60 Minutes report on El Salvador prison pops up online after being pulled by CBS

NEW YORK - A 60 Minutes report on a Salvadoran mega-prison housing US-deported migrants spread online on Dec 22, a day after CBS News pulled the segment before its scheduled Dec 21 broadcast, saying it needed more reporting.

The segment, which included allegations that Venezuelan deportees sent to the prison were tortured and raised questions about how the US characterised them, had first mistakenly streamed on Canada’s Global TV app on the night of Dec 22, according to a CBS News spokesperson.

Reuters reviewed an online video labelled as the segment in question and carrying the Global TV logo in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.

The content protection team at Paramount Skydance, which owns CBS, is in the process of issuing takedown orders for the unauthorised segment online, the CBS spokesperson said.

CBS abruptly pulled the segment hours before it was due to air on Dec 21 evening in the US, sparking accusations from inside 60 Minutes and on Capitol Hill that the network was engaging in self-censorship under political pressure.

“The broadcast lineup for tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated,” the programme posted on social media on Dec 21, three hours before it was slated to air.

“Our report ‘Inside CECOT’ will air in a future broadcast.”

‘Not an editorial decision’

A CBS News spokesperson said in an email on Dec 21 that the segment “needed additional reporting”.

Ms Sharyn Alfonsi, a correspondent who reported the segment, said in a note to her team that CBS pulled the report for “political” reasons, according to a CBS News employee who confirmed the note’s contents.

“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Ms Alfonsi wrote in the note, the CBS employee said on the condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardising their position.

“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.”

Ms Alfonsi told the New York Times, which reported the note on the evening of Dec 21: “I refer all questions to Bari Weiss,” referring to the new CBS News editor-in-chief.

Neither Ms Alfonsi nor Ms Weiss responded to Reuters requests for comment.

CECOT is a mega-prison in El Salvador where the US has sent hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants without trial.

It has been condemned by human rights groups for its harsh conditions.

Skydance Media, run by Mr David Ellison - the son of Mr Larry Ellison, a longtime supporter of President Donald Trump - acquired Paramount in August. Mr David Ellison helped secure regulatory approval for the deal with the promise that the CBS network would reflect the “varied ideological perspectives” of American viewers.

Prior to the deal, Paramount paid US$16 million (S$20 million) to settle a 2024 lawsuit Mr Trump had filed over a 60 Minutes interview with former vice-president Kamala Harris, which he said gave a distorted view of his rival for the White House.

The Federal Communications Commission has said the settlement and regulatory review were unrelated.

On Dec 22, Mr Larry Ellison stepped in to personally guarantee US$40.4 billion in Paramount Skydance’s latest effort to pry Warner Bros Discovery away from selling its prized Hollywood assets to streaming giant Netflix.

The deal would give Paramount Skydance control of CNN.

It is unclear whether Ms Weiss knew about the guarantee when she decided to hold the story.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump attacked the new owners of CBS over a 60 Minutes interview with his former ally, Republican US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, on the same day Paramount Skydance launched a hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery.

In an X post on Dec 22, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer implied that the 60 Minutes postponement was politically motivated. “Trump and his billionaire buddies are trying to shape what people see and hear to create their own alternative reality,” Mr Schumer wrote.

“The Trump administration doesn’t have a veto on what stories get told. CBS should put the full, unedited version of this story on the air ASAP. A free press doesn’t kowtow to the president – it holds him accountable.”

Link removed

CBS removed a link to the “Inside CECOT” segment page on Dec 21.

A description on its Paramount Plus website earlier on Dec 21 said the segment was scheduled to air at 7.30pm ET, with Ms Alfonsi speaking to recently released deportees about the “brutal and torturous” conditions they had endured in the prison.

Ms Weiss raised several concerns with 60 Minutes producers about Ms Alfonsi’s segment and requested a substantial amount of new material to be added, the CBS employee said. The New York Times reported that Ms Weiss suggested adding an interview with White House official Stephen Miller or another senior Trump administration figure.

Ms Weiss further questioned the use of the term “migrants” to describe the Venezuelan men who were deported, noting they were in the US illegally, the employee said.

In her note, Ms Alfonsi stated that her team had sought comments from the White House, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security.

“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,” Ms Alfonsi wrote.

The decision comes as the network goes through changes under Ms Weiss, who was picked to lead CBS News in October after CBS parent company Paramount Skydance acquired the online publication she founded, The Free Press.

Ms Weiss, a former New York Times and Wall Street Journal opinion writer, was considered by some analysts as a controversial choice as she had never managed a television newsroom or produced broadcast news content before.

On Dec10, she named Mr Tony Dokoupil as the new anchor of its flagship CBS Evening News segment, replacing the dual anchor team of Mr John Dickerson and Mr Maurice DuBois. REUTERS