Alfonsi said the expiration of her deal “sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom.”

Sharyn Alfonsi officially fired from 60 Minutes after clash with Bari Weiss over yanked story

Alfonsi said the expiration of her deal "sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom."

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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on May 28, 2026 2:18 p.m. ET

Sharyn Alfonsi; Bari Weiss. Credit:

Michele Crowe/CBS; Mary Kouw/CBS

- *60 Minutes *correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi is accusing CBS of ending her contract over a clash with Bari Weiss about a yanked story.

- "This was not a routine corporate transition; it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting," she said in a statement.

- Alfonsi previously spoke out after her segment about the Trump administration deporting Venezuelan men to a prison in El Salvador was abruptly pulled off the air.

*A*fter *60 Minutes* correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi put CBS on blast for declining to renew her contract with the show, the journalist has officially been fired from network, according to *The Hollywood Reporter*.

Alfonsi, whose segment about the Trump administration deporting Venezuelan men to a prison in El Salvador was abruptly pulled off the air late last year, announced during an interview with *The New York Times** *Wednesday that she has not been offered a contract to return for the show's 59th season, which begins in fall.

In a statement issued before her formal termination, Alfonsi slammed Weiss and CBS leadership for "choosing access journalism over accountability and protecting power rather than scrutinizing it."

"Over the weekend, my contract with CBS News expired, drawing to a close nearly twenty years with the network, including more than a decade at *60 Minutes*," she shared. "Following an intense editorial dispute over our CECOT story, 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."

Sharyn Alfonsi on '60 Minutes' in 2023.

Alfonsi continued: "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."

"Fearless, independent reporting has always been the defining standard at *60 Minutes*," she went on. "Today, CBS management is abandoning that mission, choosing access journalism over accountability and protecting power rather than scrutinizing it. The wall between editorial independence and corporate interest at CBS is being methodically torn down. Journalists willing to challenge authority are being pushed aside in favor of those who will not. If this continues, the result will be a broadcast that looks like *60 Minutes* but lacks the courage and character to produce journalism that matters."

Alfonsi went on to thank her colleagues "who became family - working beside you has been the privilege of a lifetime. You are second to none. I've learned exactly what it costs to hold the line right now. Hold it anyway. Viewers and the people who trust us with their stories deserve nothing less."

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During her interview with *The New York Times*, Alfonsi shared her belief that this was due to issues that she publicly raised about CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.

"It sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom," Alfonsi, who has been with the iconic program since 2015, told the *Times*. "I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting."

Per the *Times*, Alfonsi's contract expired on Saturday. A source close to the journalist said her team had not heard from CBS recently, though she remains employed by the network and has no plans to willingly step down.

"I’m not resigning," Alfonsi told the *Times*. "If they want me gone because I did my job, they’ll have to fire me."

** has reached out to CBS for comment.

Michele Crowe/CBS

In December, the pulled *60 Minutes *segment sparked outrage within the network, which announced that it would not air the planned segment covering the Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration and taken to a notorious El Salvador maximum-security prison.

In an email to fellow correspondents obtained by the *Wall Street Journal* at the time, Alfonsi called the move "corporate censorship." She wrote that Weiss "spiked our story" in a decision she deemed political, and not an editorial call.

Alfonsi wrote that the team had asked Weiss to discuss her last-minute call, but "she did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity."

Alfonsi continued, "Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. If the administration's refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a 'kill switch' for any reporting they find inconvenient."

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*60 Minutes* ultimately aired Alfonsi’s segment in January, after the dispute became national news. The segment featured interviews with men who were deported from the U.S. to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism in Tecoluca, El Salvador. They detailed enduring torture and physical and sexual abuse at the complex.

In her email, Alfonsi referenced the interviewees, writing, "These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless."

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