A”60 minutes» report, pulled out Bari Weiss Details of the “horrible treatment” of detainees deported from the US to a prison in El Salvador have been leaked online after appearing on a Canadian television app. Canada's Global News aired an episode of 60 Minutes without the segment on television, as did CBS, but the network's Global TV app mistakenly loaded the wrong episode into its streaming app.
Footage of the nearly 14-minute segment circulated on social media despite being removed from the CBS news schedule about three hours before it aired Sunday. IN segmentverified DiversityCorrespondent Sharyn Alfonsi interviewed a man who was forcibly removed from the United States and sent to CECOT prison by the Trump administration despite having no criminal record.
“There was blood everywhere, screaming, people crying, people who couldn't stand it, urinating and vomiting on themselves,” said Luis Muñoz Pinto, a college student in Venezuela who sought asylum in the United States. He said he spent six months in customs custody awaiting a decision on his asylum case before being deported.
“Four guards grabbed me and beat me until I bled to death, into agony. They slammed our faces against the wall. That's when they broke one of my teeth,” Pinto added.
CBS News has not yet commented on the leak.
On Monday morning, the channel's editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, said: told the staff on Saturday she dropped the report “because it wasn't ready,” although 60 Minutes correspondents felt it was “not an editorial decision” but a “political one.” According to The New York Times, Weiss proposed “numerous changes to the segment” and wanted it to include an interview with Stephen Miller or another senior Trump administration official. She said the article was based on information that had already been published in the Times and “we just need to do more.”
Alfonsi said she has already sought comment from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House and the State Department. IN email leak On Sunday, Alfonsi wrote to her CBS colleagues: “Our story has been reviewed five times and approved by both CBS lawyers and standards and practices experts. This is factually correct. In my opinion, withdrawing it now, after all rigorous internal checks have been completed, is not an editorial decision, but a political one.”
The last-minute decision to remove a 60 Minutes segment critical of the Trump administration came after the president's repeated complaints about “unfair treatment” by the David Ellison-owned network. On December 16, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “For those people who think I'm close to the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called 'takeover' than ever before. If they are friends, I would hate to see my enemies!” A week earlier, Trump criticized 60 Minutes for an interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whom he called a “very ill-prepared traitor,” and said of parent company Paramount, “THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERS.”
Ellison's Paramount Skydance has filed for a hostile takeover for Warner Bros. Discovery, trying to persuade shareholders to reject WBD's agreed deal with Netflix, which would acquire the Warner Bros. studio's operations. and HBO Max. Trump previously said he would be “involved” in approving the merger and acquisition deal, which would require approval from regulators including the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.
Earlier this year, Ellison's Skydance Media acquired Paramount Global for $8 billion. A few months later, Ellison announced a $150 million deal to acquire Weiss' independent media outlet The Free Press, appointing Weiss as editorial director for CBS News. The moves were seen as an attempt to improve CBS News' position among Trump and the MAGA movement. Since then, Weiss has moderated a town hall with Erica Kirk, CEO of right-wing advocacy group Turning Point USA and widow of Charlie Kirk, and promised future events with guests such as J.D. Vance and Sam Altman.
