On Sunday, December 22, 2025, television viewers expecting to watch a highly anticipated report on CBS’s 60 Minutes were instead met with an abrupt change of plans. Just three hours before airtime, CBS News announced it would postpone a segment titled “Inside CECOT,” which promised to shine a light on the harrowing conditions at El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison—a facility where the Trump administration had deported alleged illegal immigrants earlier in the year. The sudden move sparked a firestorm of criticism, raising questions about editorial independence, political pressure, and the future direction of CBS News under its new leadership.
The segment, produced by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi and producer Oriana Zill de Granados, was the product of weeks of reporting. Alfonsi had interviewed several deportees who had been sent to CECOT, a maximum-security prison opened in 2023 by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele as part of a crackdown on gang members. According to a press release promoting the segment, these individuals described “brutal and torturous conditions” inside the prison. The U.S.-based National Immigration Law Center reported that, in March and April 2025, the U.S. government sent more than 280 young men to CECOT—many of whom had no ties to El Salvador—without notifying their families or attorneys. The organization alleged that detainees were held incommunicado and tortured, and that 252 were later released and sent to Venezuela, a country some had originally fled seeking asylum.
For days leading up to the broadcast, CBS had promoted the segment on social media, building anticipation among viewers and journalists alike. Then, at 4:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, the network posted an editor’s note: “The broadcast lineup for tonight’s edition of ‘60 Minutes’ has been updated. Our report ‘Inside CECOT’ will air in a future broadcast.” The announcement was brief, offering little explanation. A CBS spokesperson later told multiple outlets, “We determined it needed additional reporting.” The teaser for the segment was quickly removed from the CBS website, replaced with a “page cannot be found” notice.
Inside CBS News, the decision did not go over quietly. In an email first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Alfonsi wrote to colleagues, “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.” She added, “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.” According to CNN’s Brian Stelter, some 60 Minutes staffers were “threatening to quit over this.”
The decision was reportedly made by Bari Weiss, who had been appointed editor-in-chief of CBS News just two months prior. Weiss, known for her contrarian views and for founding The Free Press, was brought in after Paramount Skydance—run by David Ellison—acquired CBS’s parent company. Industry observers speculated that Weiss’s appointment was intended to improve CBS News’s standing with former President Trump and his supporters. According to The New York Times, Weiss had requested numerous changes to the CECOT segment, including the addition of an interview with a senior Trump administration official such as White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. Alfonsi responded that she had already sought comment from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and the State Department.
The timing of the decision was particularly fraught. Just weeks earlier, Trump had publicly lambasted 60 Minutes—and its new owners—on his Truth Social platform, claiming the show was treating him “far worse since the so-called ‘takeover.’” He also referenced a $16 million settlement he received from Paramount Global over a 2024 interview he claimed was deceptively edited. Meanwhile, as the controversy over the CECOT segment unfolded, Paramount Skydance launched a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, intensifying scrutiny of the company’s leadership and editorial choices.
The reaction from journalists and commentators was swift and scathing. Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept, posted the original trailer for the segment on X (formerly Twitter) and remarked, “It’s almost impressive how much damage Bari Weiss has done to CBS News in such a short period of time.” Political analyst Tom Sherwood wrote, “The public needs to know why. The 60 Minutes’ segments are not thrown together at the last moment. Where is the CBS statement saying why?” New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush asked, “Has this ever happened before?”
Progressive commentator Krystal Ball accused CBS of bowing to political pressure, writing, “Bari’s CBS pulled their CECOT report which included interviews with immigrants who were tortured in this concentration camp. The Trump regime does not want you to know what was done to these people.” YouTuber Kyle Kulinski added, “Bari Weiss just CENSORED AND BANNED a 60 Minutes episode exposing how Trump sent immigrants to be TORTURED AND RAPED in a concentration camp.” Journalist Adam Cochran called the move “a heinous betrayal of the 4th Estate.”
Inside CBS News, the move was described as “effectively unprecedented” by one source, as reported by journalist Peter Twinklage. “60 stories often take several weeks, if not MONTHS, to produce. the idea of killing a finished piece (that you’ve already been promoting) hours before air is insane,” he posted on X. The controversy reignited debates about media independence, transparency, and the influence of corporate ownership on editorial decisions.
In response to the outcry, CBS maintained that the segment would air at a later date, pending additional reporting. But for many, the damage was already done. The network’s decision to pull the story—especially one that had cleared internal legal and standards checks—was seen by critics as a capitulation to political or corporate interests.
Meanwhile, the December 21 episode of 60 Minutes proceeded with other segments, including a profile of the Kanneh-Mason family, a group of seven siblings from Nottingham, England, who have achieved global recognition as classical musicians, and a double-length feature on the Sherpas of Everest. But the absence of the CECOT report was palpable, with many viewers and staff left wondering when, or if, the story would ever see the light of day.
The episode’s fallout has left CBS News at a crossroads, its reputation for journalistic rigor and independence under fresh scrutiny. Whether the “Inside CECOT” segment will eventually air—and whether it will do so unaltered—remains to be seen. For now, the controversy continues to simmer, a stark reminder of the complex interplay between journalism, politics, and corporate power in today’s media landscape.
