On the eve of the Christmas holiday, a firestorm erupted in the media world as a controversial 60 Minutes segment about detainees deported from the United States to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison was leaked online. The story, originally slated to air on CBS News, was abruptly pulled by the network’s new head of editorial, Bari Weiss, sparking debate over journalistic independence, political influence, and the future direction of one of America’s most iconic news programs.
According to Variety, the nearly 14-minute segment, produced by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, delved into the harrowing experiences of Luis Munoz Pinto, a Venezuelan college student who sought asylum in the U.S. but was deported to El Salvador despite having no criminal record. Pinto’s testimony was chilling. “There was blood everywhere, screams, people crying, people who couldn’t take it and were urinating and vomiting on themselves,” he recounted, describing the brutal conditions inside the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), or Terrorism Confinement Center, in Tecoluca, El Salvador. He went on: “Four guards grabbed me, and they beat me until I bled, until the point of agony. They knocked our faces against the wall. That was when they broke one of my teeth.”
Alfonsi’s report scrutinized the Trump administration’s policy of deporting asylum seekers by labeling them as potential terrorists, raising questions about wrongful detention and alleged torture. The segment was rigorously vetted, screened five times, and cleared by CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. Yet, just hours before its scheduled broadcast, it was yanked from the airwaves. The official explanation from Bari Weiss was that the piece “wasn’t ready,” but many inside CBS, including Alfonsi herself, believed the decision was political rather than editorial.
In a leaked email to her CBS colleagues, Alfonsi wrote, “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. 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.”
The controversy deepened when the segment, intended to be withheld, accidentally surfaced on a Canadian TV app due to a mistaken upload. Global News aired the episode without the contentious segment on television, but the network’s streaming app uploaded the wrong version. The episode quickly spread across social media, igniting public debate and putting CBS in the spotlight for its handling of the story.
Behind the scenes, the decision to pull the report reflected broader tensions within CBS News. Bari Weiss, who was appointed as head of editorial after David Ellison’s Skydance Media acquired Paramount Global in an $8 billion deal, had reportedly suggested numerous changes to the segment. According to The New York Times, she wanted the piece to include an interview with Stephen Miller or another senior Trump administration official, arguing that the report needed more context and balance. Weiss asserted that “we simply need to do more” and cited the need for comprehensive and fair coverage, especially on contentious subjects.
Weiss’s actions came amid a period of heightened scrutiny for CBS News. Former President Donald Trump had repeatedly criticized the network and its parent company, Paramount, for what he described as unfair treatment. On December 16, Trump posted on Truth Social, “For those people that think I am close with the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they have ever treated me before. If they are friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!” Just a week earlier, he lambasted the network for its interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, calling her a “very poorly prepared Traitor,” and slammed Paramount, saying, “THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP.”
Ellison’s Skydance, meanwhile, was engaged in a high-stakes corporate battle, launching a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery and vying against Netflix for control of the Warner Bros. studios and HBO Max. Trump publicly claimed he would be “involved” in approving the merger and acquisition deal, which would require sign-offs from the U.S. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission. These entanglements placed CBS News and its leadership under even greater pressure to navigate the crosscurrents of business, politics, and journalistic integrity.
Weiss’s leadership style has been marked by efforts to reposition CBS News in the current political climate. After acquiring her independent media outlet, The Free Press, for a reported $150 million, Ellison appointed Weiss to her current role. Since then, she has moderated a town hall with Erika Kirk, CEO of the right-wing advocacy group Turning Point USA, and promised future events with guests including JD Vance and Sam Altman. These moves were widely seen as an attempt to improve CBS News’s standing with Trump and his supporters in the MAGA movement.
The fallout from the leaked 60 Minutes segment was immediate and intense. On December 24, Weiss, CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, and editors Charles Forelle and Adam Rubenstein sent a memo to staff, which was later shared on X (formerly Twitter) by reporter Prem Thakker. The memo acknowledged the erosion of public trust in the media and called on journalists to “win back” that trust through hard work, telling unexpected stories, and ensuring that all reporting is comprehensive and fair. “Right now, the majority of Americans say they do not trust the press. It isn’t because they’re crazy,” the memo stated. “To win back their trust, we have to work hard. Sometimes that means doing more legwork. Sometimes it means telling unexpected stories. Sometimes it means training our attention on topics that have been overlooked or misconstrued. And sometimes it means holding a piece about an important subject to make sure it is comprehensive and fair.”
Weiss addressed the controversy directly, saying, “My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices — happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.” She emphasized that “no amount of outrage — whether from activist organizations or the White House — will derail us. We are not out to score points with one side of the political spectrum or to win followers on social media. We are out to inform the American public and to get the story right.”
The episode has laid bare the challenges facing legacy media in an era of polarization, rapid corporate change, and dwindling public trust. As CBS News grapples with these pressures, the fate of the 60 Minutes segment—and the broader questions it raises about editorial independence and accountability—remains unresolved. For now, the story stands as a vivid reminder of the delicate balance between journalistic rigor and the powerful forces that shape what the public gets to see and hear.
