A longtime 60 Minutes correspondent who publicly clashed with CBS News leadership over a pulled torture segment now finds herself without a contract. Sharyn Alfonsi says CBS let her 60 Minutes deal quietly lapse on Saturday, after weeks of unanswered outreach from her agent, reports the New York Times. Alfonsi remains a CBS employee but says she doesn't expect to return to the show, noting, "If they want me gone because I did my job, they'll have to fire me." She calls CBS' move "a chilling message to the entire newsroom" and labels it "a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting." CBS declined to comment.
The Hollywood Reporter notes that "Alfonsi, of course, could also find employment elsewhere before CBS News makes any official move." Her 60 Minutes exit follows veteran journalist Anderson Cooper's February announcement that he'd be leaving the news program after two decades, per the Times. It also comes as Bari Weiss, the opinion journalist installed last year as editor in chief of CBS News, prepares a broader overhaul of the network's flagship news magazine, despite its continued high ratings and long tradition of editorial independence.
Weiss angered Alfonsi and others at the network in December by abruptly pulling a 13-minute piece on Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration, saying the segment "was not ready" and needed more voices from Trump officials. The segment ran a month later, with added administration comment. Alfonsi, who called the earlier decision a "political" one, now warns that a key firewall "between editorial independence and corporate interests" is eroding. "For the last 60 years it's been the same formula: Tell the truth, hold the power accountable, don't blink," Alfonsi notes. Now, "it's unclear what next season looks like."
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