{"id":826105,"date":"2026-05-27T18:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/826105\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T18:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:53:14","slug":"60-minutes-journalist-sharyn-alfonsi-loses-deal-after-dispute-with-bari-weiss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/826105\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201960 Minutes\u2019 Journalist Sharyn Alfonsi Loses Deal After Dispute With Bari Weiss"},"content":{"rendered":"

CBS News declined to renew its contract with the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, six months after her segment on torture in Salvadoran prisons was pulled off the air<\/a> abruptly by the news division\u2019s editor in chief, Bari Weiss.<\/p>\n

Ms. Alfonsi\u2019s deal expired on Saturday. She said in a phone interview that her agent\u2019s inquiries with CBS News over the past several weeks had been met with silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom,\u201d Ms. Alfonsi said. \u201cI think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Alfonsi remains employed at CBS, but with no contract in place, she said she had no expectation of returning to \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m not resigning,\u201d she said. \u201cIf they want me gone because I did my job, they\u2019ll have to fire me.\u201d<\/p>\n

CBS News declined to comment on Ms. Alfonsi\u2019s remarks or her future at the network.<\/p>\n

Ms. Weiss, an opinion journalist whose tenure has drawn enormous scrutiny, is readying a significant shake-up at \u201c60 Minutes,\u201d her network\u2019s flagship news series.<\/p>\n

Among her ideas are introducing a raft of new contributing journalists, adding shorter digital segments and developing \u201c60 Minutes\u201d-themed live events, akin to The New Yorker Festival, where viewers could meet star correspondents like Lesley Stahl, according to two people with knowledge of her thinking.<\/p>\n

The fate of Tanya Simon, the program\u2019s executive producer, is also unclear. Ms. Weiss is considering hiring an outside journalist to oversee or work alongside Ms. Simon, the people said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Alfonsi has contributed to \u201c60 Minutes\u201d since 2015. She was at the center of a firestorm<\/a> in December after Ms. Weiss, who was appointed by CBS\u2019s new owner, David Ellison, pulled a 13-minute segment that Ms. Alfonsi had reported on harsh conditions faced by Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

At the time, Ms. Alfonsi called the decision \u201cpolitical\u201d in an email to colleagues. Ms. Weiss rejected that charge, saying the reporting \u201cwas not ready\u201d; she had suggested several last-minute editorial changes, including that the reporters seek an interview with Stephen Miller, the architect of President Trump\u2019s immigration policy.<\/p>\n

The segment eventually aired<\/a> in its entirety one month later, with additional comments from the Trump administration tacked on. Ms. Alfonsi continued to appear on \u201c60 Minutes\u201d through the end of this season, which concluded on May 17.<\/p>\n

Any re-engineering at \u201c60 Minutes\u201d by Ms. Weiss would amount to both a pivotal moment of her tenure and a major gamble. The show, which debuted in 1968, is still the country\u2019s highest-rated television newsweekly, and its viewership this season was up 9 percent from the year before, according to Nielsen.<\/p>\n

Her other signature initiative, the remaking of \u201cCBS Evening News,\u201d has suffered from low viewership and some embarrassing errors. The network failed to secure a visa for the show\u2019s anchor, Tony Dokoupil, to visit China for Mr. Trump\u2019s recent diplomatic trip, which led to some mockery from the former CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert.<\/p>\n

\u201c60 Minutes\u201d has a long tradition of autonomy within CBS News, a source of tension for generations of network executives. In the interview, Ms. Alfonsi said she felt anxious about the program\u2019s future. \u201cFor the last 60 years it\u2019s been the same formula: Tell the truth, hold the power accountable, don\u2019t blink,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s unclear what next season looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a feeling that the wall has come down between editorial independence and corporate interests,\u201d she added. \u201cThe concern is we\u2019re going to end up with a broadcast that looks like \u201860 Minutes\u2019 but doesn\u2019t have the courage or the character to produce \u201860 Minutes\u2019 journalism that actually matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The uproar over the Salvadoran prison segment came about in part because of Ms. Alfonsi\u2019s email that criticized management, a rarity in the network news business. Some CBS executives privately described her actions as insubordinate. Ms. Alfonsi said she did not regret sending the email. \u201cI know they said that I was being difficult, but I believed I was doing my job,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Alfonsi would be the second \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent to depart since Ms. Weiss joined CBS. Anderson Cooper said in February that he would leave the program after 20 years.<\/p>\n

In a farewell appearance this month, Mr. Cooper told viewers that he hoped \u201c\u201860 Minutes\u2019 remains \u201860 Minutes,\u2019\u201d and added, in comments that were perceived as a subtle dig at CBS: \u201cThe independence of \u201860 Minutes\u2019 has been critical. The trust it has with viewers is critical to the success of \u201860 Minutes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Benjamin Mullin contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CBS News declined to renew its contract with the \u201c60 Minutes\u201d correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, six months after her…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":826106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[339242,339238,17192,339240,22474,339241,26871,30900,51,50,210762,339239,52,27834],"class_list":["post-826105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-60-minutes-tv-program","tag-alfonsi","tag-anderson","tag-bari","tag-cbs-corporation","tag-cbs-evening-news-tv-program","tag-cbs-news","tag-cooper","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-news-and-news-media","tag-sharyn","tag-top-stories","tag-weis"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116648057613777559","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}