The leadership of CBS News was on Monday facing accusations of political meddling over a last-minute decision to not air a report on the notorious Salvadoran prison where US President Donald Trump has sent deported migrants.
CBS had been due to air the investigation late on Sunday about alleged abuses at the Terrorism Containment Center (CECOT) in El Salvador on its flagship 60 Minutes program, seen by many as one of the most prestigious and hard-hitting institutions in US journalism.
However, the broadcaster quietly announced hours before showtime that the segment would “air in a future broadcast,” replacing it with a piece on the sherpas working on Mount Everest.
Photo: AFP
A 13-minute video about CECOT bearing the 60 Minutes logo was widely circulated on social media platforms X and Reddit late on Monday after the segment was reportedly aired on Canadian station Global TV.
The segment being circulated, titled: “Inside Cecot,” featured Sharyn Alfonsi as correspondent and listed Oriana Zill de Granados as producer.
CBS, which was purchased by the Trump-linked Ellison family earlier this year, said that the prison report needed “additional reporting.”
Multiple US media outlets quoted the 60 Minutes correspondent who oversaw the report as saying it had been pulled for political reasons.
“Pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one,” Alfonsi said in a note to CBS staff that was first leaked by the Wall Street Journal.
CECOT is a huge, maximum security facility touted by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele as the centerpiece of his attempt to rid the Central American country of narco-gangs.
Human rights activists say inmates there are treated brutally.
The facility has been at the center of a major US legal case since March, when the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan and other migrants there despite a judge’s order that they be returned to the US.
Several deportees who have since been released have described repeated abuse at the facility.
CBS’ decision to shelve a high-profile story on the Trump administration comes as the broadcaster’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, is in a multibillion-dollar bidding war with Netflix to buy Warner Bros Discovery.
Trump has made clear he is taking a keen interest in the merger, which would likely need regulatory approval.
Paramount was purchased by the Ellison family earlier this year. Larry Ellison is one of the world’s richest people and a major Trump donor.
The Republican president has frequently criticized 60 Minutes and sued CBS last year over his claim that the news program had edited an interview with then-Democratic presidential candidate and US vice president Kamala Harris to help her.
Paramount chief David Ellison — son of Larry Ellison — in October brought in Bari Weiss as a new editor in chief, leading to expectations that she would steer the renowned broadcaster to be more friendly to Trump.
In her note to colleagues, Alfonsi said the CECOT segment had been cleared by corporate lawyers before being “spiked.”
“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,” she said.
Weiss told the New York Times in a statement that she would be “airing this important piece when it’s ready.”
“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,” Weiss said.
The executive producer of 60 Minutes, Tanya Simon, told fellow employees that she had resisted Weiss’ order, but “ultimately had to comply.”
“We pushed back, we defended our story, but she wanted changes,” Simon was quoted as saying by the Washington Post in a transcript of the producer’s private meeting with colleagues.
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