CBS News Gets Blasted for One-Sided Anti-Trump ’60 Minutes’ Hit Piece [WATCH]

Media analyst Howie Kurtz criticized CBS’s “60 Minutes” over what he described as a one-sided report targeting a Trump administration policy involving Venezuelan prisoners, arguing the segment failed to include any voices defending the policy it attacked.

Kurtz said the network’s handling of the piece raised serious questions about fairness and balance, particularly given the absence of policy advocates or administration supporters in the broadcast.

“I think that CBS will have even more of a black eye if it doesn’t eventually run this story,” Kurtz said.

“But look, I watched a bootleg copy of the CBS segment, and it is totally one sided. It is totally anti Trump and the guests included beside the two Venezuelan prisoners from Human Rights Watch from the Human Rights Center at Berkeley, and nobody defending the Trump policy, not an advocate, not an activist.”

Kurtz argued that if CBS intended to present a critical report, it had an obligation to include opposing viewpoints, even if that required holding the story until such voices could be included.

“And so it seems to me that if Bari Weiss wanted to weigh in, she should have gone to one of the five screenings,” he said.

“And just briefly, rich stories get held all the time.”

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He cited past newsroom practices to illustrate his point.

“Mike Wallace once called me and said that Don Hewitt, the producer, told him that his story wasn’t ready and that he needed a voice such as mine,” Kurtz said.

“I came on right at the top, just before the stopwatch.”

A Fox News anchor pressed the issue of whether journalists should delay a story to secure responses from those being criticized.

“You know, even, even if, let’s say, your boss comes to you, you’ve had trouble getting comment from the administration, which was the claim here,” the anchor said.

“Then if your boss comes to you and says, I’ve got the phone numbers of the people who have put this policy in place, which we are critical of in this piece. Wouldn’t you want to hold it off and then be able to say, okay, ask the people who put this policy in place to defend it at that point. I mean, shouldn’t you want to do that?”

Kurtz responded that while it would be preferable to have administration officials on camera, he believes the White House intentionally declined to participate and that CBS should not use that refusal as a reason to kill or reshape a story.

“Yeah, but I think the White House made a deliberate decision not to provide a guest, and I think Bari Weiss may have made too much of that,” Kurtz said.

“Because you need to. You’re sure if they can get somebody on camera, it would be it would really help the peace and maybe this will die down.”

He then referenced internal correspondence from the show’s own staff to drive home his argument.

“But the correspondent Sharon Alfonsi wrote in an internal note, if the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, then we have effectively handed them a kill switch for any reporting they find inconvenient,” Kurtz said.

“So it gives the Trump White House veto power, in effect, simply by deciding not to play.”

The Fox News anchor agreed that administration voices should be sought whenever possible.

“Yeah, absolutely,” the anchor said.

“But if you had the opportunity to maybe appeal directly to the people who are making this policy, you’d want them on the show, right?”

Kurtz said he agreed, but added that reports indicate CBS may have excluded relevant responses that were already provided off camera.

“Absolutely, of course,” he said.

“But Axios is reporting that there were comments provided by the White House, by the State Department and homeland security, obviously not on camera, that weren’t used. If that’s true, it’s inexplicable.”

Kurtz also criticized what he said were omissions within the “60 Minutes” report itself, particularly regarding criminal histories.

“And just to look at the fairness of the piece that 60 Minutes wanted to air,” he said.

“Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who I just mentioned, said nearly half of the 252 Venezuelans sent to El Salvador had no criminal history, and then just dropped it. No mention of the other half who obviously do have a criminal history.”

He added that the segment also criticized a visit by Kristi Noem to a notorious prison without including any response from her.

“And the segment criticized a Kristi Noem visit to that notorious prison,” Kurtz said.

“No comment at all from her side.”

WATCH:

Fox News’ Howie Kurtz BLASTS CBS over ‘60 Minutes’ prison report: “I watched a copy of the CBS segment and it is TOTALLY ONE-SIDED. It is totally anti-Trump.” pic.twitter.com/PT7FQdxSbZ

— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) December 24, 2025

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