CBS News said Sunday it had canceled a scheduled meeting 60 minutes report on “brutal and tortuous conditions” in an El Salvador prison where the Trump administration had deported suspected illegal immigrants. The announcement was made just hours before the scheduled broadcast date.
« EDITOR’S NOTE: The lineup for tonight’s edition of 60 minutes has been updated. Our report ‘Inside CECOT’ will be broadcast in a future program”, a message published on the 60 minutes Count X reads. The post was posted at 1:31 p.m. PT on Sunday, about three hours before the show was scheduled to air.
Requested additional information, CBS News said The Hollywood Reporter: “THE 60 minutes A report on “Inside CECOT” will be broadcast in a future program. We determined that additional reporting was required.
CBS News announced the segment as part of Sunday’s broadcast 60 minutes episode last week. The description: “Earlier this year, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, a country most had no ties to, claiming they were terrorists. The move sparked an ongoing legal battle, and nine months later, the U.S. government still has not released the names of all those deported and placed in CECOT, one of El Salvador’s harshest prisons. Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi speaks with some of the deportees now released, which describe the brutal and torturous conditions they endured inside CECOT, Oriana Zill de Granados is the producer.
The move comes months after Bari Weiss was named editor-in-chief of CBS News by new Paramount CEO David Ellison. The hiring sparked concern among many CBS News employees as well as media observers.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Alfonsi wrote an email to others 60 minutes correspondents, including Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley and Anderson Cooper, that she had discovered the day before that Weiss “had enriched our story.” In her email, Alfonsi said she believed the decision was politically motivated and not editorial. (Read his full memo below.)
A teaser for the segment that can still be found online includes Alfonsi reporting in voiceover: “It started as soon as the planes landed. The deportees thought they were going from the United States to Venezuela, but instead they were chained, paraded in front of the cameras and delivered to CECOT, El Salvador’s notorious maximum security prison, where they said. 60 minutes they endured four months of hell.
Instead, 60 minutes aired a segment about the Kanneh-Mason family, seven siblings under the age of 30 who are all classical musicians, in addition to a story about the Sherpas of Mount Everest.
The decision not to air the CECOT segment came under scrutiny in the wake of Trump’s lawsuit against Paramount Global, the parent company of 60 minutesabout writing an interview with 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The lawsuit resulted in parent company Paramount Global settling a $16 million payment. Part of the settlement agreement included stipulations for Paramount to release 60 Minutes transcripts of interviews with presidential candidates after the broadcast.
Here is the text of Alfonsi’s full memo:
Press team,
Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not contacting sooner.
I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss had enriched our report, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to be broadcast this evening. We (Ori and I) asked to be called to discuss his decision. She did not offer us this courtesy/opportunity.
Our story has been reviewed five times and approved by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. This is factually correct. In my opinion, removing it now, after every rigorous internal review has been carried out, is not an editorial decision, it is a political decision.
We have requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical move designed to kill the story.
If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to publish an article, we have effectively given them a “kill switch” for any reporting they find embarrassing.
If the standard for broadcasting a story becomes “the government must agree to be interviewed,” then the government effectively takes control of the broadcast of 60 Minutes. We are moving from a central investigative body to a stenographer for the state.
These men risked their lives to speak to us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most fundamental principle of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.
CBS upped the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal issues, nearly destroying that show’s credibility. It took years to recover from this “low point”. By pulling this story to protect an administration, we are repeating this story, but for political rather than legal reasons.
We’ve been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are waiting for it. When it is not released without a credible explanation, the public will rightly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of “Gold Standard” reputation for a single week of political calm.
I care too much about this show to watch it be dismantled without a fight.
Sharyn
