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A portion of a postponed 60 Minutes segment critical of the Trump administration’s deportation policies was temporarily available to watch Monday through a Canadian network.
CBS News pulled its report on a mega-prison in El Salvador hours before it was set to air on Sunday night, but part of the episode briefly appeared on Global TV’s free website and app on Monday.
Viewers in Canada — or those around the world with a VPN — were able to watch a little more than 13 minutes of the segment online. Some screen-recorded the episode and uploaded versions to YouTube, TikTok and Reddit, where they circulated further.
The segment was available for at least two hours before it was removed. CBC News has contacted Global and Corus, its parent company, for comment.
CECOT houses hundreds of Venezuelan people deported from the United States without trial. In the 60 Minutes episode, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said the reporting team spoke with some of the men who endured “one of El Salvador’s harshest prisons.”
The portion of the segment available online in Canada included reference to a meeting this year between Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and U.S. President Donald Trump, in which Alfonsi said Trump “expressed admiration for El Salvador’s prison system” despite condemnation by human rights groups for violations.
“They’re great facilities, very strong facilities and they don’t play games,” Trump said during the meeting at the White House in April.
The segment caused a furor without ever going to air after CBS News pulled the episode from its schedule. A CBS News spokesperson said the decision was made because the show “needed additional reporting” and would air at a later date.
Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, founder of the Free Press website, had sought to get the Trump administration’s perspective included in the story. Weiss said in a statement that holding stories that aren’t ready, because they lack context or are missing critical voices, happens every day in newsrooms.
In a letter obtained by the New York Times, the correspondent who reported the story said the episode didn’t air over “political reasons.”
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi wrote in the note, according to the 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.”
WATCH | CBS decision led to an uproar on Sunday:
CBS pulls 60 Minutes report on El Salvador’s CECOT prison hours before airtime
CBS News pulled a 60 Minutes report on El Salvador’s CECOT prison just hours before its scheduled Sunday broadcast, saying it would air at a future time.
Global is owned by Corus Entertainment, which has a brand licensing deal to air 60 Minutes in Canada.
CBS changed ownership in August when Skydance Media — run by David Ellison, son of longtime Trump supporter Larry Ellison — acquired Paramount, the broadcast network’s parent company.
David Ellison helped secure regulatory approval for the deal with the promise that the CBS network would reflect the “varied ideological perspectives” of American viewers.
Weiss was picked to lead CBS News in October following the Paramount Skydance merger.