God forbid that “60 Minutes” practice some actual balance in their reporting.

Of course, the media want someone to blame for not feeding their preferred narrative – which means new CBS Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss is their target. But what is really happening here?

It was reported that “60 Minutes” had a segment about the El Salvador prison, CECOT, that was set to air on Sunday evening. They had already promoted the story on X and on YouTube, as CBS usually does for “60 Minutes” stories. But then, the show announced that the story was being pulled from the show’s schedule.

pic.twitter.com/JLbIdtUvY5

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) December 21, 2025

The segment “Inside CECOT” was originally going to feature correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi interviewing “some of the now released deportees, who describe the brutal and torturous conditions.”

“Earlier this year, the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, a country most had no ties to, claiming they were terrorists. This move sparked an ongoing legal battle, and nine months later the U.S. government still has not released the names of all those deported and placed in CECOT, one of El Salvador’s harshest prisons,” the press release for the segment read.

Hours before the episode was set to air on Sunday, however, the show released an editor’s note on X delaying the segment.

The show did not provide a reason for the delay, but a CBS spokesperson informed Fox News Digital that the network “determined it needed additional reporting.”

“60 Minutes” also privatized its preview for the segment on its YouTube channel, which featured Alfonsi speaking to a former inmate about his “four months of hell.”

However, nothing is ever really gone from the internet, and the preview was copied and reposted by people complaining that this MUST be because Bari Weiss is nothing but a shill for the Trump administration.

This is the now deleted teaser for the 60 Minutes report that was supposed to air tonight on the CECOT torture prison in El Salvador that Donald Trump sent hundreds of migrants to. CBS is officially a mouthpiece for the Trump administration thanks to Bari Weiss https://t.co/uRoFh2YdFo pic.twitter.com/aE1cbOXxAl

— Marco Foster (@MarcoFoster_) December 21, 2025

Sharyn Alfonsi, the reporter who conducted the interview, was upset about the decision, and put it in writing… which MAGICALLY ended up in the hands of outlets like the New York Times.

The segment was pulled three hours before the broadcast, a highly unusual last-minute change. The decision was made after Bari Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News, requested numerous changes to the segment. CBS News said in a statement that the segment would air at a later date and “needed additional reporting.”

But Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who reported the segment, rejected that criticism in a private note to CBS colleagues on Sunday, in which she accused CBS News of pulling the segment for “political” reasons.

“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Ms. Alfonsi wrote in the note, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. “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.”

CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ms. Alfonsi’s note. Reached on Sunday evening, Ms. Alfonsi said, “I refer all questions to Bari Weiss.”

The NYT had more details about why Bari Weiss apparently objected to the piece as it was – and also shows that Sharyn Alfonsi knew exactly what she was doing when she wrote her “private note.”

The segment was focused on Venezuelan men who were sent by the Trump administration to the Terrorism Confinement Center, a notorious prison in El Salvador. In a news release on Friday promoting the segment, CBS News said that Ms. Alfonsi had spoken with several men now released from the prison “who describe the brutal and torturous conditions they endured.”

Ms. Weiss had raised numerous concerns to “60 Minutes” producers about Ms. Alfonsi’s segment on Friday and Saturday, and she asked for a significant amount of new material to be added, according to three people familiar with the internal discussions.

One of Ms. Weiss’s suggestions was to include an interview with Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff and the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown, or a similarly high-ranking Trump administration official, two of the people said. Ms. Weiss provided contact information for Mr. Miller to the “60 Minutes” staff.

Ms. Weiss also questioned the use of the term “migrants” to describe the Venezuelan men who were deported, noting that they were in the United States illegally, two of the people said.

In her note, Ms. Alfonsi said that her team had requested comment from the White House, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security. “If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a ‘kill switch’ for any reporting they find inconvenient,” Ms. Alfonsi wrote.

“We have been promoting this story on social media for days,” Ms. Alfonsi added. “Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of ‘gold standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet.”

“I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight,” she wrote.

And magically, the Washington Post also has this “private note,” and blamed Bari Weiss in its headline for pulling the piece. And the Wall Street Journal also has it, which they reveal was an email sent to “fellow correspondents including Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley and Anderson Cooper” complaining about Weiss’s decision. Such “privacy,” much wow. Alfonsi knew what she was doing when she sent that email, and she fully intended for it to be forwarded on to her fellow travelers in the media. After all, how DARE Weiss point out that they might need to balance this story out! Doesn’t she realize that the narrative at “60 Minutes” is Orange Man Bad, and asking the Trump administration for commentary on the interviews doesn’t fit that narrative??? And when denied her moment, Alfonsi whined that her story was “expected” and this was “corporate censorship.”

Or maybe, Bari Weiss wanted some actual fairness by getting someone from the Trump administration on the record to counter the claims of *checks notes* illegal aliens from Venezuela that went to CECOT because initially, Venezuela wouldn’t accept them back. Late Sunday evening, Weiss put out a statement saying that she fully intends on airing the piece at some point.

Bari Weiss responds: "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… https://t.co/RWVh5tY6qJ

— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) December 22, 2025

And CBS has covered Venezuelans being held at CECOT very recently. This aired on November 12th, just a little over five weeks ago.

There can be legitimate questions about the status of Venezuelans being held at CECOT, and the use of CECOT in general, but to claim “corporate censorship” when the story has been aired recently, smacks of Sharyn Alfonsi throwing a email tantrum because her work got held up for lacking balance. And Bari Weiss’s statement is apparently not good enough for self-important potatoes like Brian Stelter.

This Bari Weiss comment — "holding stories that aren't ready… happens every day in every newsroom" — is both technically true and terrifically insulting to the CBS News vets who said the story WAS ready. The piece was even being promoted by PR. That doesn't happen by accident.

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 22, 2025

Stelter has been roundly embarrassed live on-air by Bari Weiss before, so he isn’t exactly an unbiased commentator on anything that involves her.

Sharyn Alfonsi is not unbiased when it comes to her own work. Bari Weiss pulled the plug on her story, and she owns that decision. Weiss has said that the piece will air “when it’s ready.” As editor-in-chief, she gets to make that call. But Alfonsi making sure her complaints got aired far and wide to her fellow travelers in the media is highly unprofessional. Just a little “note,” Sharyl – bitching about your boss behind her back is never a good look.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click