CBS Is Officially State Run Media and NYT Is Close Behind

The decision to cancel 60 Minutes report on Trump's concentration camps is a new level of corporate capitulation to a fascist regime

Have you heard of CECOT, and do you know why Donald Trump doesn’t want you to know about it? Back in February of this year I wrote this warning:

One of the defining characteristics of autocratic regimes is that they control the flow of information, ensuring that media outlets report favorably on the ruling party while silencing dissenting voices. This move isn’t just concerning—it’s a flashing red siren. The state-run media playbook is clear: flood the public with friendly coverage, discredit legitimate journalism, and make it harder for people to differentiate between truth and propaganda.

Last week Bari Weiss ran a fluff piece on the widow of Charlie Kirk, portraying a known racist, bigot, and Islamophobe as some stellar moral compass who celebrated the Trump agenda. Last night we learned that under the ‘leadership’ of Bari Weiss, CBS killed the CECOT story despite five internal reviews, fact checks, and approvals. Why? Because the Trump regime refused to grant an interview to be included in the report. This is what state run media looks like, and it is putting us all in danger.

What is CECOT, why doesn’t Trump want you to know about it, and how do we protect ourselves from the corruption of State Run media? Let’s Address This.

In Tecoluca, El Salvador April 4, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas

What Is CECOT and What Is Trump Hiding?

In short, CECOT is a modern day concentration camp. I don’t use these words lightly. As The Guardian reports:

The now infamous terrorism confinement centre, known as CECOT, is Latin America’s largest prison, with capacity for 40,000 inmates. In March, the Trump administration struck a deal with El Salvador to send there more than 250 Venezuelan migrants that it accused of accused of terrorism and gang membership. Horror stories have since emerged about abuse that they are alleged to have endured, with lawyers for some of the men who were later released describing the conditions as “state-sanctioned torture”.

American tax dollars are being used to fund a concentration camp with people suffering state sanctioned torture. What Trump is hiding at CECOT is not a policy disagreement or a diplomatic nuance—it is state-sanctioned abuse carried out with U.S. complicity. CECOT, El Salvador’s so-called “terrorism confinement center,” is the largest prison in Latin America, designed for mass detention without due process, where credible reporting documents torture, extreme overcrowding, indefinite confinement, and the denial of basic human rights.

Under the deal struck this year, the Trump administration has continued to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants—many with no criminal convictions and no meaningful opportunity to contest the allegations against them—to this facility. Trump does not want the public to know that migrants are disappearing into a foreign prison system precisely because it allows his administration to evade U.S. constitutional protections, judicial oversight, and media scrutiny. CECOT is not an aberration; it is a preview of how power operates when secrecy replaces accountability and when cruelty is outsourced to avoid legal and moral responsibility.

The Trump regime knows full well that any person within the borders of the United States must be afforded due process of law—documented or undocumented, citizen or non-citizen. So, they simply changed the rules. Now, the Trump regime illegally deports individuals to CECOT, and then claims they have no jurisdiction over El Salvador. You’ll note the story of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man hounded by the Trump regime and send to CECOT prison, where he suffered for months before US Senator Christopher Van Hollen made it his personal mission to get him released. Politico reports that Garcia lost 31 pounds in his first two weeks at CECOT, adding:

Upon arrival at CECOT, the detainees were greeted by a prison official who stated, ‘Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn’t leave,’ according to the account. Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was then forced to strip, issued prison clothing, and subjected to physical abuse including being kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms to make him change clothes faster. His head was shaved with a zero razor, and he was frog-marched to cell 15, being struck with wooden batons along the way.

Mind you, Garcia has not been convicted of any crime whatsoever. Media is supposed to hold government accountable and demand answers for such injustices—not help them hide their crimes. Yet this is precisely what it appears CBS is doing.

CBS and NYT Become State Run Media

Actual journalists are supposed to hold power accountable. The journalists at CBS’s 60 Minutes flagship program attempted to do just that, spending months on the CECOT story. And mere days before it was set to air, Bari Weiss killed it, claiming the story needed “additional reporting.” Weiss, if you’ll recall, is the handpicked right wing billionaire funded pundit, installed to appease Trump and ensure a merger went through. And she’s already delivering for her top client, Donald Trump. Weiss went on to say that the segment could not air “without first getting an on-the-record statement from the Trump administration.” In response, correspondent for “Inside CECOT” Sharyn Alfonsi went on record to sound the alarm. I’m sharing the full email Alfonsi sent to her colleagues:

News Team,

Thank you for the notes and texts. I apologize for not reaching out earlier.

I learned on Saturday that Bari Weiss spiked our story, INSIDE CECOT, which was supposed to air tonight. We (Ori and I) asked for a call to discuss her decision. She did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity.

Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. 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.

We requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story.

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.

If the standard for airing a story becomes “the government must agree to be interviewed,” then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast. We go from an investigative powerhouse to a stenographer for the state.

These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.

CBS spiked the Jeffrey Wigand interview due to legal concerns, nearly destroying the credibility of this broadcast. It took years to recover from that “low point.” By pulling this story to shield an administration, we are repeating that history, but for political optics rather than legal ones.

We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of “Gold Standard” reputation for a single week of political quiet.

I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight.

Sharyn

Alfonsi is right. This is purely a political decision and betrays the very purpose of the Fourth Estate. Understand what just happened. Journalists conducted painstaking research to hold government accountable for funding a literal concentration camp, reached out to the Trump regime repeatedly to comment on air to explain himself, the Trump regime refused to comment on air, and then the hand-picked, billionaire-funded, new head of CBS decided to side with the Trump regime over her own journalists.

This is not journalism. This is state media.

And here’s why I also mention the New York Times in my headline. Last month, after claiming he didn’t care about the Epstein files, it was revealed this week that NY Times Columnist David Brooks is in the Epstein files. The New York Times’ failure to disclose that their columnist was slamming the Trump-Epstein Files while knowing full well he was in those files, is yet another failure of corporate legacy media. It is another attempt of cover up. While Bari Weiss and CBS are trying to cover up abuse and torture in El Salvador, David Brooks and NY Times are trying to cover up abuse and torture at Epstein Island. Both acts are indefensible by the so-called journalists in question, and certainly by CBS and NY Times.

It is devastating to see once prominent outlets bend the knee to fascists and coverup stories of torture and abuse as a matter of routine. CBS once hosted Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America. Now, it peddles propaganda from a pseudo-journalist so fickle and feckless she doesn’t think twice about killing a story about American tax dollars funding international concentration camps. The New York Times was once proudly hailed as the paper of record. Now, it’s record is that of covering up child sex trafficking as it platforms writers who very much were connected with the child-trafficker-in-chief himself.

This is unsustainable.

I launched Let’s Address This to ensure my readers had clear and accurate information on the critical human rights issues that impact them on the daily. Our small team cannot replace juggernauts like CBS and The New York Times, but we can ensure that on this issue of human rights, we provide clear, consistent, transparent, and accurate information in a timely and reliable manner. Given how corporate media continues to collapse, it is clear that we cannot trust legacy media alone anymore. We need independent tools that expose bias and ensure we are consuming fact-based journalism.

The Solution: Independent Media and Ground News

I’ve always said, I don’t propose problems without offering solutions. This is not a moment to give up, but a moment to take action. Because we are not powerless against media manipulation. We have the ability to better control the information we consume, to identify bias, and to ensure that truth still matters. And to close out this article, I want to share a vehicle I’ve mentioned before to help parse fact from fiction, and truth from falsehood.

That vehicle is Ground News—one of the most powerful tools available today to combat media bias and misinformation.

Why Ground News Matters Now More Than Ever

Ground News isn’t just another news aggregator—it’s a game-changing website and app that helps you uncover bias and hidden agendas in media. Here’s how it works:

✅ Bias Analysis: It categorizes news sources based on their political leaning (left, right, center) and their overall reliability, helping you make informed choices. This tool alone is worth the investment, especially as this regime continues to kill stories critical of its actions. (e.g. the CECOT story)

✅ Funding Clarity: It reveals who owns and funds each media outlet, so you can see the interests behind the reporting, ensuring you include that fact in your information consumption. Now, you can see that CBS is owned by a billionaire with a right wing agenda to protect Trump at all costs.

✅ Transparency: It gathers related articles from around the world in one place, allowing you to compare how different outlets cover the same story. In other words, even if CBS killed the CECOT story, Ground News helps ensure you remain well informed across a spectrum to ensure you have full context.

Why This Fight Matters

Unlike billionaire-owned media giants, Ground News is subscriber-supported. That means it answers to readers, not corporate interests. Subscribe to Ground News through my link below, get 40% off their Vantage Plan—the same plan I personally use to research, fact-check, and write my articles—and remain better inoculated against misinformation and disinformation.

Journalism should be based on truth. But unfortunately, we live in an era where truth is under attack. And while the corporate media apparatus has capitulated, we don’t have to. We can sit back and let Trump control the narrative—or we can fight back with truth, transparency, and accountability. I hope you join me in choosing the latter.