60 Minutes Delays Venezuelan Deportation Segment
CBS News' 60 Minutes program pulled a scheduled segment on the Trump administration's deportations of Venezuelan immigrants to a prison in El Salvador just hours before its Sunday broadcast, a decision directed by the network's new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss.
The report, produced by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi and producer Oriana Zill de Granados, featured interviews with deportees who described harsh conditions at the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, a maximum-security facility. Network sources indicated that Weiss halted the segment on Saturday to allow for additional reporting, specifically to include perspectives from Trump administration officials. A CBS News spokesperson confirmed the postponement, stating that the piece required further work and would air at a later date.
Alfonsi, in an email to colleagues shared Sunday, expressed strong disagreement with the move. "Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices," she wrote. "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 noted that the team...