A storm of backlash erupted across the media landscape late Sunday night after CBS abruptly pulled a highly anticipated 60 Minutes segment examining a notorious El Salvador prison tied to deportations ordered by Donald Trump. The last-minute decision immediately placed the spotlight on Bari Weiss, the newly installed head of CBS News, who was swiftly accused by critics of censoring journalism and bending the network toward political pressure.
The controversy unfolded just hours before the segment was scheduled to air. At 4:31 p.m. ET, roughly two and a half hours before broadcast time, 60 Minutes announced that it would not air a report titled Inside CECOT. The segment focused on El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, a maximum-security prison opened in 2023 by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele as part of his sweeping crackdown on gangs. The prison has since drawn international attention and condemnation for its harsh conditions.
The report was particularly sensitive because it examined how hundreds of migrants—many Venezuelan—were deported from the United States to El Salvador under Trump’s immigration policies. Earlier this year, Trump publicly praised the prison, saying he was “very impressed” by it and that he would “love” to send American criminals there. The 60 Minutes segment included interviews conducted by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi with deportees who had since been released. According to a CBS press release, they described “brutal and torturous conditions” endured while imprisoned at CECOT.
CBS offered a brief explanation for the delay. A network spokesperson told reporter Dylan Byers that editors had determined the piece “needed additional reporting.” However, the explanation did little to quell suspicion. On social media, journalists, analysts, and viewers questioned how a program renowned for its meticulous production process could suddenly decide—just hours before airtime—that a completed and promoted segment was not ready.
Among the loudest critics was Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept. Greenwald shared the trailer for the segment, which had already been removed from CBS’s official website, and accused Weiss of causing severe damage to CBS News in an extraordinarily short period of time. He mocked the situation as emblematic of editorial collapse, suggesting sarcastically that CBS might as well schedule a prime-time town hall with Alan Dershowitz to “rectify the harm.”
Other commentators echoed Greenwald’s outrage. Political analyst Tom Sherwood expressed confusion over the last-minute decision, noting that 60 Minutes segments are never assembled hastily. He argued that the public deserved a clear explanation, pointing out that stories on the program typically take weeks or even months to produce. New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush shared Byers’ reporting and publicly wondered whether such a move had ever occurred before in the program’s history.
As the night wore on, criticism flooded X, formerly Twitter, where searches for “Bari Weiss” and “60 Minutes” produced a torrent of furious posts. Some users accused Weiss outright of acting as a government censor, alleging that her role was to prevent anything critical of the Trump administration from airing on CBS when large audiences were watching. Others labeled CBS a “mouthpiece” for Trump, arguing that the decision to pull the segment amounted to political compliance rather than journalistic caution.
Journalist and commentator Adam Cochran described 60 Minutes as a crown jewel of American broadcast journalism and called the situation a “heinous betrayal of the Fourth Estate.” He expressed hope that the program’s staff could find ways to resist political interference and continue producing hard-hitting investigative work. YouTuber Kyle Kulinski went further, claiming Weiss had “censored and banned” an episode exposing how immigrants were allegedly sent to be tortured and abused in what he described as a concentration camp.
The intensity of the backlash was fueled by the gravity of the underlying story. According to a summary released earlier by CBS’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador earlier this year, claiming they were terrorists. Many reportedly had no ties to the country. The deportations sparked ongoing legal battles, and nine months later, the U.S. government had still not released the full list of names of those sent to CECOT, one of El Salvador’s most severe prisons.
Journalist Peter Twinklage claimed that a source inside CBS News described the move as “effectively unprecedented” in the history of 60 Minutes. He emphasized that killing a fully produced piece—one that had already been promoted—just hours before airtime was almost unheard of within the program’s long legacy.
The language used by critics grew increasingly severe as the controversy spread. Some framed the decision as evidence that American media had capitulated to authoritarian pressure, while others argued it signaled a dangerous precedent in which political sensitivity overrides investigative reporting. A number of posts invoked historical descriptions of 60 Minutes as “one of the crown jewels of American broadcast journalism,” lamenting what they saw as its rapid decline under new leadership.
Weiss herself did not immediately respond publicly to the criticism. Her appointment as head of CBS News had already been controversial, with supporters praising her independence and critics warning that her editorial direction would tilt the network away from traditional investigative priorities. The sudden postponement of the CECOT segment has only intensified that debate, turning Weiss into a lightning rod for broader anxieties about press freedom, corporate ownership, and political influence.
As of now, CBS has not announced when—or if—the Inside CECOT segment will air. The silence has only amplified demands for transparency. For many observers, the issue extends beyond a single report. It has become a test of whether one of America’s most respected news programs can maintain its editorial independence at a moment when political pressure and corporate caution appear to be colliding.
What was meant to be a routine Sunday night broadcast has instead ignited a fierce reckoning over trust, censorship, and the future of investigative journalism at CBS. Whether 60 Minutes ultimately airs the delayed segment or not, the backlash has already left a lasting mark—one that underscores how fragile credibility can be, and how quickly it can be called into question when journalism appears to retreat at the last possible moment.