Reporter says CBS held story due to politics

A '60 Minutes' piece on imprisonment of Venezuelan deportees was to air Sunday.

- STEPHEN BATTAGLIO

AN IMAGE from the unaired "60 Minutes" segment, "Inside CECOT." The piece, set to air Sunday, was held.

A "60 Minutes" story about the Trump administration's treatment of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants who were deported to El Salvador was pulled by CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss shortly before it was scheduled to air Sunday night.

The unusual call drew a sharp rebuke from Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent for the piece, and brought more attention to the actions of Weiss since she was tapped to remold the network that was home to broadcast news giants Walter Cronkite and Mike Wallace.

Alfonsi said the decision was motivated by politics, according to an email she circulated to colleagues that was viewed by The Times. Alfonsi noted that the story was ready for air after being vetted by the network's attorneys and the standards and practices department.

"It is factually correct," Alfonsi wrote. "In my view, pulling it now - after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one."

According to the CBS News press department's description of the segment, Alfonsi spoke to released deportees who described "the brutal and torturous conditions they endured inside CECOT," one of El Salvador's harshest prisons.