Veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi says CBS News has effectively pushed her out after she refused to alter her explosive report on the Trump administration's deportation of Venezuelan men to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison — and stood her ground against network boss Bari Weiss.
Alfonsi's contract expired earlier this month, and CBS News executives have made no effort to contact her representatives at talent agency UTA to negotiate a renewal, according to Variety. Her producers have been reassigned. She remains an at-will CBS employee and will continue to be paid, but she can no longer do the work of a working correspondent.
"I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting," Alfonsi told the New York Times.
The clash with Weiss, CBS News's controversial editor in chief, erupted in December when Weiss pulled the "Inside CECOT" segment hours before it was set to air, saying it needed comment from a Trump administration official — even though Alfonsi's team had already invited the White House, DHS, and State Department to participate. All declined.
In an internal memo, Alfonsi warned that making government participation a condition of airing a story would hand the administration a "kill switch" over 60 Minutes' journalism. The segment finally aired in January, but in a low-viewership slot opposite the NFL playoffs.
Weiss arrived at CBS after Paramount paid Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, a move widely seen as a concession to secure FCC approval of Skydance's $8 billion takeover of the network.