CBS News’ new leadership is facing backlash for alleged political interference in its reporting after a report on a controversial El Salvadoran prison where the Trump administration deported immigrants was pulled at the eleventh hour.
Criticism of El Salvador’s largest Confinement Center for Security and Terrorism (CECOT) came under fire on Monday after an investigation into alleged human rights abuses at the Center for Security and Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) was called off hours before it was scheduled to be broadcast on the previous night’s show, “60 Minutes.”
The sudden move led to accusations from within 60 Minutes and across the U.S. media community that the station’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, appeared to be censoring news content to favor the Trump administration.
A CBS News spokesperson said in an email that the segment “requires additional coverage,” and a statement posted on the show’s social media pages said the “Inside CECOT” report “will air on a future broadcast.”
However, Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent who reported the story, said in an email to colleagues at CBS News, where the US media carried the story after the leak, that the report had been withdrawn for “political” reasons.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS lawyers and standards and practices,” Alfonsi wrote.
“Factually correct. In my view, retracting it now, after meeting all our rigorous internal checks, is a political decision, not an editorial one.”
She added: “If the regime’s refusal to participate becomes a legitimate reason to rush coverage, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ against adverse reporting.”
“Abuse” in a huge prison
The article, which went viral online on Monday after being streamed on Canada’s Global TV app, included allegations that Venezuelan deportees sent to giant prisons were being tortured, raising questions about how the United States would characterize them.
CECOT, located on the edge of the jungle 75 kilometers (47 miles) southeast of San Salvador, is a huge maximum-security facility touted by El Salvador’s right-wing President Nayib Boucle as the center of efforts to combat drug cartels.
The facility has been at the center of a major U.S. lawsuit since the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelans and other migrants there despite a judge’s order to send them back to the United States.
Several deportees who have since been released have testified about repeated abuses at the facility, where human rights activists say prisoners are subjected to brutal treatment.
Promoting “diverse perspectives” in networks
The broadcaster’s decision to postpone the program comes in response to mounting criticism that it is tilting toward an editorial policy that is in line with the conservative Trump administration.
Skydance Media, run by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, a major donor to President Donald Trump before last year’s election, acquired Paramount in August after receiving regulatory approval for the deal, in addition to a pledge that CBS News would reflect the “diverse ideological perspectives” of U.S. viewers.
In October, the company named Bari Weiss, a conservative media figure known for her pro-Israel positions and frequent criticism of “woke” politics, as editor-in-chief of CBS News, a move that critics say is part of a push to steer the network in a direction more aligned with the Trump administration.
The outcry over the retracted story comes as Paramount Skydance is engaged in a multibillion-dollar bidding war with Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, a merger that President Trump has signaled he is watching closely and that would likely require regulatory approval.
In a statement to The New York Times, Weiss downplayed the significance of the decision to postpone the broadcast, saying the network would “air this important work as soon as we are ready.”
“Publishing stories that are unprepared for whatever reason, such as lacking sufficient context or missing critical voices, happens every day in every newsroom.”
“60 Minutes” executive producer Tanya Simon told her fellow employees that she resisted Weiss’ orders, but “ultimately had to comply.”
“We pushed back and defended our story, but she wanted a change,” Simon was quoted by the Washington Post as saying in a transcript of a private meeting with producers and colleagues.
“Freedom of the press is not flattering”
The network’s decision to postpone the story sparked widespread criticism across U.S. political and media circles, with many expressing concern that CBS News had already abdicated its journalistic duties by using censorship to curry favor with the Trump administration.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in an X post on Monday that President Trump and his billionaire allies are “shaping what people see and hear and creating their own alternate reality.”
“The Trump administration has no veto power over what stories are told,” he added. “Freedom of the press does not bow down to the president. It holds the president accountable.”
The liberal magazine The New Republic said the episode showed that political media censorship was “already happening” under the Trump administration, and Norm Ornstein, a political scientist and contributing editor at The Atlantic, wrote that the incident was “beyond extraordinary.”
“CBS is over,” posted podcaster and activist Amy Susskind. “All it took was for Mr. Trump to post on social media about buying Warner Bros. A weak capitulation!”
Columnist Matthew Yglesias wrote that it was “ridiculous” that the report leaked online despite being blocked by CBS News executives.
“It’s just ridiculous that they would cancel a news broadcast to curry favor with the regime and then inadvertently air it in Canada,” he said.
