CBS News is preparing to open up its much-anticipated “60 Minutes” segment to the public, but it remains unclear whether doing so will defuse the controversy surrounding the show.
The previously blocked segment, called “Inside CECOT,” was a piece by “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi that was built around the on-screen account of a Venezuelan man who was deported by the United States to a harsh prison in El Salvador. It had been shelved, even though CBS News had already promoted it as part of the newsmagazine’s December 21 telecast lineup. The decision was made by CBS News executive Bari Weiss, who at the time insisted that Trump administration officials appear on the report and comment on camera, even though Alfonsi’s team made good faith efforts to secure a response before submitting the report for legal review, as revealed in an email Alfonsi sent to colleagues at the time. “The public will correctly perceive this as corporate censorship,” Alfonsi said in the memo.
“CBS News leadership has always been committed to airing 60 Minutes CECOT productions as soon as they are ready,” the news division said in a statement Sunday. “Tonight, viewers can watch this program along with other important stories, all of which speak to the independence of CBS News and the power of our storytelling.”
The report does not include in-person interviews or on-screen interactions with Trump administration officials, three people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Alfonsi was sent to Washington, D.C., last week to secure an interview on the show, two of the people said, but the interview Mr. Weiss had hoped for did not take place. But an executive familiar with the matter said the story included statements from various branches of the U.S. government, an element Weiss felt was missing from the original work and that he wanted from much of CBS’ political reporting.
The article will include a new three-minute report and will have some changes from what was originally scheduled to be published in December, the executive said. Adding statistics on the number of people deported from the United States for being criminals, the article notes that one of the interviewees has two tattoos known to be gang and Nazi markings, a factor the administration uses to identify immigrants for deportation.
Alfonsi is not expected to address the controversy surrounding the film in his introduction to the show Sunday night.
Careful viewers will be able to compare the new version to the original, which is ready to air in December. After Weiss ordered the article to be withheld, copies of the article that had already been distributed to Canadian media partners were leaked and made available through YouTube and other social media.
Even airing this segment may not repair the strained relationship between management and staff. Alfonsi’s current contract with CBS News is set to expire by this summer, sources said. If her contract is not renewed, some journalists could interpret it as retaliation for her willingness to speak out.
Mr. Alfonsi, who worked at ABC News before joining “60 Minutes,” has a reputation as a reliable reporter who often avoids controversies that can engulf television news workers. On 60 Minutes in 2020, Alfonsi told Variety: “You get dropped by a helicopter on the top of a mountain and you have to find your way down. There are some trails, moguls, jumps. It’s like kicking your way out. They push you out of the helicopter. I’m on top of a mountain. I feel like I’m just speeding.”
Weiss defended his decision to keep the work. But people familiar with her thinking say she acknowledges that her timing was inappropriate and that she was late in the editing and vetting process for “60 Minutes.”
“The majority of Americans now say they don’t trust the news media, and it’s not because they’re crazy,” Weiss said in a memo issued around Christmas. “To win back their trust, we have to work hard. Sometimes that means working harder. Sometimes it means telling unexpected stories. Sometimes it means training our attention to topics that have been overlooked or misunderstood. And sometimes it means holding onto stories on important subjects to make sure it’s inclusive and fair.”
Since taking over last year, Weiss has probably drawn more attention to CBS News than any other talent, with the exception of Katie Couric, who joined CBS Evening News from NBC in 2006. Weiss, a conservative opinion activist who founded the right-wing website The Free Press, joined Paramount Skydance last year after the company acquired her channel for $150 million. Since then, she has overhauled “CBS Evening News” and sought to launch a new series of town halls and debates. But her lack of experience in managing large television properties has been consistently evident, giving staff and critics plenty of reason to be skeptical.
“60 Minutes,” which publishes investigative stories as well as profiles and features, has suffered over the past two years due to the failure of corporate executives to defend the magazine from what was largely considered a nuisance lawsuit from President Donald Trump over its editing of an interview with then-2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Paramount agreed to pay Mr. Trump a $16 million settlement, hoping to clear the way for the company to be sold from its former controlling shareholders, the Redstone family, to the Ellison family, which now runs Paramount Skydance.
As a result, two senior executives at CBS News — Bill Owens, executive producer of “60 Minutes,” and Wendy McMahon, former CEO of CBS News, local stations and syndication — suggested in statements that they could no longer resist corporate mandates they felt would weaken the newsroom. There have been calls for “60 Minutes” to cut back on the number of hard news and investigative segments it airs and focus more on features and celebrity profiles that executives believe will attract more attention online, according to three people familiar with the show. But Sunday’s telecast will include two segments related to politics. One is a CECOT report, and the other is a look back at what happened in Minneapolis as ICE authorities cracked down on residents.
The newsmagazine has long operated separately from other programs on CBS News, but there have been several efforts in recent years to give it a heel. It remains to be seen whether the correspondents who work there will continue to be outraged by similar tactics, but there is hope within the show that the show can get back to producing journalism rather than being forced to defend it under conditions that Mike Wallace and Maury Safer might have considered unrealistic.
