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On Dec. 21, CBS pulled their Sunday 60 n Dec. 21, CBS pulled a “60 Minutes” segment just three hours before it was set to air. The segment featured Venezuelan men recently deported to a prison in El Salvador. 

Although CBS News didn’t air the segment, it was accidentally released by one of Canada’s largest networks, Global Television. It was soon removed, but clips are still circulating online, generating discourse across social media platforms. 

In these clips, viewers found interviews with people deported by the Trump Administration to a prison located in El Salvador, called the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). According to “60 Minutes” correspondent, Sharyn Alfonsi who reported the segment, the men were abused and beaten while imprisoned at CECOT. 

“When you get there, you already know you’re in hell,” said a deported college student in a clip from the deleted segment. The segment also highlights that many deportations have occured before their legality has been decided by the courts. 

The decision to pull the episode was made by newly appointed CBS editor-in-chief Barbara Weiss. Weiss defended her choice by making a statement to producers, according to the New York Times that said, “My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be.”

Appointed in October by David Ellison, Weiss is in her third month in this position. Ellison too, is new to his position. He bought CBS News’s parent company Paramount Skydance in August. His acquisition of Paramount was approved by the Trump administration after the company paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit Trump had brought against “60 Minutes.” Many speculated that the new leadership within both “60 Minutes” and Paramount Skydance was a factor in the decision to pull Alfonsi’s episode. 

Alfonsi shares these concerns hersself. She argues that Weiss’s decision was “a political one.” According to Alfonsi, the segment had been cleared by CBS Standards and Practices and CBS attorneys before it was set to air. “[The segment] is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now…is not an editorial decision,” Alfonsi wrote in a note to her CBS colleagues. 

Many viewers agree, accusing CBS of protecting the Trump administration from criticism. “[It] kind of feels like censorship,” senior Lauren Lazure said. Events like these are leading many to question the legitimacy of broadcasting companies. “I trust the journalists, but I don’t necessarily trust the big companies,” sophomore Lou Smith said. Both Lazure and Smith agree that this situation challenged their confidence in the news. “I read news stories with a grain of salt, I…like reading multiple different articles about a story to try to get the different perspectives and really understand what happened,” Lazure said. 

Online, creators have shed light on the situation by posting clips of the “60 Minutes” segment and reporting the segment’s content to their followers. Along with spreading the message, many voiced their own concerns. One creator named Spencer Hunt on TikTok said “If the truth only exists due to a leaked video you had to screen record before it disappeared, that’s not journalism failing, that’s power panicking.” 

On Jan. 18, CBS released an edited version of the report in the “60 Minutes” Sunday episode. This version included new statements from the White House and the Department of Homeland Security that were not included in Alfonsi’s original version, along with other changes. The newly released version is available to viewers on the “60 Minutes” website.