UPDATE: May 28, 12:15 pm:
Sharyn Alfonsi is officially out at 60 Minutes. This comes as the network hired a new boss.
Dylan Byers, from the outlet Puck, tweeted on May 28, “BREAK: CBS News officially fired Sharyn Alfonsi on Thursday morning. She is no longer an at-will employee.”
On May 27, it was reported that Alfonsi was an “at-will” employee, meaning CBS would have used her for projects they needed assistance on, but she didn’t have the authority to update stories over the summer. Now, she is off the show completely.
This announcement comes on the same day that CBS News named its new executive producer of 60 Minutes. CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss and CBS News president Tom Cibrowski announced on May 28 that investigative journalist, best-selling author, and filmmaker Nick Bilton is the new boss of the news program. He worked for The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and produced multiple documentaries.
“It is an extraordinary honor to lead the next chapter of 60 MINUTES, one of the most important journalism institutions in this nation’s history. The mission of the program remains as vital as ever: pursuing the truth, holding power to account, and remaining fearless in the face of any external pressure or influence,” he said in a statement.
ORIGINAL STORY: May 27, 12:54 pm:
Sharyn Alfonsi is not staying quiet. The 60 Minutes correspondent, who has been a part of the iconic news program since 2015, is speaking out after her contract with the show was not renewed by her bosses at CBS.
Alfonsi’s contract reportedly lapsed over Memorial Day weekend, and she believes it was because she raised issues about how Weiss, the news division’s editor in chief, handled a report that she did on the U.S. deporting Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador. According to The New York Times, one day after she did the segment, Weiss held it because he claimed it was “not ready.” Since then, there has been all kinds of fallout at the troubled show.
“I’m not resigning,” Alfonsi told the NYT. “If they want me gone because I did my job, they’ll have to fire me.” Reports of Alfonsi and Scott Pelley in line to be fired from the show first showed up in January.
The segment eventually aired on 60 Minutes, but it became a problem when it became international news. The story was questioned as to whether it was actually true.
Alfonsi is still an employee of CBS News, but two sources told the NYT that her 60 Minutes confirmed that her contract recently expired. CBS News execs have made no effort to renew her contract. It is said that she will get paid on an “at-will” basis, but loses the rights to do what a correspondent does, such as update pieces over the summer and report on stories for the next season.
In a statement, Alfonisi said, “Repeated attempts by my representation to establish a path forward were met with absolute silence from network executives. The message could not be clearer: my time at 60 Minutes is apparently over.”
“In the coming days, network leadership may attempt to hide behind corporate euphemisms like ‘modernization’ and ‘restructuring’ to explain away my departure. Don’t be misled. This was not a routine corporate transition; it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting, and it sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom,” she went on.
“There’s a feeling that the wall has come down between editorial independence and corporate interests. 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,” she said.
Alfonsi would be the second person to leave 60 Minutes after Anderson Cooper‘s exit. With maybe more to follow?
60 Minutes, Sundays, 7/6 c, CBS