CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi detailed in an internal email to the news team, obtained and posted on X over the past 59 minutes by Brian Stelter and Matt Grynbaum, that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss spiked the 60 Minutes segment 'Inside CECOT' on Saturday as a political decision and corporate censorship, not an editorial one. Alfonsi wrote, 'We are trading 50 years of "Gold Standard" reputation for a single week of political quiet,' and stated the story was screened five times and cleared by CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. She noted that she and producer Ori Weiss requested a call with Bari Weiss to discuss the decision, which was denied, according to the memo text shared by Stelter at https://x.com/brianstelter/status/2002943384499925159 and Grynbaum at https://x.com/grynbaum/status/2002935140377669709. The memo criticized government refusals from DHS, the White House, and State Department to respond or interview as a 'tactical maneuver' rather than a veto, warning that such a standard gives the administration a 'kill switch' for inconvenient reporting. Alfonsi emphasized a moral obligation to sources who risked their lives and compared the spike to CBS's past handling of the Jeffrey Wigand interview, which damaged credibility. This development follows a Wall Street Journal report cited in X posts during the prior reporting window from 2:16 AM to 3:16 AM UTC on December 22, 2025, which first revealed Alfonsi's email describing the change as political. CBS had removed a 30-second preview video of the segment from websites and social media on December 21, as previously noted. One X user, JoJoFromJerz, called for a boycott of CBS News in a post within the reporting window at https://x.com/JoJoFromJerz/status/2002918426734711036.
