On Dec. 21, 2025, a 60-minute investigative segment titled “Inside CECOT” focusing on abuse allegations in El Salvador’s prison, CECOT (Center for Confinement of Terrorism), was supposed to be released following President Donald Trump’s administration’s sending Venezuelan immigrants there; however, a day and a half before it was set to be released, it was pulled. Concerns arise over the role of government in the media as they work to inform the public.
CBS News, a news division of the Columbia Broadcasting System, Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss pulled the episode, which later raised concerns about government control of the media.
According to National Public Radio (NPR), an independent, nonprofit media organization that distributes news, Weiss told colleagues that the segment could not be broadcast without an on-the-record comment from an administration official. She wanted to interview Stephen Miller, Trump’s senior advisor.
Sharyn Alfonsi, a correspondent of the story, wrote that she and her colleagues reached out for comments and interviews from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and the State Department.
In an email, Alfonsi wrote, “Government silence is a statement, not a veto. 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.”
According to PBS News, the news division of the Public Broadcasting Service, Alfonsi sent an email to 60 Minutes correspondents stating that the story was factually correct and had been cleared by CBS lawyers.
In a staff meeting the following day, Weiss addressed the criticism and concerns about CBS trying to shield the Trump administration. Weiss explained the story wasn’t ready and that the Trump administration also refused to comment on the story.
“While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball. This is 60 Minutes. We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera,” Weiss stated in the transcript of her remarks obtained by NPR news.
While the disagreement over postponing the story took place, Canada started streaming the episode on a streaming app owned by Canada’s global television network called Global TV.
The episode includes interviews with people who were deported and taken to CECOT, who explained the abuse they faced physically and mentally.
“When we got there, the CECOT director was talking to us. The first thing he told us was that we would never see the light of day or night again,” Luis Munoz Pinto, a Venezuelan migrant, told CBS.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. 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 wrote in a note to colleagues seen by NBC News.
