alt Hacker NewsInside CECOT – 60 Minutes [video]
Comments
Here's why Bari Weiss delayed the story:
Hi all,
I’m writing with specific guidance on what I’d like for us to do to advance the CECOT story. I know you’d all like to see this run as soon as possible; I feel the same way. But if we run the piece as is, we’d be doing our viewers a disservice.
Last month many outlets, most notably The New York Times, exposed the horrific conditions at CECOT. Our story presents more of these powerful testimonies—and putting those accounts into the public record is valuable in and of itself. But if we’re going to run another story about a topic that has by now been much-covered we need to advance it. Among the ways to do so: does anyone in the administration or anyone prominent who defended the use of the Alien Enemies Act now regret it in light of what these Venezuelans endured at CECOT? That’s a question I’d like to see asked and answered.
- At present, we do not present the administration’s argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT. What we have is Karoline Leavitt’s soundbite claiming they are evildoers in America (rapists, murderers, etc.). But isn’t there much more to ask in light of the torture that we are revealing? Tom Homan and Stephen Miller don’t tend to be shy. I realize we’ve emailed the DHS spox, but we need to push much harder to get these principals on the record.
- The data we present paints an incongruent picture. Of the 252 Venezuelans sent to CECOT, we say nearly half have no criminal histories. In other words, more than half do have criminal histories. We should spend a beat explaining this. We then say that only 8 of the 252 have been sentenced in America for violent offenses. But what about charged? My point is that we should include as much as we can possibly know and understand about these individuals.
- Secretary Noem’s trip to CECOT. We report that she took pictures and video there with MS-13 gang members, not TdA members, with no comment from her or her staff about what her goal on that trip was, or what she saw there, or if she had or has concerns about the treatment of detainees like the ones in our piece. I also think that the ensuing analysis from the Berkeley students is strange. The pictures are alarming; we should include them. But what does the analysis add?
- We need to do a better job of explaining the legal rationale by which the administration detained and deported these 252 Venezuelans to CECOT. It’s not as simple as Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act and being able to deport them immediately. And that isn’t the administration’s argument. The admin has argued in court that detainees are due “judicial review”—and we should explain this, with a voice arguing that Trump is exceeding his authority under the relevant statute, and another arguing that he’s operating within the bounds of his authority. There’s a genuine debate here. If we cut down Kristi Noem analysis we’d have the time.
My general view here is that we do our viewers the best service by presenting them with the full context they need to assess the story. In other words, I believe we need to do more reporting here.
I am eager and available to help. I tracked down cell numbers for Homan and Miller and sent those along. Please let me know how I can support you.
Yours,
Bari
I have a feeling this will get DMCA-ed off of Internet Archive in an attempt to suppress it. Here's the infohash of the archive.org torrent download for future reference, this should allow the file to be retrieved in any torrent client as long as someone in the world is seeding it still.
8105370ed7dba50dc7ec659fd67550569b4dd8a0
The timing of this might lead one to believe Paramount’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Brothers Discovery is a consideration in their editorial decisions. They and their competitor (Netflix) need regulatory approval for such a merger and the administration has already inserted itself into the deal.
Bryan Cantrill, "Do not fall into the trap of anthropomorphizing Larry Ellison" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15886728
The specific lines about Ellison and a lawnmower start at 38:28 in the linked video; the entire Oracle rant starts at about 34:00.
I recommend everyone bookmark the archive.org link or download via the magnet link since HN is disappearing these.
Also, any recommendations for a news site that doesn't suppress news? Asking for a friend.
Fascinating how this got leaked. A TV station in Canada accidentally ran the original episode version, implying that this was pulled super late and the episode was completely in the can.
Direct Download link if anyone needs it is https://archive.org/download/insidececot/60minutesCECOTsegme...
>Here is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her ‘60 Minutes’ colleagues in full:
This is why we need archive.org.
<https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/watch-the-60-minutes-cecot...>
This is disgraceful [0], whatever your opinion on illegal immigration.
[0] deporting non-citizens to 3rd-party countries/prisons
Too bad the only people that will watch this are people who already understand the terror of what is happening. It might have helped a little if it had aired. My MAGA dad still watches 60 Minutes (no idea why, habit?) This might have penetrated his TDS-addled skull if it had aired. But the takeover of CBS by Trump and Ellison (and his 1980's-college-villain son) with Weiss is complete, and vile.
I'm reminded of the Letter on Justice and Open Debate[1] that Bari Weiss signed only a few years ago, now she's spiking stories like this one on CECOT for showing the current administration in a negative light.
I also wonder if this story will get the type of leeway to stay on HN to collect the 200+ upvotes and 300+ comments of that previous example or if it will be flagged off the front page within minutes like so many other similar stories.
EDIT: No idea how long this post actually lasted, but checking in an hour later to see this has been flagged completely off the first 10 pages of HN despite getting close to that 200 point total.
Funny how it leaked out by sending it off to their Canadian distributor
Using the torrent, you should be able to pull it down in a few minutes.
Additional context:
> The Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that the men sent to El Salvador were overwhelmingly violent criminals; Pro Publica reported that the administration knew at least 197 of the men had not been convicted of crimes in the United States, and six had been convicted of violent offenses.
https://www.404media.co/archivists-posted-the-60-minutes-cec...
Here's the magnet URL to the torrent, can't hurt:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:734abc77f48d11c78543c52004b6f57db71d6d92&dn=60minutes-cecotsegment&xl=1483256352&tr=http%3A%2F%2Fbt1.archive.org%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=http%3A%2F%2Fbt2.archive.org%3A6969%2Fannounce&ws=http://ia601703.us.archive.org/32/items/&ws=http://ia801703.us.archive.org/32/items/&ws=https://archive.org/download/Corruption is not merely something someone in power enacts in their choices; it is a rot that eats out the society from the inside.
As individuals realize that nakedly appeasing the autocrat wins favor, they voluntarily corrupt themselves and others in hopes of advantage.
More and more of the society enters the grip of this force and weakens until the truly valuable things—its resources, minds, institutions—are annihilated, stolen, and displaced by a hierarchy of criminals or warlords. This is how nations sink. It’s the story of many in Africa, South America, Russia—and now it is our own.
Ironically, this might end up being more widely watched now (Streisand). I’ve seen multiple people on my Facebook link to different sources hosting the video. People who never would’ve heard about the story are now watching it through the lens of Trump and CBS trying to kill the story.
As a companion piece, here is ProPublica's recent report trying to determine who exactly was sent to this torture camp: https://projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-immigrants-trump-...
People in the US now have to use VPN’s to get access to domestic news from a foreign country. I think it’s fair to say that the wheels have come off democracy and things are badly broken.
For context, this report was suppressed by CBS News' new leadership, most likely to appease the US government.
No matter what your politics are, this is a pretty dark turn for the United States.
everybody involved is evil.
This, and Larry Ellison buying all news outlets in America. Things should be happening quickly enough so that it's obvious where this is all going, right?
Whoever writes the next "Inglorious Basterds" should have a lot of fun parodying Larry...
This should NOT be flagged.
I expected a piece titled "Inside CECOT" to have a part where the principal journalist actually goes there.
Something I hadn't heard yet about CECOT: https://www.lemkininstitute.com/single-post/mass-grave-compl...
Archive links are all good in the comments, but let's make the submission url one of the story links with context:
CBS defends pulling 60 Minutes segment about Trump deportations
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrnv3keeneo
or
‘60 Minutes’ Pulled a Segment. A Correspondent Calls It ‘Political.’
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/business/60-minutes-trump...
The oligarchy is in full effect. This is exactly how it works, ie you scratch my back I scratch yours. Ellison kills this CBS report, he gets approval on buying WBS, or more to the point NetFlix doesn't. Same with Musk, Middle East dictators and all the others lining up for favors from Trump. Also he and his family is enriched in various ways by all the pardons he hands out.
It's nauseating, but this is where Republicans live these days. The midterms can't come soon enough.
There are other links here as well: https://www.404media.co/archivists-posted-the-60-minutes-cec...
Thanks for sharing. The way things are here, this will soon be censored - sorry, I meant flagged - here as well.
Why all those articles on HN are "flagged"? And by WHOM?
I've been watching this 60min piece, and there's nothing wrong with is. It's journalism well done.
Do Trumpist minions have their ways on HN?
[dead]
CECOT is terrible, and the fact that the US sent them to give a message is criminal.
But the overarching culprit here is the Venezuelan regime. These people ran away from Venezuela in search for a new life; Just today a girl was sentenced to 10 years in prison just for printing a shirt of Chavez's statue falling. last week a 17 year old was sentenced to 10 years in jail just because he protested after the elections were stolen from them...
The only solution is to taken down the regime
[flagged]
I believe information wants to be free, and should be free, even when I don't unanimously agree with the information, so I will start by re-sharing the torrent magnet link for the video, which I am also seeding right now, and will continue to do so until at least a full month passes with zero activity:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:734abc77f48d11c78543c52004b6f57db71d6d92&dn=60minutes-cecotsegment&xl=1483256352&tr=http%3A%2F%2Fbt1.archive.org%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=http%3A%2F%2Fbt2.archive.org%3A6969%2Fannounce&ws=http://ia601703.us.archive.org/32/items/&ws=http://ia801703.us.archive.org/32/items/&ws=https://archive.org/download/
It’s saved so over 15,000 lives and protected the human rights of millions of Salvadorans. Truly a great accomplishment.
I’m excited to see what positive coverage CBS has of this great development in human rights in El Salvador.
It is a total propaganda both ways and if you don’t see that, you’re not looking clearly. Of course it’s absolutely unacceptable to be sending nonviolent illegal immigrants to a terrorist detention center. But then you watch the episode and of course 60 minutes decides to spoil it and not do real reporting by having an immigration lawyer say they are all nonviolent criminals, which is obviously also total bullshit
Bari Weiss had editorial comments that forced a delay. If you want to read her comments, look for them:
https://x.com/thesimonetti/status/2003142908854313225
They seem reasonable. The person doing this 60 minute segment has also pushed false stories in the past, which make her concern more relevant.
Much is being made of the revelations of the segment. I didn't see any.
Footage of CECOT is widely available as are interviews with former inmates. They allege effectively the same thing as what was claimed here by the accused TdA member. The Salvadoran administration is proud of CECOT and gleefully shows it off, including (as was shown in the segment) the solitary confinement cells.
There were no secrets revealed, nothing particularly new, and most importantly, nothing novel about the case of the accused TdA member. HN is acting like this segment revealed particularly damaging facts and therefore will be urgently scrubbed, but I'm not seeing anything new at all. I think the sentiment that the segment will be censored and we all have to run out and seed it is a bit hyperbolic. You can't try to hide CECOT's conditions when the people who run the prison happily give tours and show off what one might think they'd hide (punishment cells, for example).
There is no smoking gun, but more importantly there's nothing new in the segment that you can't already see in segments on Youtube. In fact, 60 Minutes used other people's footage of CECOT, not their own. Seed this all you want, but I don't think there's going to be a big push to make it go away. It reveals nothing that hasn't already been widely seen.
Larry Ellison is using his bags to purchase lies and silence.
No economy can be in true equilibrium when the consumers send profits to be spent in unforeseen and unrelated ways like this. Every purchase carries potentially immense future costs that are almost completely opaque.
Free market maximalists need to confront this fact before praying at the altar of complete deregulation, and every consumer should pay more attention to who they are buying from.