Chaos at CBS as 60 Minutes suddenly drops segment on Trump deportations just two hours before airing

60 Minutes has abruptly pulled a segment on the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison just hours before it was set to air – prompting some to accuse new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss of censorship.

The news magazine announced the sudden change on social media Sunday evening, saying the segment it had advertised about a group of Venezuelan men who thought they were being sent back to their home country, only to end up at the notorious CECOT prison, would not air that night.

‘The broadcast lineup for tonight’s edition of 60 Minutes has been updated. Our report “Inside CECOT” will air in a future broadcast,’ the program said.

CBS News had included the segment on the 60 Minutes schedule just last week.

‘Earlier this year, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, a country most had no ties to, claiming they were terrorists,’ it advertised.

‘This move sparked an ongoing legal battle and nine months later, the US government still has not released the names of all those deported and placed in CECOT, one of El Salvador’s harshest prisons.’

The segment was set to feature correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi speaking to deportees, who spoke about the ‘brutal and torturous’ conditions at the prison.

Instead, 60 Minutes will air a segment from Nottingham, England, where Jon Wertheim interviewed a family of celebrated classical musicians. 

Explaining the sudden schedule change, a source at CBS News told Deadline that they determined the CECOT segment ‘needed additional reporting.’ 

But online were left outraged by the schedule change – with some accusing Weiss of bowing to the Trump administration’s interests.

‘Bari’s CBS pulled their CECOT report, which included interviews with migrants who were tortured in this concentration camp,’ liberal reporter Krystal Ball posted on Bluesky.

‘The Trump regime does not want you to know what was done to these people.’

Journalist Dave Itzkoff, meanwhile, concluded that ‘Bari Weiss is really bad at her job, until you realize it’s her job to be really bad at her job, in which case she is excellent at her job.’ 

Others declared that the news magazine’s reputation has been destroyed.

‘I grew up watching 60 Minutes every Sunday with my dad,’ one Bluesky user wrote. ‘I continued that tradition with my own family. No more. You have really failed us.

‘What a sad end to such a storied and long-running institution.’

Another Bluesky user said that Weiss ‘torched’ the legacy 60 Minutes built up over 55 years. 

Some were also taken aback by how unprecedented it was for the news magazine to make a schedule change.

‘Am I forgetting things? I don’t recall 60 Minutes ever announcing a scheduled story would not be broadcast like this,’ wrote one X user.

‘The Bari Streisand Effect is at work here, too,’ he suggested.

Journalist Jennifer Schulze also asked: ‘What changed between now and Friday’s press release about this now delayed (or actually canceled?) [60 Minutes] segment on the CECOT torture prison? Seems very odd.

‘Anyone know if 60 Minutes has ever delayed a piece at the last minute before?’ 

The postponement of the segment came just days after Trump told a North Carolina rally that he ‘loves’ the new owners of CBS – the Ellison family, who own the network’s parent company, Paramount.

‘CBS, I mean, I love the new owners of CBS,’ the president beamed, though he argued ’60 Minutes has treated me worse under the new ownership. They just keep hitting me. It’s crazy.’

Still, Trump has given his seal of approval to Weiss, who took the helm of CBS News in October. 

‘I think you have a great new leader, frankly, ’cause the young woman that’s leading your whole enterprise is a great – from what I know, I don’t know her – but I hear she’s a great person,’ the president told correspondent Norah O’Donnell last month.

‘I see good things happening in the news. I really do. And I think one of the best things to happen is this show and new ownership, CBS and new ownership.’ 

Weiss was appointed to her current post by Paramount boss David Ellison in October, despite having never led a major news organization.

Ellison – a former Hollywood producer and the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison – handpicked her personally to head an increasingly new-look CBS following the network’s settlement with Trump.

The president had accused 60 Minutes last year of deceptively editing an interview with then-Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

Network executives initially called the claims baseless, but Paramount ultimately agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle the lawsuit. 

That paved the way for the administration’s approval of an $8billion merger between Skydance Media and Paramount over the summer.

But Weiss’s stint at CBS News has already been met with ridicule, with several industry sources telling the Daily Mail that she has already become the ‘laughing stock’ of the industry. 

An ambitious, weekslong search she masterminded in hopes of finding a new face to head CBS Evenings ended up showing her inexperience, one insider said. 

Instead of securing a big name like Bret Baier or Anderson Cooper as hoped, the search ended with CBS Mornings’ Tony Dokoupil being elevated to the position internally.

Several insiders who spoke to the Mail also panned Weiss for pursuing outside stars locked in lengthy contracts.

Bringing on a little-known ABC reporter, Matt Gutman, to be CBS’s next chief correspondent was one ‘rookie’ move from Weiss, one network source said – claiming the signing was her ‘scraping the depths of her rolodex.’  

Weiss, a former New York Times opinion writer, had previously founded the right-leaning Free Press, which was bought by Ellison during her October hiring for $150million.