Georgia librarians could face criminal charges for ‘harmful materials’; Georgia Recorder, February 3, 2026

 ROSS WILLIAMS, Georgia Recorder; Georgia librarians could face criminal charges for ‘harmful materials’ 

"Librarians and education advocates are warning that a bill moving through the state Legislature could cause Georgia’s librarians to self-censor controversial materials and lead to more challenges on books about LGBTQ people or issues.

Senate Bill 74, sponsored by Sylvania Republican Sen. Max Burns, changes an exemption in state law dealing with the distribution of harmful materials to minors.

Today, the state exempts public and school or university libraries from the ban on distributing obscene media to people under 18. If Burns’ bill becomes law, one would only be exempt if they were not aware of the harmful material, had previously suggested the material be challenged as obscene or had suggested to have the materials moved to an area of the library not accessible to minors."

Professors Are Being Watched: ‘We’ve Never Seen This Much Surveillance’; The New York Times, February 4, 2026

 Vimal Patel , The New York Times; Professors Are Being Watched: ‘We’ve Never Seen This Much Surveillance’

Scrutiny of university classrooms is being formalized, with new laws requiring professors to post syllabuses and tip lines for students to complain.

"College professors once taught free from political interference, with mostly their students and colleagues privy to their lectures and book assignments. Now, they are being watched by state officials, senior administrators and students themselves."

One Year of the Trump Administration; American Libraries, January 23, 2026

 Greg Landgraf  , American Libraries; One Year of the Trump Administration

Attacks on libraries have continued, with mixed effectiveness but plenty of chaos

"In the first year of Donald Trump's second presidency, libraries have been buffeted by a string of policies and executive orders. Some changes have been sweeping, while others were smaller in scope but still had significant impacts in specific regions or for specific library services. Many have forced librarians and libraries to adapt in order to continue essential services.

Uncertainty may be the most notable overarching theme of federal policy in the past year. Legal challenges and other acts of resistance by librarians have prevented, overturned, or at least delayed some of the administration’s most notable attacks on libraries from taking effect. In other cases, policy changes have been announced that may affect libraries and librarians, but it’s not yet clear the impact those changes will have.

Here are several updates on federal policies and decrees that have and will continue to affect libraries across the US.

IMLS status remains uncertain...

Register of Copyrights reinstated—for now...

Federal Government Shutdown...

Presidential library director ousted...

Some libraries discontinue passport acceptance services...

FCC ends E-Rate support for hotspot lending...

Military library censorship...

Tariffs disrupt international interlibrary loan...

Department of Education restructuring...

Federal agency cutbacks include libraries...

Universities targeted"

Federal court reverses decision on Idaho’s library materials law, returns case to lower court; Idaho Capital Sun, January 30, 2026

 SEAN DOLAN , Idaho Capital Sun; Federal court reverses decision on Idaho’s library materials law, returns case to lower court

"A federal appeals court on Thursday delivered welcome news for opponents of the Idaho Legislature’s 2024 law that established civil penalties for libraries and schools that allow children to access “harmful” material.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Thursday narrowly reversed a decision from the U.S. District Court of Idaho to deny a preliminary injunction that would have stopped the law from going into effect. The circuit court’s decision on Thursday sided with the plaintiffs, reversed the district court’s decision and returns the case back to the lower court to consider “the scope of a limited preliminary injunction” and to “conduct further proceedings consistent with our opinion...

HB 710’s “context clause” requires courts and other reviewers to consider if the allegedly offensive content in libraries and schools possesses “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.” The court concluded that the plaintiffs — a coalition of private schools and libraries and their patrons — showed a “likelihood of success” because the bill’s context clause is “overbroad on its face” and threatens to regulate a substantial amount of expressive activity."

Park Service removes slavery exhibit at Independence Park in Philadelphia; The Washington Post, January 22, 2026

 Jake Spring, The Washington Post; Park Service removes slavery exhibit at Independence Park in Philadelphia

"National Park Service staff on Thursday took down an exhibit on slavery at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, which had been targeted last year by President Donald Trump in an executive orderon “restoring truth and sanity to American history.”

The exhibit was at the President’s House Site, where George Washington lived as president. The informational panels discussed Washington’s ownership of enslaved people, as well as the broader history of slavery, and included details about their lives.

The Park Service has been removing information on historic racism, sexism, LGBT rights, slavery and climate change since last year as it carries out Trump’s executive order...

The exhibit included information on the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 alongside images of slaves being beaten. Michael Coard, a founding member of the coalition, said removing the signs sought to erase history.

“Don’t you think that Black men, Black women, Black children were whipped and beaten before and after the Fugitive Slave Act?” Coard said.

The removals come as nearby Independence Hall is closed for renovations in preparations for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

“It’s not only the erasure of history. On the eve of the 250th anniversary of the birth of this country, this is a historical outrage,” Coard said. “This is historical blasphemy.”

Cindy MacLeod, former superintendent at the park, praised the work that had gone into the exhibit, calling the removal “vandalism.”

The exhibit was at the President’s House Site, where George Washington lived as president. The informational panels discussed Washington’s ownership of enslaved people, as well as the broader history of slavery, and included details about their lives

Jimmy Kimmel slams FCC after chair demands changes to talk shows: 'Doing everything he can to shut us up'; Entertainment Weekly, January 23, 2026

 Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly; Jimmy Kimmel slams FCC after chair demands changes to talk shows: 'Doing everything he can to shut us up'

"Jimmy Kimmel is fighting with the FCC once again.

The comedian used his Jimmy Kimmel Live monologue on Thursday night to draw attention to the organization's chair, Brendan Carr, after he demanded that talk shows like Live and The View give an equal amount of time to political candidates on both sides of the aisle.

"[Carr] is doing everything he can to shut us up, the easy way or the hard way," Kimmel said in the monologue.

The FCC released new guidance on Wednesday that argued that talk shows and late-night shows should not be considered "bona fide" news programs, and thus should not continue to receive exemption from the equal time rule. That night, President Trump posted a link to a Los Angeles Times article with the caption, "FCC takes aim at The View, Jimmy Kimmel Live in fight over ‘equal time’ rules for politicians."

The new guidance effectively states that shows like Jimmy Kimmel Liveand The Late Show With Stephen Colbert must now give equal time to all political candidates running for the same office.

"They're reinterpreting long-agreed-upon rules to stifle us," Kimmel said. "And this one's a little bit complicated. It's not as easy as what happened the last time.  So I want to break it down.""

Philadelphia sues US government for removal of slavery-related exhibit; The Guardian, January 23, 2026

 Marina Dunbar , The Guardian; Philadelphia sues US government for removal of slavery-related exhibit

"Philadelphia is taking legal action against the Trump administration following the National Park Service’s decision to dismantle a long-established slavery-related exhibit at Independence National Historical park, which holds the former residence of George Washington.

The city filed its lawsuit in federal court on Thursday, naming the US Department of Interior and its secretary, Doug Burgum, the National Park Service, and its acting director, Jessica Bowron, as defendants. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the exhibits to be restored while the case proceeds.

The display stood at the President’s House site, once home to George Washington and John Adams, and included information recognizing people enslaved by Washington, along with a broader chronology of slavery in the US...

The Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, sharply criticized the decision to take down the signs, arguing that Trump “will take any opportunity to rewrite and whitewash our history”

“But he picked the wrong city – and he sure as hell picked the wrong Commonwealth,” Shapiro added in a message posted on X. “We learn from our history in Pennsylvania, even when it’s painful.”...

Congress had encouraged the National Park Service in 2003 to formally acknowledge the enslaved people who lived and worked at the President’s House. The lawsuit states that in 2006, the city and the agency agreed to collaborate on creating an exhibit for the site, which opened in 2010 with a memorial and informational panels focused on slavery.

The removal of the exhibit is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to eliminate cultural content that does not align with his policy agenda."

How the National Park Service Is Deleting American History; The New York Times, January 23, 2026

 Maxine Joselow and Jennifer Schuessler, The New York Times; How the National Park Service Is Deleting American History

[Kip Currier: Trump 2.0's ongoing efforts to censor and erase history and science are appallingly Orwellian, yet also childishly regressive and unevolved.

When this modern Dark Age of willful ignorance and information suppression has passed, the uncomfortable truths, silenced voices, and inescapable facts will need to be restored to our collective historical record and cultural heritage institutions.]

[Excerpt]

"At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, the Trump administration took down an exhibit on the contradiction between President George Washington’s enslavement of people and the Declaration of Independence’s promise of liberty.

At Muir Woods National Monument in California, the administration dismantled a plaque about how the tallest trees on the planet could help store carbon dioxide and slow the Earth’s dangerous warming.

And at Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts, Trump officials ordered the National Park Service to stop showing films about the women and immigrants who once toiled in the city’s textile mills.

Across the country, Park Service workers have started taking down plaques, films and other materials in connection with a directive from President Trump to remove or rewrite content that may “disparage Americans” or promote “corrosive ideology.”"

Pentagon says it will ‘refocus’ Stars and Stripes content; Stars and Stripes, January 15, 2026

COREY DICKSTEIN, Stars and Stripes; Pentagon says it will ‘refocus’ Stars and Stripes content

[Kip Currier: Forward this Stars and Stripes article about Pete Hegseth's plans for the military newspaper to as many as possible. It's valuable perspective to hear from Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin and members of Congress.]

[Excerpt]

"The Pentagon said on social media Thursday it would take over editorial content decision-making for Stars and Stripes in a statement from the Defense Department’s top spokesman.

“The Department of War is returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters. We are bringing Stars & Stripes into the 21st century,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top public affairs official and a close adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, wrote in a statement posted to X. “We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.”

The statement appears to challenge the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes, which while a part of the Pentagon’s Defense Media Activity has long retained independence from editorial oversight from the Pentagon under a congressional mandate that it be governed by First Amendment principles.

The move was met with pushback from several Democratic senators, who accused the Pentagon of tampering with the newspaper’s reporting.

Stars and Stripes, which is dedicated to serving U.S. government personnel overseas, seeks to emulate the best practices of commercial news organizations in the United States. It is governed by Department of Defense Directive 5122.11. The directive states, among other key provisions, that “there shall be a free flow of news and information to its readership without news management or censorship.”

Editor-in-Chief Erik Slavin, in a note to Stars and Stripes’ editorial staff across the globe Thursday, said the military deserves independent news.

“The people who risk their lives in defense of the Constitution have earned the right to the press freedoms of the First Amendment,” Slavin wrote. “We will not compromise on serving them with accurate and balanced coverage, holding military officials to account when called for.”

Stars and Stripes first appeared during the Civil War, and it has been continuously published since World War II. It is staffed by civilian and active-duty U.S. military reporters and editors who produce daily newspapers for American troops around the world and a website, stripes.com, which is updated with news 24 hours a day, seven days a week...

Parnell’s post came a day after a Washington Post report revealed that applicants for positions at Stars and Stripes were being asked how they would support President Donald Trump’s policies. The questionnaire appears on the USAJobs portal, the official website for federal hiring. Stars and Stripes was unaware of the questions until the Post inquired about them, organization leaders said.

The Pentagon statement comes several years after the Defense Department attempted to shut down Stars in Stripes in 2020, during Trump’s first administration."

Pentagon taking over Stars and Stripes to eliminate ‘woke distractions’; The Hill, January 15, 2026

ELLEN MITCHELL , The Hill; Pentagon taking over Stars and Stripes to eliminate ‘woke distractions’

[Kip Currier: It's unfortunate but not surprising to see that Pete Hegseth, given his actions to date, is taking "editorial control" of the Stars and Stripes newspaper that was started by Union soldiers on November 9, 1861, in the midst of the Civil War.]

[Excerpt]

"The Pentagon announced Thursday it would take editorial control of independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes to refocus coverage on “warfighting” and remove “woke distractions.”

The Department of War is returning Stars & Stripes to its original mission: reporting for our warfighters,” top Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement posted to X. “We will modernize its operations, refocus its content away from woke distractions that syphon morale, and adapt it to serve a new generation of service members.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposted Parnell’s statement.

Part of the Pentagon’s Defense Media Activity, Stars and Stripes has been editorially independent from Defense Department officials since a congressional mandate in the 1990s. The outlet’s mission statement states that it is “governed by the principles of the First Amendment.” 

In some form since the Civil War, Stars and Stripes has consistently reported on the military since World War II to an audience mostly of service members stationed overseas."

Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian: ‘The goal is to reframe the entire culture of the US’; The Guardian, January 8, 2026

 Charlotte Higgins , The Guardian; Trump’s assault on the Smithsonian: ‘The goal is to reframe the entire culture of the US’

[Kip Currier: Informative reporting by The Guardian on Trump 2.0 efforts to whitewash and erase centuries of history and culture by imprinting one man's and one movement's views on the Smithsonian museums.

Share this with as many people as possible to raise awareness and promote advocacy for the historical integrity and unfiltered authenticity of museums within the Smithsonian Institution system.]

[Excerpt]

"Lonnie Bunch, in the meantime, is holding a delicate line. On 18 December, a new letter from the White House arrived for him. The Smithsonian had fallen short in providing the information requested on 12 August, it said. “We wish to be assured,” it continued, “that none of the leadership of the Smithsonian museums is confused about the fact that the United States has been among the greatest forces for good in the history of the world. The American people will have no patience for any museum that is diffident about America’s founding or otherwise uncomfortable conveying a positive view of American history.” Then came the threat. “As you may know, funds apportioned for the Smithsonian Institution are only available for use in a manner consistent with Executive Order 14253, ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,’ and the fulfilment of the requests set forth in our August 12, 2025 letter.”

Bunch wrote a note to all his staff the following day, quietly affirming, once more, the organisation’s autonomy. “For nearly 180 years, the Smithsonian has served our country as an independent and nonpartisan institution committed to its mission – the increase and diffusion of knowledge – for all Americans. As we all know, all content, programming, and curatorial decisions are made by the Smithsonian.”

With JD Vance on the board of regents, along with Republican members of Congress, the question hovers: how long will 73-year-old Bunch survive in his position? “Lonnie knows his time is short,” one DC museum director told me. “It’s a question of how he decides to go, and of which hill he chooses to die on.”"

Documentary ‘The Librarians’ explores book bans and the fight for intellectual freedom; Mountain Times, December 31, 2025

 Mountain Times; Documentary ‘The Librarians’ explores book bans and the fight for intellectual freedom

"Saturday, Jan. 3, and Sunday, Jan. 4, at 3 p.m.—WOODSTOCK—A timely documentary examining the rise of book bans and censorship across the United States will screen in Woodstock this weekend as part of the Woodstock Vermont Film Series. “The Librarians” will be shown at Billings Farm & Museum, with a special post-screening Q&A featuring producer Janique Robillard following Saturday’s screening.

“The Librarians” follows a group of librarians who find themselves on the front lines of a national battle over access to books and ideas. As efforts to remove books from schools and public libraries intensify in states such as Texas and Florida, librarians are emerging as unlikely defenders of democracy and the First Amendment. The film centers in part on the so-called “Krause List,” which targeted more than 850 book titles—many focused on race, identity, and LGBTQ stories—and helped fuel a wave of coordinated censorship efforts nationwide.

Through personal accounts and on-the-ground reporting, the documentary captures the mounting pressure librarians face, including harassment, threats, and legislation that criminalizes aspects of their work. As the debate escalates from local school board meetings to organized political movements at the state and national levels, “The Librarians” traces how access to information becomes a battleground over whose stories are allowed to be told.

By examining the broader consequences of restricting access to books, the film underscores how controlling ideas can shape communities—and why defending intellectual freedom remains a critical issue in contemporary civic life.

The screening is part of the Woodstock Vermont Film Series, which presents documentaries and narrative films that spark conversation and deepen connections to the wider world. Screenings take place on select Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. in the Billings Farm & Museum Visitor Center Theater through March 22. Tickets are $15 for general admission and $12 for Billings Farm & Museum members.

The series is curated and directed by filmmaker Jay Craven and produced by Billings Farm & Museum with support from community sponsors. 

For more information, visit: billingsfarm.org/filmseries."

Supreme Court Will Not Hear Little v. Llano County; Library Journal, December 16, 2025

 Lisa Peet, Library Journal; Supreme Court Will Not Hear Little v. Llano County

 "THE LONG GAME

While this is a disheartening development for the plaintiffs, Dan Novack, VP and Associate General Counsel at PRH, feels that a favorable precedent could still be set at the Supreme Court level. PRH has several cases in play, including Penguin Random House LLC v. Robbins, challenging Iowa’s SF496 in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Penguin Random House LLC v. Gibson , fighting Florida’s HB 1069 in the Eleventh Circuit. Both are scheduled to be heard in early 2026.

Given that it only takes about one percent of the cases put forward to it every year, “when there is a traffic jam of cases, as there is in this emerging area of law, it’s really not uncommon for the Supreme Court to sit back and let it play out,” Novack told LJ. If the other cases are also decided against the freedom to read, the Supreme Court may not see the need to step in. But if rulings are split, it may choose to take on one of the cases.

If the Supreme Court had taken Little v. Llano, it could have resulted in a positive ruling coming sooner. But “I’m taking the longer view that it’s good to be presenting more options to the Court, and if they were to take a Penguin Random House case, I feel very strong about the merits of those cases,” said Novack.

Even Llano County’s attorney, Jonathan Mitchell, in his brief in opposition to the writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to review the Fifth Circuit ruling, stated that “The Court should wait and allow these [circuit] courts to weigh in on whether and how the Speech Clause applies to library-book removals before jumping in to resolve this issue.”

Novack acknowledges that this decision is a hard one for Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. “Something went very wrong in the Fifth Circuit,” he said. But PRH and its council are committed to a multi-year fight that could potentially reach the Supreme Court and set precedent for the right to read throughout the United States.

“Although our lawsuit has come to a disappointing end,” Leila Green Little, lead plaintiff in the case, told LJ, “I am encouraged by the many people across the country who continue our fight in the courtrooms, their local libraries, and our state and federal legislative chambers.”"

60 Minutes episode on brutal El Salvador prison, pulled from air by CBS, appears online; The Guardian, December 23, 2025

 Jenna Amatulli , The Guardian; 60 Minutes episode on brutal El Salvador prison, pulled from air by CBS, appears online

"Alfonsi notes the poor conditions in the prison, showing images of half-dressed men with shaved heads all lined up in rows in front of bunks stacked four high. The bunks have no pillows or pads or blankets. The lights are kept on 24 hours a day and detainees have no access to clean water.

Alfonsi pointed to a 2023 report from the state department that “cited torture and life-threatening prison conditions” in Cecot, she said: “But this year, during a meeting with President Bukele at the White House, President Trump expressed admiration for El Salvador’s prison system,” before airing footage of Trump saying: “They make great facilities. Very strong facilities. They don’t play games.”

The segment also talks to Juan Pappier, deputy director at Human Rights Watch, who helped write an 81-page report that detailed Cecot’s pattern of “systematic torture” and found that nearly half the men in the prison did not actually have a criminal history. Pappier said the study was based on information obtained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s own records. Alfonsi confirmed that 60 Minutes independently corroborated Human Rights Watch’s claims.

William Losada Sánchez, a Venezuelan national and former Cecot inmate, also describes to Alfonsi what it was like to get sent to “the island” – a punishment room where prisoners would be sent if they could not comply with being forced to sit on their knees for 24 hours a day.

“The island is a little room where there’s no light, no ventilation, nothing. It’s a cell for punishment where you can’t see your hand in front of your face. After they locked us in, they came to beat us every half hour and they pounded on the door with their sticks to traumatize us,” he said.

The segment briefly touches on Kristi Noem’s visit to Cecot. Pinto claims the Department of Homeland Security secretary did not speak to a single detainee during her visit...

Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator, shared the episode online, saying: “Take a few minutes to watch what they didn’t want you to see. This story should be told.”"

‘60 Minutes’ Report Was Pulled Off the Air. Now It’s on the Internet.; The New York Times, December 23, 2025

 Michael M. Grynbaum, The New York Times ; '60 Minutes’ Report Was Pulled Off the Air. Now It’s on the Internet.

"CBS News caused a controversy after it pulled a report from Sunday’s episode of the long-running news program that featured the stories of Venezuelan men who were deported by the Trump administration to a brutal prison in El Salvador. But the 13-minute segment, as originally edited by “60 Minutes” staff members, soon surfaced online in full.

The last-minute change had already set off a political firestorm. Bari Weiss, the network’s editor in chief, said she postponed the segment because its reporting was flawed and incomplete. Her critics — including the “60 Minutes” correspondent who reported the segment, Sharyn Alfonsi — saw it as an attempt by CBS to placate the administration. CBS is owned by David Ellison, a technology heir who is trying to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal that needs federal regulatory approval.

Now the viewing public can draw its own conclusions. After a Canadian television network briefly posted the video on its streaming app on Monday, copies were quickly downloaded and widely shared on social media."

Bari Weiss yanking a 60 Minutes story is censorship by oligarchy; The Guardian, December 23, 2025

 Margaret Sullivan, The Guardian; Bari Weiss yanking a 60 Minutes story is censorship by oligarchy

"One tries to give people the benefit of the doubt. But now, when it comes to Bari Weiss as the editor in chief of CBS News, there is no longer any doubt.

A broadcast-news neophyte, Weiss has no business in that exalted role. She proved that beyond any remaining doubt last weekend, pulling a powerful and important piece of journalism just days before it was due to air, charging that it wasn’t ready. Whatever her claims about the story’s supposed flaws, this looks like a clear case of censorship-by-editor to protect the interests of powerful, rich and influential people.

The 60 Minutes piece – about the brutal conditions at an El Salvador prison where the Trump administration has sent Venezuelan migrants without due process – had already been thoroughly edited, fact-checked and sent through the network’s standards desk and its legal department. The story was promoted and scheduled, and trailers for it were getting millions of views.

I’m less bothered by the screw-ups in this situation – for example, the segment is already all over the internet as, essentially, a Canadian bootleg – than I am by her apparent willingness to use her position to protect the powerful and take care of business for the oligarchy. Which appears to be precisely what she was hired to do.

Journalism is supposed to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted”, but Weiss seems to have it backwards.

I can’t know what’s in her mind, of course, but I know her actions – her gaslighting about how it would be such a disservice to the public to publish this supposedly incomplete piece, and her ridiculous offer to provide a storied reporting staff with a couple of phone numbers of highly placed Trump officials."

MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Goes Silent on Axed ‘60 Minutes’ Segment; The Daily Beast, December 23, 2025

 Josh Fiallo , The Daily Beast; MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Goes Silent on Axed ‘60 Minutes’ Segment

"Discussion of the growing 60 Minutes controversy was conspicuously absent from a CBS editorial meeting on Tuesday morning.

The network’s MAGA-curious new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, who personally spiked a segment critical of the Trump administration that was set to air Sunday night, was on the call but did not address the now-viral report that a Canadian affiliate mistakenly aired...

Although it did not receive its primetime Sunday evening slot, the 14-minute segment still reached a global audience after the Canadian broadcaster Global TV mistakenly published the episode on its streaming app. 

The clip has repeatedly been hit with copyright strikes on YouTube and other social media platforms, but it keeps popping back up on X, BlueSky, and Substack."

‘I ultimately had to comply’: ‘60 Minutes’ EP faces fallout after Bari Weiss shelves story; The Washington Post, December 22, 2025

 

Liam Scott

 and 

Scott Nover

, The Washington Post; ‘I ultimately had to comply’: ‘60 Minutes’ EP faces fallout after Bari Weiss shelves story

"Kelly McBride, senior vice president at the Poynter Institute, said requiring on-camera interviews with administration officials could be abused to manipulate coverage.

“It would give them the power to pick and choose which stories they want to go out,” McBride said. “It would allow them to literally craft the narrative themselves.”

It’s also uncommon for such a deeply reported segment to be pulled at the last minute, according to McBride. “This is a really high stakes story, and if she [Weiss] wanted to be involved in the process of green lighting or red lighting, that should not happen the day before the story is ready to run,” McBride said."

Yanked "60 Minutes" episode aired in Canada; Axios, December 22, 2025

 Sara Fischer , Axios; Yanked "60 Minutes" episode aired in Canada

[Kip Currier: CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss "knows her assignment": run editorial interference for oligarch Paramount Skydance tech baron bosses Larry and David Ellison (who own CBS) and the Trump 2.0 administration.

In one of the first major tests of Weiss's censorial assignment, she has both succeeded and failed: (1) blocking the airing of a damning 60 Minutes segment set to hear on December 21, 2025 on the human rights and due process violations of the Trump 2.0 administration in deporting detainees to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison gulag, and (2) unsuccessfully stopping the blocked video from leaking to Canada and the San Francisco-based Internet Archive.]

[Excerpt]

"The "60 Minutes" segment pulled from air by CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss did not include new comments from Trump administration officials, according to a copy of the segment viewed by Axios.

Why it matters: The segment, anchored by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, caused uproar internally over whether it was pulled for political reasons. 

• The package was distributed via an app owned by Global Television which airs "60 Minutes" in Canada.

Zoom in: The segment included interviews with two people who were imprisoned at CECOT, an executive from the nonprofit Human Rights Watch and the director of UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center Investigations Lab.

• One college student, who was detained by U.S. customs before getting deported to CECOT, describes being tortured upon arrival. 
• 
  
• Another man told Alfonsi that he and others were taken to "a little room where there's no light, no ventilation, nothing."
• 
  
• "It's a cell for punishment where you can't see your hand in front of your face. After they locked us in, they came to beat us every half hour, and they pounded on the door with their sticks to traumatize us while we were in there."
• 
  
• "60 Minutes" also said it reviewed available ICE data to confirm Human Rights Watch's findings that suggested only eight deported men had been sentenced for violent or potentially violent crimes.
• 
  

The other side: The segment ends with Alfonsi saying the Department of Homeland Security "declined our request for an interview and referred all questions about CECOT to El Salvador. The government there did not respond to our request."

• The segment included previous comments made by President Trump, who said El Salvador's prison system has "very strong facilities, and they don't play games.""