CBS in turmoil as 'spiked' 60 Minutes segment on Trump deportations explodes online after accidentally airing on Canadian TV
A 60 Minutes segment that was spiked from Sunday night's episode just hours before airtime has been leaked online after being played during the show's Canada broadcast.
The newsmagazine had been set to air veteran journalist Sharyn Alfonsi's 'Inside CECOT' segment, featuring interviews with a group of Venezuelan men who thought they were being deported back to their home country - only to wind up at the notorious El Salvador prison.
But just two hours before the program was set to air, 60 Minutes announced on social media that the lineup had been updated and '"Inside CECOT" will air in a future broadcast.'
A source at CBS News explained that network executives determined the CECOT segment 'needed additional reporting' after new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss requested a number of changes.
It appears the schedule change came too late for Global TV in Canada, however, as the original episode aired - with the 'Inside CECOT' segment.
That episode is now available on Global TV's streaming platform, and was quickly shared on platforms like X and YouTube from viewers who posted their own recordings online.
Many had been left outraged by Weiss' last minute decision to pull the segment, which it had advertised all week, accusing her of censorship and bowing to the Trump administration.
Alfonsi, a reporter for the news magazine since 2015, even declared that Weiss was destroying 60 Minutes' reputation.
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
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.
She 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, the 41-year-old founder of The Free Press, has 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.'
She again defended her decision on Monday morning.
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
She told colleagues that she spiked the segment simply because it 'did not advance the ball' during the network's typical 9am editorial call on Monday, The New York Times reported.
She pointed out how the the Times and other publications have 'previously done similar work' while maintaining that fresh, through-provoking content was her 'north star.'
'To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more,' Weiss told staff.
'And this is 60 Minutes. We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera.
'Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else,' she argued. 'That's my north star, and I hope it's yours too.'
A manager meeting was held later in day to address backlash caused by the decision, The Guardian reported.
Panelists on MS NOW's Morning Joe had said Monday they viewed the segment being pulled as an affront to journalism.
CBS News employees, meanwhile, have threatened to quit over Weiss's decision, CBS sources told CNN.
With just two hours before the program was set to air, 60 Minutes announced on social media that the lineup 'has been updated' and '"Inside CECOT" will air in a future broadcast'
Panelists on MS NOW's Morning Joe slammed the decision as unethical
The uproar came as Alfonsi argued that the segment was only killed because the Trump administration refused to comment on it, 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.'
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.'
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
In the newly-released segment, a college student who was detained by US Customs before being deported to CECOT described how he was tortured upon arrival.
He said that the first thing a guard told them 'was that we would never see day or night again.'
'He said "Welcome to Hell, I'll make sure you never leave,"' the deported migrant said, later claiming: 'When you get there, you know you're in Hell. You don't need anyone else telling you.'
Another said he and others were taken to a 'little room where there's no light, no ventilation, nothing.'
'It's a cell for punishment where you can't see your hand in front of your face. After they locked us in, they came to beat us every half hour, and they pounded on the door with their sticks to traumatize us while we were in there,' he claimed.
Alfonsi also said in the segment released Monday evening that she reviewed available ICE data to confirm Human Rights Watch's findings that suggest only eight deported men had been sentenced for violent or partially violent crimes.
She then questioned the Trump administration's basis for deporting many of the Venezuelan men to CECOT, where she claimed they were left without food or medicine.
'The sicker and more injured we were, the better it was for them,' one of the migrants said of the guards.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem looks inside a prison cell during a tour of CECOT in March
The segment ends with Alfonsi saying the Department of Homeland Security 'declined our request for an interview and referred all questions about CECOT to El Salvador.
'The government there did not respond to our request,' she said, before noting that the Trump administration has since made deals with other countries to send migrants to prisons there.
But the segment also included comments Trump made as he sat down with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele earlier this year, praising the prison system, saying it has 'very strong facilities' and El Salvadorans 'don't play games.'
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.'
But Weiss then 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.
Weiss requested numerous changes to the segment before it was set to air
But 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.
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 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.
'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.'
