After a few month, CBS lastly aired the 60 Minutes merchandise on Salvadoran megaprison CECOT that was held for “further reporting” on the route of CBS Information Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss. The report lastly aired as we speak, and after watching the tip end result we are able to conclude that Weiss was proper to carry it.
The report was pulled from air on the final second, however aired in Canada and was subsequently leaked on-line. Our personal Curtis Houck reviewed that report and located thusly:
The now-infamous 60 Minutes section pulled by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss appeared to have self-deported and aired up in Canada on International TV, certainly one of its broadcast networks. With it now accessible to the plenty (due to social media), we are able to now give it a full viewing and never a she-said, she-said between Weiss and correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi. Spoiler alert: the piece was biased as hell, missing the steadiness and nuance Weiss requested for.
Between the 2 sympathetic interview topics, using a far-left so-called human rights group, mendacity concerning the administration’s lack of responses to remark requests, and chatting it up with Berkeley college students, Alfonsi’s piece had all of it.
The rationale the report was initially pulled was because of its failure to offer steadiness through an administration response- even when it was a tear sheet of a press launch. As Axios famous, stories of no assertion offered have been false.
In line with a supply aware of the “60 Minutes” crew’s correspondence with the administration, journalists reached out to press officers at The White Home, State Division and DHS, all of which offered remark to CBS Information forward of the piece’s anticipated run date.
None of these feedback, which different in size and substance, have been included within the piece, which has been made public from a recording that was distributed through an app owned by International TV, which airs “60 Minutes” in Canada.
The outcry over the pulling of the report triggered a remodeling of requirements and practices at CBS Information. Once we reported on this, we additionally noticed that Alfonsi’s personal fame for partisan hackery was responsible. We wrote:
CBS Information, and 60 Minutes particularly, was damaged lengthy earlier than Weiss took over. Alfonsi is the poster baby of that brokenness, what with such earlier lowlights because the tried smear of Gov. Ron DeSantis utilizing selectively edited footage, and her cheering of German censorship.
A “broader overhaul of requirements and procedures” is definitely welcome at CBS, nevertheless it ought to have come nicely earlier than the CECOT fiasco.
We additional famous that what made the problem actually blow up was Alfonsi’s whiny all-hands e-mail crying over the actual fact she’d been requested to repair her shoddy piece.
Which brings us to as we speak’s airing of the CECOT report. With out additional ado, right here is the “further reporting.”
Sharyn Alfonsi redid the section’s opening, bringing it updated with a reference to the raid that captured dictator Nicolás Maduro, and talked about the administration’s refusal to sit down down with Alfonsi.
Redone opening to the “60 Minutes” CECOT merchandise, with a tie-in to the Maduro raid, and a point out of the Trump administration’s refusal to offer remark. pic.twitter.com/Ss9GvZ7cPd
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 19, 2026
SHARYN ALFONSI: Nicolas Maduro, the previous president of Venezuela, now sits in a federal jail awaiting trial. The White Home touted his seize as a blow to narco terrorists who it says flooded U.S. streets with medicine. The repression of the Maduro regime, over greater than a decade, pressured 8 million Venezuelans to flee, practically 1,000,000 of them to the USA. Final yr, within the greatest U.S. immigration crackdown in latest historical past, lots of of these Venezuelans have been deported to El Salvador, a rustic most had no connection to.
The White Home claims they have been part of a violent gang and designated them as terrorists. The administration invoked a centuries-old wartime energy, the Alien Enemies Act, to quickly deport a few of the males. Between March and April of final yr, the U.S. despatched 252 Venezuelan males to a brutal most safety jail in El Salvador often called CECOT. You’ll hear from two of these males. They describe torture, sexual, and bodily abuse contained in the jail. Since November, 60 Minutes has made a number of makes an attempt to interview key Trump administration officers on digicam about our story. They declined our request. Tonight, our report from inside CECOT.
The “further reporting” right here consists of a single sentence on the finish of this introduction, which ought to have been included within the authentic report. The unique merchandise as initially ready and aired in Canada ran in its entirety. The report was adopted with an all-new addendum:
Right here is the brand new closing to the CECOT report, which incorporates the “further reporting” Bari Weiss rightfully requested.
SHARYN ALFONSI: “60 Minutes” has repeatedly requested the Division of Homeland Safety for the entire information and legal backgrounds of all 252 Venezuelan… pic.twitter.com/ZrKfpcxyiE
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) January 19, 2026
SHARYN ALFONSI: “60 Minutes” has repeatedly requested the Division of Homeland Safety for the entire information and legal backgrounds of all 252 Venezuelan males the U.S. despatched to CECOT. It might not present them. This previous week, DHS advised us: “We’re assured in our regulation enforcement’s intelligence, and we aren’t going to share intelligence stories and undermine nationwide safety each time a gang member denies he’s one. That will be insane.” Due to this, we relied on the ICE knowledge that’s accessible for our reporting. Of the 252 males, that knowledge reveals that 33 had been convicted of against the law within the U.S. Once more, eight of them for violent or probably violent crimes. One other 70 had pending fees. However we do not know the character of these fees, as a result of DHS refuses to share that info.
Neither of the 2 detainees in our story has been convicted of any crimes within the U.S. 9 days in the past, DHS despatched “60 Minutes” a photograph of William Lozada Sanchez’ left arm, with a swastika tattoo. Once we interviewed Lozada in November, that is what his arm seemed like. He advised us he obtained the offensive tattoo at 15 and did not know what it meant. He claims he regretted it and had it modified simply earlier than the U.S. despatched him to CECOT. 5 gang consultants advised us that swastikas and 666, one other tattoo on Lozada’s arm, don’t have any connection to the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. In a press release to “60 Minutes”, The White Home mentioned President Trump is dedicated to retaining his guarantees to the American individuals by eradicating harmful legal and terrorist unlawful aliens. The administration’s statements can be found in full on-line. DHS deflected all questions on abuse allocations at CECOT, saying the boys usually are not underneath U.S. jurisdiction whereas in El Salvador.
However final month, a federal choose dominated that the U.S. had maintained what was known as “constructive custody” over the Venezuelans who have been despatched to CECOT underneath the Alien Enemies Act. He ordered the Trump Administration to present these males the due course of they have been denied. In a declaration to the courtroom, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defined partially that bringing the deported Venezuelans to the U.S. for hearings or holding distant ones right now would threat, quote, “materials injury to U.S. international coverage pursuits in Venezuela.”
Once more, we get issues that ought to’ve been included throughout the authentic report. This contains additional context on how the DHS decided the detainees have been a menace, a abstract of the requests made to the administration (and subsequent denials) and, lastly, the statements made by the administration for functions of the report, that are listed right here.
Of these, the one one made after December nineteenth was the DHS saying they stood by their December nineteenth assertion. In different phrases, CBS had every thing they have been going to get by way of statements and selected to air them as a result of they refused to offer Alfonsi with a spectacle.
This isn’t to say that the report between the addenda nonetheless isn’t partisan slop as a result of it completely is. However the slop now has sufficient context whereby viewers can assess for themselves.
Given what we now know and having seen the report with context and addenda, we are able to conclude that Weiss was proper to drag the report and ship it again for additional context. The media morality clerics will undoubtedly howl, however they have been at all times going to howl. The actual fact is that the First Modification didn’t self-incinerate and the Republic didn’t fall.
