A veteran 60 Minutes correspondent has hit out at her new boss Bari Weiss for pulling her segment on the Trump administration's deportation of migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison just two hours before it was set to air.
Sharyn Alfonsi, a reporter for the news magazine since 2015, accused the new CBS News editor-in-chief of censoring her work and bowing to the Trump administration over her decision to suddenly scrap her segment.
It was set to feature interviews with a group of Venezuelan men who thought they were being sent back to their home country, only to end up at the notorious CECOT prison, which they described as 'brutal and torturous.'
The news program instead aired a segment from Nottingham, England, where Jon Wertheim interviewed a family of celebrated classical musicians.
In a fiery email to other correspondents, including Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, and Anderson Cooper, Alfonsi said she had 'asked for a call' with Weiss 'to discuss her decision,' but 'she did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity.'
The longtime reporter then argued, in the letter cited first by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, that she and her team followed all journalistic standards, requesting comment from the White House, State Department and the Department of Homeland Security
By deciding not to run the segment, Alfonsi argued, Weiss was censoring her work and destroying 60 Minutes' reputation.
'I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight,' she warned, ominously.
60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi accused new CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss of censoring her work
Weiss had requested numerous changes to the segment before it was pulled from the program Sunday night
Alfonsi told her colleagues in the email that the segment 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.'
Weiss denied her decision was political, arguing it is standard practice to hold back stories until they're perfect.
'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,' she told The Times.
'I look forward to airing this important piece when it's ready.'
But Alfonsi argued that the segment was only killed because the Trump administration refused to comment on the segment, saying if that is a 'valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a 'kill switch' for any reporting they find inconvenient.'
'If the standard for airing a story becomes 'the government must agree to be interviewed,' then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast,' she claimed.
'We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.'
60 Minutes announced on Sunday it was pulling Alfonsi's segment about the Trump administration's deportation efforts just hours before it was set to air
The segment documented a group of Venezuelan men who thought they were being sent back to their home country - only to end up at the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador
She then declared that the men she spoke with 'risked their lives' by being interviewed.
'We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories,' Alfonsi said. 'Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.'
CBS News had included the segment on the 60 Minutes schedule just last week.
'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,' it advertised.
'This move sparked an ongoing legal battle and nine months later, the US government still has not released the names of all those deported and placed in CECOT, one of El Salvador's harshest prisons.'
In her note to colleagues on Sunday, Alfonsi noted that the network has '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,' she wrote.
'We are trading 50 years of 'gold standard' reputation for a single week of political quiet,' Alfonsi concluded.
Viewers were also left fuming by the decision, with some accusing Weiss of bowing to the Trump administration's interests.
Some CBS News employees are now even threatening to quit, CNN reports.
Alfonsi (left) sent the email to her colleagues at 60 Minutes, including Lesley Stahl (right)
Prior to the schedule change, Weiss had requested numerous changes to the segment, according to The New York Times.
She asked for a significant amount of new material to be added, including an interview with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who designed the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, or another high-ranking official, those familiar with the production told The Times.
She also reportedly questioned the use of the term 'migrants' to describe the Venezuelan men who were deported, noting that they were in the US illegally.
But with just two hours to go before the program aired, 60 Minutes announced online that the segment would not debut Sunday night.
'The broadcast lineup for tonight's edition of 60 Minutes has been updated,' the program announced. 'Our report 'Inside CECOT' will air in a future broadcast.'
A source at CBS News then explained to Deadline that they determined the CECOT segment 'needed additional reporting.'
Alfonsi's segment was set to feature her interviews with a group of Venezuelan men who were sent to the notorious CECOT prison
She argued in her email that they risked their lives to be interviewed
But on social media, some accused Weiss of bowing to the Trump administration's interests.
'Bari's CBS pulled their CECOT report, which included interviews with migrants who were tortured in this concentration camp,' liberal reporter Krystal Ball posted on Bluesky.
'The Trump regime does not want you to know what was done to these people.'
'Bari Weiss was heavily involved in the Twitter Files exposé, about the govt pushing social media companies to censor speech, and now she is censoring a 60 Minutes investigation into the federal government sending people without due process to a torture chamber,' journalist Ryan Grim added, calling it an 'utter disgrace.'
Journalist Dave Itzkoff, meanwhile, concluded that 'Bari Weiss is really bad at her job, until you realize it's her job to be really bad at her job, in which case she is excellent at her job.'
Others declared that their reputation has been destroyed.
'I grew up watching 60 Minutes every Sunday with my dad,' one Bluesky user wrote. 'I continued that tradition with my own family. No more. You have really failed us.
'What a sad end to such a storied and long-running institution.'
Many online were left outraged by the schedule change - with some accusing new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss of bowing to Trump's interests
Another Bluesky user said that Weiss 'torched' the legacy 60 Minutes built up over 55 years.
Some were also taken aback by how unprecedented it was for the news magazine to make a schedule change.
'Am I forgetting things? I don't recall 60 Minutes ever announcing a scheduled story would not be broadcast like this,' wrote one X user.
'The Bari Streisand Effect is at work here, too,' he suggested.
Journalist Jennifer Schulze also asked: 'What changed between now and Friday's press release about this now delayed (or actually canceled?) [60 Minutes] segment on the CECOT torture prison? Seems very odd.
'Anyone know if 60 Minutes has ever delayed a piece at the last minute before?'
The postponement of the segment comes as David Ellison, the owner of CBS's parent company, Paramount Skydance, tries to court the president to support his hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros-Discovery
Trump told a North Carolina rally that he 'loves' the new owners of CBS - the Ellison family, who own the network's parent company, Paramount
The postponement of the segment comes as David Ellison, the owner of CBS's parent company, Paramount Skydance, tries to court the president to support his hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros-Discovery.
On Friday, Trump told a North Carolina rally that he 'loves' the new owners of CBS.
'CBS, I mean, I love the new owners of CBS,' the president beamed, though he argued '60 Minutes has treated me worse under the new ownership. They just keep hitting me. It's crazy.'
He has used recent episodes of the program to suggest he is displeased with Ellison's stewardship at the network.
'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,' he wrote on his Truth Social platform last week.
'If they are friends, I'd hate to see my enemies.'
Still, Trump has also given his seal of approval to Weiss, who took the helm of CBS News in October.
She was handpicked by Paramount boss David Ellison - a former Hollywood producer and the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison - to head an increasingly new-look for CBS following the network's settlement with Trump.
The president had accused 60 Minutes last year of deceptively editing an interview with then-Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Network executives initially called the claims baseless, but Paramount ultimately agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle the lawsuit.
That paved the way for the administration's approval of an $8billion merger between Skydance Media and Paramount over the summer.
Bari Weiss's stint at CBS News has already been met with ridicule, with several industry sources telling the Daily Mail that she has already become the 'laughing stock' of the industry
'I think you have a great new leader, frankly, 'cause the young woman that's leading your whole enterprise is a great - from what I know, I don't know her - but I hear she's a great person,' the president told correspondent Norah O'Donnell last month.
'I see good things happening in the news. I really do. And I think one of the best things to happen is this show and new ownership, CBS and new ownership.'
But Weiss has never led a major news organization and her stint at CBS News has already been met with ridicule, with several industry sources telling the Daily Mail that she has already become the 'laughing stock' of the industry.
An ambitious, weekslong search she masterminded in hopes of finding a new face to head CBS Evenings ended up showing her inexperience, one insider said.
Instead of securing a big name like Bret Baier or Anderson Cooper as she had hoped, the search ended with CBS Mornings' Tony Dokoupil being elevated to the position internally.
Several insiders who spoke to the Mail also panned Weiss for pursuing outside stars locked in lengthy contracts.
Bringing on a little-known ABC reporter, Matt Gutman, to be CBS's next chief correspondent was one 'rookie' move from Weiss, one network source said - claiming the signing was her 'scraping the depths of her rolodex.'
Weiss, a former New York Times opinion writer, had previously founded the right-leaning Free Press, which was bought by Ellison during her October hiring for $150million.
