. The implication was that the Trump Administration had leaned on CBS to spike the segment.
BREAKING: CBS just pulled its own 60 Minutes report exposing torture at El Salvador’s CECOT prison, a facility where Venezuelans were secretly sent instead of deported.
Bari Weiss now runs CBS.
Watch what they didn’t want you to see. pic.twitter.com/OfIuyjxoiR
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) December 21, 2025
The Times also published a memo from the 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who fronted the spiked segment.
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“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi wrote in the memo, which the Times obtained. “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.”
Here is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her ‘60 Minutes’ colleagues in full: pic.twitter.com/ilGoSROQEs
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) December 22, 2025
“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 added.
The Times also reported that Weiss had suggested a new on-camera interview with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and even provided Miller’s contact information.
The memo also referenced the 1990s controversy in which CBS News’ corporate chiefs intervened to spike an interview with tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, the story told in the 1999 movie The Insider.
“CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that ‘low point.’ By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones,” the memo said.
“We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of ‘Gold Standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet.”
Photo courtesy of an X screenshot.
