CBS Attempted To Bury “60 Minutes” Segment On CECOT Deportations, Forgot About Canada And The Internet

NEW YORK — CBS News quietly pulled a “60 Minutes” segment on CECOT deportations Sunday after discovering that the Trump administration had declined to comment—a development now considered sufficient grounds for freezing journalism until further notice.

The report, which documented brutal conditions for detainees inside El Salvador’s CECOT prison, had already been screened five times, cleared by CBS attorneys, and approved by Standards and Practices. None of that stopped new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss from determining the story was suddenly “not ready.”

“60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi objected internally, warning that treating silence as veto power would give the administration a functional kill switch over reporting. Weiss disagreed, noting that while the testimony was powerful, it risked “advancing the ball,”—a phrase sources said roughly translates to “create inconvenience.”

CBS executives appeared confident the delay would quietly resolve the issue, assuring staff the piece would air later with “additional context,” once appropriate parties felt more comfortable with it existing.

Unfortunately, that plan relied on forgetting Canada.

The finished segment aired in full on a Canadian streaming platform, instantly becoming available to American viewers online and rendering the entire suppression effort pointless within hours.

In response, CBS leadership reaffirmed its commitment to independent journalism, before opening an internal review into whether the internet has become “too difficult to manage.”