CBS faces backlash for pulling a “60 Minutes” report on a Salvadoran prison used for Trump deportations, with staff alleging political interference.
WASHINGTON: CBS News leadership faced accusations of political meddling on Monday over a last-minute decision not to air a report on a notorious Salvadoran prison.
The “60 Minutes” investigation into alleged abuses at the CECOT centre, where President Donald Trump has sent deported migrants, was pulled hours before its scheduled Sunday broadcast.
The broadcaster replaced the segment with a piece on Mount Everest sherpas, stating the prison report needed “additional reporting.”
Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who oversaw the report, said the decision was political in a note to staff leaked to The Wall Street Journal.
“Pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one,” Alfonsi stated.
CECOT is a maximum-security facility central to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s crackdown on narco-gangs.
Human rights activists allege brutal treatment of inmates at the centre.
The facility is central to a major US legal case involving hundreds of Venezuelan and other migrants sent there by the Trump administration in March.
Several released deportees have described repeated abuse at CECOT.
CBS’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, was purchased by the Trump-linked Ellison family earlier this year.
Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people, is a major Trump donor.
The decision comes amid a multi-billion-dollar bidding war for Warner Bros Discovery and frequent criticism of “60 Minutes” by Trump.
New Paramount chief David Ellison appointed Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief in October, raising expectations of a Trump-friendly shift.
Alfonsi said the CECOT segment was 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’,” she argued.
Weiss told The New York Times the piece would air “when it’s ready,” citing standard editorial practices.
Executive producer Tanya Simon told colleagues she resisted Weiss’s order but ultimately complied.
“We pushed back, we defended our story, but she wanted changes,” Simon said according to The Washington Post.
