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Bari Weiss sparks censorship row after spiking story on US deportees to El Salvador

Staff and critics say the new editor-in-chief pulled the 60 Minutes episode for political reasons, not editorial concerns
The Free Press’ Honestly with Bari Weiss (pictured) hosts Senator Ted Cruz on 18 January 2025 in Washington, DC (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Uber, X and The Free Press/AFP)
By MEE staff
Published date: 23 December 2025 20:17 GMT | Last update: 3 weeks 4 days ago

A scheduled 60 Minutes episode examining the transfer of US deportees to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison was abruptly pulled just days before broadcast, triggering an internal revolt at CBS News and fresh accusations of political and corporate censorship.

The episode, focusing on testimony from Venezuelan migrants who say they were abused after being sent from the United States to El Salvador last year, had already been promoted publicly by the network and cleared through multiple internal editorial, legal and standards reviews.

But less than 48 hours before it was scheduled to air, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss intervened and halted the broadcast.

According to people familiar with the internal deliberations, Weiss argued that the segment could not air without an on-the-record interview with a senior Trump administration official, pushing specifically for figures such as Stephen Miller or someone of comparable rank.

That demand marked a sharp break from the way the investigation had been developed. The reporting team had already sought responses from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House and the State Department. None agreed to participate.

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Inside CBS, the move was seen not as an editorial decision, but rather as a political move.

In a leaked email circulated among 60 Minutes staff and later obtained by multiple outlets, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi condemned the decision in unusually blunt terms, writing that pulling the episode after it had passed every internal review was "not an editorial decision, it is a political one".

She warned that allowing government officials to block publication simply by refusing interviews would hand future administrations an effective "kill switch" over investigative journalism.

The legal argument that doesn't hold

Weiss later defended her decision in an internal memo, arguing that the episode failed to sufficiently explain the legal basis under which the migrants were detained and transferred, and that there was an unresolved judicial debate over the administration's authority.

That framing has since become the core of the controversy.

Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court ruled 9–0 that the process used to transfer detainees to El Salvador's CECOT prison violated due process rights. There was no dissent. The ruling directly undercut claims that the legality of the transfers remained unsettled.

Critics inside and outside CBS say the invocation of a "genuine legal debate" appears to retroactively justify suppressing a story whose central premise had already been upheld at the highest judicial level.

Before it was pulled, CBS had publicly promoted the segment, describing CECOT as one of El Salvador's harshest prisons and citing allegations of brutal treatment from recently released detainees. Promotional videos were aired and shared on social media, then quietly removed. The written announcement was later revised.

CBS has said the story may air at a later date, but did not explain why material deemed broadcast-ready days earlier suddenly fell short of editorial standards.

The episode's suppression has also been viewed through the lens of CBS's recent legal and corporate entanglements involving Donald Trump.

Last year, Trump sued CBS over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with his election rival. While legal experts widely viewed the case as weak, the network's parent company ultimately agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement, a move that coincided with leadership upheaval inside CBS News and eased regulatory hurdles for an ownership transition.

Weiss's arrival at CBS under new ownership has intensified scrutiny over whether editorial caution is being shaped by political optics rather than journalistic judgment.

A familiar pattern of silence

For media critics, the CBS episode is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader trend in which powerful institutions quietly suppress reporting that risks political backlash.

Last year, the BBC declined to air "Gaza: Doctors Under Attack", a documentary detailing allegations that Israeli forces targeted and abused Palestinian medical workers. Despite extensive reporting and sourcing, the film was shelved, drawing similar accusations of censorship dressed up as editorial rigour.

In both cases, journalists and filmmakers say the issue was not one of factual accuracy, but rather institutional reluctance to confront powerful political actors.

In early 2025, CBS published a segment on Israel's genocide in Gaza, and how it "has been fueled by American weapons and billions of taxpayer dollars". The segment also reported on "State Department officials who quit their jobs, and their concerns about how far Washington is willing to go to support an ally who, they say, has conducted a war that runs counter to American values and threatens national security". 

Many on social media drew parallels to this story being criticised by prominent pro-Israel groups in the US as "lacking factual accuracy".

In her email, Alfonsi framed the decision in existential terms for journalism itself, arguing that abandoning sources who risked their safety to speak was a betrayal of the profession's most basic obligation.

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