60 Minutes built a 50-year reputation as the gold standard of American journalism.
But the show became a propaganda machine for the Left.
And Bari Weiss just saved CBS News from airing one disgusting hit piece on Trump.
Liberal CBS Correspondent Throws Tantrum After Boss Kills Illegal Alien Sob Story
Sharyn Alfonsi spent months working on what she thought would be her next award-winning segment.
The 60 Minutes correspondent prepared an exposé on CECOT – the El Salvador prison where President Trump sent Venezuelan gang members in March 2025.
CBS promoted the story across social media all week and scheduled it for Sunday night's broadcast.
Three hours before airtime, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss killed it.
Alfonsi fired off an angry email to colleagues accusing Weiss of "corporate censorship" and calling the decision "political, not editorial."¹
Conservatives who saw what Weiss prevented from airing had a different reaction.
"The segment sounds as if it was going to be yet another mainstream media 'Maryland Man' story glorifying illegal alien criminals while ignoring their crimes," RedState reported.²
Alfonsi wanted to run a sympathy piece for deported gang members to make Trump's border enforcement look cruel.
Weiss wasn't having it.
The Segment Featured Sob Stories From Deported Gang Members
CBS announced the segment would feature Alfonsi "speaking with some of the now released deportees, who describe the brutal and torturous conditions they endured inside CECOT."³
Notice the framing – "released deportees" instead of illegal aliens or gang members, and "brutal and torturous conditions" painting Trump's deportation policy as human rights abuse.
This is exactly the propaganda 60 Minutes has specialized in for years.
Alfonsi has a track record of pushing liberal narratives disguised as journalism.
In 2021, she tried to destroy Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with a completely fabricated "pay for play" scandal involving COVID vaccines and Publix supermarkets.
60 Minutes deceptively edited DeSantis's response – cutting out several minutes where he explained the actual vaccine distribution process.⁴
Democrat officials in Florida, Publix, and DeSantis all rejected Alfonsi's story as fake news.
CBS never apologized.
What CBS Won't Tell You About Those "Asylum Seekers"
Alfonsi's segment would have painted the deportees as innocent asylum seekers caught up in Trump's crackdown.
Here's what CBS left out.
President Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in March 2025 to quickly deport members of Tren de Aragua – a violent Venezuelan prison gang that invaded American cities.⁵
The Trump administration designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization and sent more than 250 gang members to El Salvador's maximum-security CECOT prison under a deal where the U.S. pays $6 million annually.⁶
Trump and his aides branded them "rapists," "savages," "monsters" and "the worst of the worst."⁷
CBS wanted Americans to feel sorry for them.
Weiss objected to the segment calling the deportees "Venezuelan migrants" instead of what they are – illegal aliens.⁸
The liberal media plays this game constantly – take violent criminals, call them "migrants" or "asylum seekers," interview them about how mean America is, and expect viewers to cry for people who broke into our country.
Weiss saw through it immediately.
Alfonsi Mad Trump Refused To Play Along
Alfonsi revealed in her leaked email that the Trump administration wouldn't provide an on-the-record response.
She requested interviews with the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, and the State Department.
The administration ignored them.
Weiss suggested 60 Minutes reach out to White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller – even providing his contact information.⁹
Miller didn't respond either.
Smart move – why would Trump officials participate in a hit piece designed to undermine the President's border security policies?
Alfonsi was furious her targets wouldn't cooperate with their own assassination.
"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," Alfonsi complained.¹⁰
That's rich coming from a network that spent four years covering for Joe Biden and censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story.
When President Trump tried discussing Hunter Biden's corruption with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl before the 2020 election, Stahl shut him down.
"This is 60 Minutes and we can't put on things that we can't verify," Stahl lectured Trump.¹¹
The laptop was real.
CBS lied.
Now they're mad Trump won't help them lie about his deportation policies.
CBS Staffers Threaten To Quit Over Boss With Standards
Alfonsi's email claimed that abandoning sources who spoke with them was "a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless."¹²
"These men risked their lives to speak with us," Alfonsi wrote.¹³
Give me a break.
Gang members complaining about prison conditions aren't "voiceless" – they're criminals trying to make Americans feel guilty about enforcing our laws.
Real journalism would investigate how these gang members got into America and how many crimes they committed before Trump deported them.
But that doesn't fit the narrative.
CNN reported that some 60 Minutes staffers are "threatening to quit" over Weiss holding the segment.¹⁴
Good – let them go work at MSNBC where they can push liberal propaganda without anyone checking their work.
Weiss responded with a simple statement.
"My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be," Weiss told The New York Times. "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."¹⁵
Translation: I'm not letting you turn 60 Minutes into an infomercial for illegal aliens.
There's A New Sheriff At CBS News
Bari Weiss took over as CBS News editor-in-chief in October after Paramount Skydance acquired her independent news site The Free Press for $150 million.
Paramount CEO David Ellison hired Weiss specifically to clean up CBS News' reputation for liberal bias.¹⁶
Leftists are furious because they're used to running every major network without anyone questioning their narratives.
Weiss brings a different approach – she actually cares whether stories are true and fair.
"Give credit, however, to David Ellison, Chairman and CEO of Paramount, who brought on independent journalist, former NY Times opinion editor, and nowadays free thinker Bari Weiss to oversee the hopelessly biased CBS team," RedState praised.¹⁷
The old CBS would have aired Alfonsi's segment and taken Trump's refusal to comment as proof of guilt.
The new CBS under Weiss actually considers whether one-sided propaganda serves the public interest.
Liberal activists pretending to be reporters hate it.
But Americans who are sick of media lies finally have someone at a major network willing to hold the line against leftist propaganda.
Bari Weiss just proved she's the right person for the job.
¹ Brian Stelter, "CBS Correspondent Email," CNN Business, December 22, 2025.
² Bob Hoge, "Meltdown at CBS News," RedState, December 22, 2025.
³ "CBS Shelves '60 Minutes' Story," CNN Business, December 22, 2025.
⁴ "'60 Minutes' History of Liberal Controversies," Fox News, October 16, 2024.
⁵ "Trump Invokes 18th Century Law," PBS NewsHour, March 16, 2025.
⁶ "Inside Trump's $6mn Deportee Deal," Context by Thomson Reuters Foundation, April 11, 2025.
⁷ Mica Rosenberg, et al., "Trump Admin Knew Most Deported Venezuelans Had No U.S. Convictions," ProPublica/Texas Tribune, May 30, 2025.
⁸ "'60 Minutes' Reporter Email Leaks," The Daily Beast, December 22, 2025.
⁹ "CBS Shelves '60 Minutes' Story," CNN Business, December 22, 2025.
¹⁰ Stelter, "CBS Correspondent Email."
¹¹ "'60 Minutes' History of Liberal Controversies," Fox News, October 16, 2024.
¹² Stelter, "CBS Correspondent Email."
¹³ "CBS Shelves '60 Minutes' Story," CNN Business, December 22, 2025.
¹⁴ Ibid.
¹⁵ "Bari Weiss Pulls '60 Minutes' Segment," Variety, December 22, 2025.
¹⁶ "How Bari Weiss' Takeover Shifts Media World," TheWrap, October 6, 2025.
¹⁷ Hoge, "Meltdown at CBS News."
