A politically influenced call by the MAGA-curious head of CBS News may have been behind the abrupt axing of an anti-Trump 60 Minutes segment on Sunday, according to an email sent by one of its correspondents.
CBS had promoted a report on 60 Minutes that covered the infamous El Salvador megaprison CECOT, which houses immigrants booted out of the U.S. by Donald Trump.
The network said the segment on the Terrorism Confinement Center—dubbed CECOT or Terrorism Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo in Spanish—will now be aired at a later date instead, claiming it needed additional reporting.
However, reports on Sunday night suggest Bari Weiss, the new editor-in-chief at CBS, flexed her muscle to yank the segment off the air with just three hours notice.
60 Minutes journalist Sharyn Alfonsi sent an email on Sunday stating that Weiss “spiked our story” and that the motivation was a political decision, not an editorial call, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The email was posted in full on X by CNN Media Analyst Brian Stelter, With Alfonsi stating the team had asked Weiss to discuss her 11th-hour call to pull the segment but “She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity.”
Alfonsi reportedly sent the email to fellow correspondents Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, and Anderson Cooper.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct,” she wrote, noting that if the standard for airing a story became the government agreeing to be interviewed, the network would lose its editorial control. “We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state,” Alfonsi wrote.
Here’s the text of Sharyn Alfonsi’s memo about “corporate censorship” and a “betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism:”
News Team,
Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not reaching out earlier.
I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE…— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 22, 2025
Puck journalist Dylan Byers suggested the CECOT segment reflected “very negatively” on the Trump administration.
“The admin had declined to comment,” Byers posted on X. “Bari Weiss saw segment on Friday and, I’m told, decided to hold it.”
Byers also disputed the official CBS statement that the piece needed additional reporting, quoting a well-placed source who said, “It did not need additional reporting. It went through every layer of fact-checking and was reviewed by all the lawyers.”
Semaphor’s Max Tani also posted that Weiss “had concerns” about the CECOT piece airing on 60 Minutes.
“The network decided to hold the segment pending, among other things, comment or an interview with White House officials next year,” he wrote on X on Sunday.
The New York Times’ Michael Grynbaum claimed that Weiss suggested the CECOT piece needed an interview with Stephen Miller, the White House’s deputy chief of staff for policy.
Miller has been outspoken about increasing ICE raids and deportations.
Grynbaum posted on X on Sunday that Weiss gave Miller’s contact details to 60 Minutes staff.
Alfonsi’s memo stated that 60 Minutes had indeed approached the White House, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security for comment to include in their story.
“Government silence is a statement, not a VETO,” she wrote. “Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story. 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.”
Her memo stated that the 60 Minutes team “have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.”
She signed off, “We are trading 50 years of ‘Gold Standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet. I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, Alfonsi, Paramount and CBS for comment.
The interference comes as Paramount, who own CBS, is involved in a billion-dollar battle to own Warner Bros. Discovery.
Paramount made a hostile, all-cash approach for the entire Warner Bros. business of $108.4 billion, on Dec. 8 at $30 a share. Netflix, meanwhile, had already agreed to take its Studios and HBO Max streaming platform for $72 billion, a deal that executives at Warner still believe is the better offer.
As of last week, the Warner board recommended that shareholders reject the Paramount bid, orchestrated by Chief Executive David Ellison and his father, Larry, a friend of President Donald Trump.
Warner execs told investors that Paramount had “consistently misled” them, called the deal “illusory,” and said it posed a potential danger to the business if it were to accept.
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