CBS News announced it would pull a "60 Minutes" report about the Trump administration's sending detainees to a maximum-security "mega-prison" in El Salvador just hours before its scheduled broadcast Sunday.
The broadcaster said Sunday that the segment would not appear in the episode and that it would instead air at a future date, an unusual move that drew criticism from the correspondent behind the reporting.
"The broadcast lineup for tonight's edition of 60 Minutes has been updated," the news magazine series posted on social media just three hours before airtime. “Our report 'Inside CECOT' will air in a future broadcast."
In a statement, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss said: "My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be."
"Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices— happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it's ready," she added.
Weiss addressed the matter during the newsroom's Monday morning editorial conference call, according to a source, saying in part that the segment did not include enough new information.
"While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball — the Times and other outlets have previously done similar work," Weiss said, referring to The New York Times.
"The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more. And this is '60 Minutes.' We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera," she added, according to a transcript of her remarks shared with NBC News.
"Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else. That's my north star and I hope it's yours, too," Weiss said in closing.
The network had already released on air and online a preview of the segment, which profiled detainees who were deported from the United States to El Salvador's notorious Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, or CECOT.
In one clip, "60 Minutes" correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said the prisoners had been "shackled [and] paraded in front of cameras," adding that they had endured "four months of hell" at the facility.
The Trump administration sent about 250 Venezuelan men to CECOT in March and has accused them of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Many of the men and some of their families and attorneys have denied the claim.
By early Monday, a "60 Minutes" webpage promoting the report had been removed. Instead, it read: "The page cannot be found. The page may have been removed, had its name changed, or is just temporarily unavailable."
However, video of the segment made the rounds on social media Monday afternoon after it apparently ran on Global TV, a network that airs "60 Minutes" in Canada.
Alfonsi accused the network of pulling the segment for "political" reasons, according to a private note sent to CBS colleagues that was obtained by NBC News.
"Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices," Alfonsi wrote in the note.
"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," she said in the note.
Alfonsi said her team had requested comment on her reporting from the White House, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.
"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," she said.
Weiss started providing feedback to "60 Minutes" executive producer Tanya Simon late Friday, according to an employee of the show. She did not reach out to Alfonsi or her producers, the employee said. Weiss relayed more extensive notes Saturday and expressed a desire to include an on-camera interview with a White House official.
She ultimately decided to pull the segment late Saturday, according to the employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that timeline.
Asked for further comment by The New York Times on Sunday night, Alfonsi said: "I refer all questions to Bari Weiss."
Alfonsi did not immediately respond to NBC News' requests for comment Monday.
The furor over the segment was the latest in a string of controversies for CBS and its parent company, the newly formed Paramount Skydance.
President Donald Trump last year sued Paramount, accusing "60 Minutes" of having deceptively edited an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. CBS denied the claim. Paramount settled Trump's lawsuit for $16 million.
Skydance chief David Ellison has sought to reshape the news business, appointing Weiss — a television newcomer and prominent critic of the traditional news media — as top editor after he acquired her news and opinion outlet, The Free Press.
In seeking federal approval of the merger with Paramount, Skydance vowed to embrace "diverse viewpoints" and represent "the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers." He also pledged to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and install an ombudsman at CBS News.
Ellison is separately making a hostile bid to acquire the media giant Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN. Warner Bros. Discovery has already accepted an offer from Netflix in a deal valued at $82.7 billion. Both transactions would require approval from federal regulators.
Trump has close ties to Ellison's father, billionaire technology mogul Larry Ellison, though in recent weeks he has publicly expressed frustration with the direction of "60 Minutes" under Paramount's new corporate leadership.
"For those people that think I am close with the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called 'takeover,' than they have ever treated me before," Trump said Dec. 16 on Truth Social. "If they are friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!"
CBS News' decision to hold the "60 Minutes" story drew criticism from some Democratic officials.
Federal Communications Commission member Anna M. Gomez, who was appointed to the telecommunications regulator by former President Joe Biden, said news reports about the CECOT segment were "deeply alarming and strike at the heart of press freedom."
"In the days ahead, I hope CBS provides its viewers with a clear accounting of how this decision was made and demonstrates how it will safeguard the independence of its newsroom," said Gomez, the lone Democratic appointee on the panel. (The FCC is chaired by Brendan Carr, whom Trump appointed.)
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said on X, "What is happening to CBS is a terrible embarrassment and if executives think they can build shareholder value by avoiding journalism that might offend the Mad King they are about to learn a tough lesson."
The decision "does merit an explanation right away. It's a pretty big deal to pull a story at the request of the White House," he added.
The White House did not respond to NBC News' request for comment.
