60 Minutes Icon Leaves Show Amidst Allegations of Rebellious Conduct

The prominent journalist from 60 Minutes who found herself at odds with CBS executives over a contentious report about the Trump administration’s policies is no longer part of the show.

Sharyn Alfonsi’s contract, which concluded on Saturday, has not been renewed by the network, according to information first revealed by The New York Times.

This decision follows an incident six months prior when a segment she worked on, highlighting ‘brutal and torturous conditions’ at a prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration was sending suspected illegal immigrants, was unexpectedly postponed.

When approached for her thoughts on her departure, Alfonsi expressed to the Times, “It sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom.”

As reported by the Los Angeles Times in December, Alfonsi communicated through internal emails that Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss’s judgment to delay the segment was driven by ‘political’ motives.

CBS executives considered the drafting of the internal memo as ‘insubordinate,’ several sources told the Times.

Alfonsi, in turn, told the paper she did not regret making the comments that were quickly leaked to the press.

Asked about CBS’s decision not to renew her contract, she said: ‘I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting.’

Alfonsi added that she was ‘not resigning’ from CBS, before effectively daring her higher-ups to pull the trigger.

Sharyn Alfonsi, a longtime presence at 60 Minutes, slammed CBS’s decision to pull a story about a Salvadoran prison as ‘political’ in December. She is no longer with the program, she revealed on Wednesday

Longtime 60 Minutes star Anderson Cooper also recently left the program. Media reports cited frustrations with senior leadership

‘If they want me gone because I did my job, they’ll have to fire me,’ she said. 

‘The concern is we’re going to end up with a broadcast that looks like 60 Minutes but doesn’t have the courage or the character to produce 60 Minutes journalism that actually matters.’

Fellow 60 Minutes long-timer Anderson Cooper already left last week, in part because of Editor-in-Chief Weiss, Status reported. Cooper, who remains at CNN, had been on the show for almost 20 years.

Alfonsi joined the program in 2015 and CBS in 2011.

Her story about Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) sparked what White House deputy policy chief Stephen Miller later called a ‘revolt’, when Weiss spiked it the day before it was set to air.

The following Monday, Weiss told staffers during the day’s editorial call that the episode had not done enough to take the story forward after reporting elsewhere: ‘While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball.

Alfonsi’s team also did not get enough administration officials on the record for the ‘important piece,’ she maintained.

Alfonsi, 53, immediately argued the move was a form of censorship. 

The story then accidentally aired on the TV app for one of Canada’s largest networks that week and copies of the show began to circulate widely online.

Alfonsi, a 60 Minutes correspondent since 2015, maintains that the last-minute move was a form of censorship

When the segment did officially air in January, viewers were able to compare the two versions, with few differences between the two.

The end of the segment was updated to include the administration’s comment. The administration also provided pictures of tattoos that had been on two of the migrants Alfonsi had interviewed.

The final episode of 60 Minutes’ latest season aired on May 17. Alfonsi was a regular presence even after the CECOT saga.

A February segment from her praised a German bid to arrest internet users accused of ‘hate-filled or toxic’ rhetoric.

The segment aired shortly after Vice President JD Vance slammed Germany and other European countries for adopting what he saw as a ‘Soviet’-style approach to censorship.

Weiss was hired by Paramount CEO David Ellison, son of billionaire GOP donor Larry Ellison, in October. Weiss is also the founder of the right-leaning Free Press, which was purchased by Ellison when she was hired in October.

There have since been wide-ranging changes at the network. 

 CBS News’s editor-in-chief, Free Press founder Bari Weiss, made the call to spike the story

Weiss was personally appointed by Paramount CEO David Ellison, the son of billionaire Larry Ellison

Ex-60 Minutes boss Bill Owens and former CBS News chief Wendy McMahon already left the network ahead of Ellison’s ascent, citing corporate overreach after Paramount’s merger with Ellison’s Skydance was approved by the FCC in July.

Ellison, at the time, articulated a vision of the prime Paramount asset reaching people who are more centrist.

Longtime 60 Minutes journalist Lesley Stahl, meanwhile, is also reassessing her future at CBS News, after being passed over for the show’s recent sit-down with Benjamin Netanyahu, which was arranged by Weiss personally, according to Status.

She, Cooper, and Alfonsi were all part of a group of 60 Minutes correspondents demanding that CBS name the show’s next executive producer after longtime lead Owens’s exit in April of last year. 

Veteran producer Tanya Simon received the job in July, after heavy backing from the journalists.

The Daily Mail approached CBS and Paramount for comment.