In a surprising turn of events, the popular news program 60 Minutes made a last-minute decision to cancel the airing of a segment focusing on the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants to a feared prison in El Salvador. This unexpected move, which came just two hours before the scheduled broadcast, has been labeled as ‘political’ by one of its correspondents.

On Sunday evening, the show took to social media to inform its audience of the abrupt change. The segment, which had been promoted as revealing the plight of a group of Venezuelan men who mistakenly believed they were being returned to their homeland, was instead diverted to the infamous CECOT prison. The program assured viewers, “The broadcast lineup for tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our report ‘Inside CECOT’ will air in a future broadcast.”

This particular segment was poised to feature journalist Sharyn Alfonsi, who conducted interviews with the deported individuals. They were expected to share harrowing accounts of the ‘brutal and torturous’ conditions they faced at the prison.

In light of the sudden change, sources from CBS News indicated to Deadline that the segment on CECOT required ‘additional reporting’ before it could be aired. However, an internal email from Alfonsi to fellow correspondents such as Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, and Anderson Cooper pointed to a different reason. She claimed that the new CBS News editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, had ‘spiked our story,’ a statement reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Explaining the sudden schedule change, a source at CBS News told Deadline that they determined the CECOT segment ‘needed additional reporting.’ 

But an email from Alfonsi to other correspondents, including Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, and Anderson Cooper, claimed new CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss ‘spiked our story,’ according to The Wall Street Journal.

Alfonsi said she believes the move to pull the piece was a political decision rather than an editorial call. 

‘Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct,’ Alfonsi wrote in the email. 

‘In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.’

Alfonsi also expressed concern about the idea of the government influencing stories, writing: ‘We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.’  

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.’

Instead of Alfonsi’s work, 60 Minutes will air a segment from Nottingham, England, where Jon Wertheim interviewed a family of celebrated classical musicians. 

But Weiss had requested numerous changes to the segment before it was pulled from the program Sunday night, The New York Times reports. 

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.

In her note to colleagues, though, Alfonsi said that her team had requested comment from the White House, 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,’ she argued. 

‘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 also told her colleagues that she had ‘asked for a call’ with Weiss ‘to discuss her decision.

‘She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity.’ 

Alfonsi also argued that they ‘have 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.’

‘We are trading 50 years of “gold standard” reputation for a single week of political quiet,’ Alfonsi concluded, before ominously warning: ‘I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled.’ 

Viewers were also left fuming by the decision, with some accusing 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.’

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 the news magazine’s 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.’

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.

But the president 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.’

But 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.’

Still, Trump has also given his seal of approval to Weiss, who took the helm of CBS News in October. 

‘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.’ 

Weiss was appointed to her current post by Paramount boss David Ellison in October, despite having never led a major news organization.

Ellison – a former Hollywood producer and the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison – handpicked her personally to head an increasingly new-look 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.

But 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. 

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 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.