'60 Minutes' correspondent lambasts 'corporate meddling' at CBS, admits she could be fired
"60 Minutes" correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi offered scathing criticism of CBS leadership and speculated about her potential firing from the network while accepting an award Thursday night.
Alfonsi was the recipient of the Courage Prize from the Ridenhour Prizes in Washington, D.C. According to its website, the awards, named after investigative journalist Ron Ridenhour, "recognize those who persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society."
According to The Guardian, Alfonsi invoked her clash with CBS News chief editor Bari Weiss over her decision to temporarily pull her "60 Minutes" segment on the notorious El Salvador prison CECOT in December that ultimately aired in January, citing "corporate calculations" that were in play, though not singling out her boss by name.
"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," Alfonsi said, per 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."
"Some executives are asking not, ‘Is the story true?’ But, ‘Is it good for business?’" she remarked. "But rather than just running the story, they asked us to change it. I refused. Not because I’m a pain in the a--, which I am, but because the story was factually correct, and I argued that any change to it might reflect poorly on CBS and '60 Minutes.'"
Alfonsi acknowledged her stance "did not make my new bosses very happy," insisting the show's audience is "smart" and that viewers would know instinctively that changes made to her CECOT story would be the result of "capitulation or censorship."
"I believe I was doing my job, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared," she said, according to The Guardian. "Fear is a funny thing – it can paralyze you, or it can point you to exactly what needs to be protected. Right now, our industry is afraid of the wrong things. We’re afraid of offending power. We’re afraid of losing access. We’re afraid of another baseless lawsuit. But what we should all be afraid of is silence. Because as I learned [at her first job as a waitress], there is a fine line between being a team player and being an accomplice."
She also spoke candidly about the possibility that she will not return for the next season of "60 Minutes."
"Thank you for this award. I didn’t know that the theme was hope. My hope recently has been that I still have a job. And every morning I wake up to another headline that says I’ve been fired... If I am fired, it will not be the first time," Alfonsi said, referring to a past job as a waitress.
CBS News did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
There have been multiple reports in recent weeks of a major shakeup at "60 Minutes," though details have been under wraps. Among the things being speculated is an overhaul of the magazine program's correspondents. Anderson Cooper announced his exit from "60 Minutes" earlier this year, which reportedly shocked CBS News leadership.
Weiss' newsroom battle with Alfonsi marked her first major challenge as the network's editor in chief. Weiss was brought into the fold by David Ellison, who became the CEO of CBS News' parent company Paramount following the company's merger with Skydance Media.
Liberal critics of Weiss and Ellison have accused them of bending the knee to President Donald Trump and trying to curry favor with the Trump administration, particularly as Ellison seeks to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, which oversees CNN.
Critics also fear that both CBS News and CNN will undergo a MAGA-friendly makeover as a result. Ellison insisted that CNN would maintain editorial independence under his watch, though he echoed that the network would share CBS News' new mission of appealing to the 70% in the political middle.
Notably, Ellison hosted a dinner last week honoring Trump and CBS News correspondents two days prior to the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.