A “60 Minutes” report by Barry Weiss about the “horrendous treatment” of detainees deported from the US in prisons in El Salvador has been leaked online after it appeared on the Canadian TV app. Canada’s Global News aired the “60 Minutes” episode without the segment on television, as did CBS, but the network’s Global TV app uploaded the wrong episode to its streaming app.
Footage of the roughly 14-minute segment circulated on social media, though it was pulled from CBS News’ schedule about three hours before airtime on Sunday. In vol., reviewed by VarietyCorrespondent Sherin Alfonsi interviewed a man who was forcibly removed from the US and sent to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison by the Trump administration, despite having no criminal record.
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“There was blood everywhere, screaming, people crying, people who couldn’t take it and were urinating and vomiting on themselves,” said Luis Munoz Pinto, a Venezuelan college student who sought asylum in the U.S. He said he spent six months in customs detention, awaiting a decision on his asylum case, before he was deported.
“Four guards grabbed me, and they beat me until I bled, to the point of pain. They slammed our faces against the wall. That’s when they broke one of my teeth,” Pinto added.
CBS News has not yet commented on the leak.
On Monday morning, the network’s editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, told staffers that she removed the report on Saturday “because it wasn’t ready,” though “60 Minutes” reporters felt it was a “political decision,” not an “editorial decision.” According to the New York Times, Weiss suggested “several changes to the segment” and wanted it to feature an interview with Stephen Miller or another senior Trump administration official. She said the piece focused on information that had already been reported by the Times, and “we need to do more.”
Alfonsi said she has already requested comment from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House and the State Department. In a leaked email to her CBS colleagues on Sunday, Alfonsi wrote, “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS lawyers and standards and practices. It is factually correct. In my opinion, pulling it now, after completing every rigorous internal review, is not an editorial decision, it is a political decision.”
The last-minute decision to pull the “60 Minutes” segment critical of the Trump administration came after the president repeatedly complained about “inappropriate behavior” by the David Ellison-owned network. On December 16, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “For those who think I’m close to the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes treated me worse than I ever did after the so-called ‘takeover’. If they’re friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!” A week before that, Trump, Rep. Blasted “60 Minutes” for his interview with Marjorie Taylor Green, whom he called “a very ill-prepared traitor” and said of parent company Paramount: “They’re no better than the old ownership.”
Ellison Paramount Skydance to Warner Bros. has launched a hostile takeover bid for Discovery, trying to persuade shareholders to reject WBD’s deal with Netflix, which is set to acquire Warner Bros. studio operations and HBO Max. Trump has previously insisted that he would be “involved” in approving the M&A deal, which would require sign-offs from regulators including the US Department of Justice and the FTC.
Earlier this year, Ellison’s Skydance Media acquired Paramount Global in an $8 billion deal. A few months later, Ellison announced a reportedly $150 million deal to acquire Weiss’ independent media outlet The Free Press, appointing Weiss as editorial chief of CBS News. Those moves were seen as an attempt to improve CBS News’ standing with Trump and the MAGA movement. Since then, Weiss has moderated a town hall with Erica Kirk, CEO of the right-wing advocacy group Turning Point USA, and the widow of Charlie Kirk, and promised future events with guests such as JD Vance and Sam Altman.
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