Just before the Christmas holiday began in earnest, CBS News head Bari Weiss doubled down on her decision to pull the controversial 60 Minutes segment that cast the Donald Trump administration in a critical light.
On Monday, December 22, a 60 Minutes report that Weiss pulled about the “horrific treatment” of detainees deported from the U.S. to a prison in El Salvador was leaked online.
In the pulled segment, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi raised serious concerns about the treatment of innocent people who were sent to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), or Terrorism Confinement Center, in Tecoluca, El Salvador. The brutal report examined allegations of torture and wrongful detention, placing scrutiny on the Trump administration’s handling of the deportations and its reliance on sweeping claims of terrorism to justify the removals.
The segment briefly appeared on a Canadian TV app after the wrong episode was mistakenly uploaded to the platform. Once it surfaced online, the piece was widely shared, spreading rapidly across social media and other platforms.
The fallout from the leaked segment continues to be felt into the holiday, as a memo sent on December 24 by Weiss, CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, and editors Charles Forelle and Adam Rubenstein serves as a call to arms to journalists to “win back” the trust of the American people.
The email was shared to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, December 24, by Zeteo reporter Prem Thakker.
New from Bari Weiss to CBS staff—
“…Americans say they do not trust the press…To win back their trust, we have to work hard…Sometimes it means telling unexpected stories…sometimes it means holding a piece about an important subject to make sure it is comprehensive and fair.” pic.twitter.com/eejifsR77t
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) December 24, 2025
“Right now, the majority of Americans say they do not trust the press. It isn’t because they’re crazy,” stated the memo. “To win back their trust, we have to work hard. Sometimes that means doing more legwork. Sometimes it means telling unexpected stories. Sometimes it means training our attention on topics that have been overlooked or misconstrued. And sometimes it means holding a piece about an important subject to make sure it is comprehensive and fair.”
x/@prem_thakker
“In our upside-down moment, this may seem radical. Such editorial decisions can cause a firestorm, particularly on a slow news week. And the standards for fairness we are holding ourselves to, particularly on contentious subjects, will surely feel controversial to those used to doing things one way. But to fulfill our mission, it’s necessary,” she continued.
“No amount of outrage — whether from activist organizations or the White House — will derail us. We are not out to score points with one side of the political spectrum or to win followers on social media. We are out to inform the American public and to get the story right.”
The note ended with a call to restore the integrity of the news and a thank you to those working over the holiday.
Weiss’s decision to shelve the 60 Minutes segment sparked swift backlash. She said in a statement: “My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be. Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices — happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.”
60 Minutes, Sundays, 7/6c, CBS
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Originally published on tvinsider.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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