CBS reporter who feuded with Bari Weiss attacks network after abrupt ouster from 60 Minutes
CBS News declined to renew the contract of 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi months after her public feud with the network’s editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss.
Alfonsi, who publicly clashed with Weiss after her segment on El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison was abruptly pulled off the air in December, confirmed her deal expired on Saturday to The New York Times.
Efforts by Alfonsi’s agent to get CBS to discuss a new contract were met with “absolute silence from network executives,” she said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
“The message could not be clearer: my time at 60 Minutes is apparently over,” she reportedly said.
“In the coming days, network leadership may attempt to hide behind corporate euphemisms like ‘modernization’ and ‘restructuring’ to explain away my departure. Don’t be misled. This was not a routine corporate transition; it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting, and it sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom.”
60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi says CBS has declined to renew her contract, months after she and editor-in-chief Bari Weiss got into a public feud over her segment (60 Minutes/CBS News)
Alfonsi’s statement continued: “Fearless, independent reporting has always been the defining standard at 60 Minutes. Today CBS management is abandoning that mission, choosing access journalism over accountability and protecting power rather than scrutinizing it. The wall between editorial independence and corporate interest at CBS is being methodically torn down. Journalists willing to challenge authority are being pushed aside in favor of those who will not. If this continues, the result will be a broadcast that looks like 60 Minutes but lacks the courage and character to produce journalism that matters.”
The longtime correspondent went on to thank her colleagues “who became family — working beside you has been the privilege of a lifetime. You are second to none. I’ve learned exactly what it costs to hold the line right now. Hold it anyway. Viewers and the people who trust us with their stories deserve nothing less.”
Alfonsi remains employed at CBS, but told the NYT that she did not expect to return to 60 Minutes.
“I’m not resigning,” she said. “If they want me gone because I did my job, they’ll have to fire me.”
The Independent has contacted Alfonsi and CBS News for comment.
Weiss was hired as editor-in-chief of CBS after Skydance Media bought CBS’ parent company, Paramont Global, in August (Getty)
60 Minutes ultimately aired Alfonsi’s segment in January, a month later than expected. Weiss claimed it was “not ready” to air in December due to the lack of on-the-record comments from the Trump administration. She had also suggested several late editorial changes, the NYT reports.
At the time, Alfonsi fumed in a memo to her colleagues that Weiss’ decision to spike the segment appeared to be politically motivated.
“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” she wrote, the NYT reports. “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.”
Alfonsi also noted that if the White House’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.”
Alfonsi spoke about the experience during an April 30 speech at the National Press Club in Washington, after she received a Ridenhour Courage Prize for “life-long defense of the public interest and passionate commitment to social justice.”
(Getty)
“I will not linger on the internal mechanics of the dust-up at CBS that led to our CECOT story being pulled, but we have to be honest about what it represents,” she said, according to The Guardian.
“It wasn’t an isolated editorial argument. In my view, it was the result of a more aggressive contagion: the spread of corporate meddling and editorial fear. It’s hard to watch.”
Alfonsi also said that “corporate calculations” were affecting journalism, saying, “Some executives are asking not, ‘Is the story true?’ but, ‘Is it good for business?’”
Weiss was hired as editor-in-chief by David Ellison, son of billionaire and Republican mega-donor Larry Ellison, after his company, Skydance Media, bought CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, for $8 billion in August.
During negotiations of that deal, Paramount paid President Donald Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over his claim that 60 Minutes unfairly edited an interview in 2024 with Kamala Harris.
Weiss has been accused by critics of being too Trump-friendly. Most recently, the network has faced backlash over its handling of the Iran war, with some CBS staffers claiming the network is carrying out a “propaganda-palooza” on behalf of the Trump administration’s military campaign, according to Zeteo.
