The feature about the CECOT prison, where the Trump administration has sent Venezuelan migrants, was published by the Canadian copyright holder and is now spreading on social media, writes the Hollywood Reporter, among others.
The segment was stopped shortly after broadcast and replaced with another one on CBS. However, on Monday afternoon US time, customers of the Canadian streaming platform Global TV were able to watch the program, with the original segment.
Whether the publication of the piece was an accident or a deliberate decision is still unclear. Neither CBS nor the Trump administration has commented since the piece was released.
The news that CBS News' new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss had stopped the feature came on Sunday, US time. Weiss announced that she did not believe the feature advanced the story and that the Trump administration had not responded to the allegations raised.
Reporter Sharyn Alfonsi condemned the decision as political. "If refusing to cooperate becomes a valid reason to stop a story, we have effectively given them an 'off button' for any reporting they deem uncomfortable," she wrote in an email, according to US media.
The decision comes in light of Trump's previous lawsuit against CBS and a high-profile settlement.
Weiss was appointed editor-in-chief under the new ownership of CBS under Paramount CEO David Ellison, and she has been tasked with making CBS more "balanced."
