Shocking humiliation heaped on ‘insubordinate’ 60 Minutes host Sharyn Alfonsi after she attacked boss, as she and SECOND CBS News star are both fired
A former 60 Minutes correspondent suffered fresh embarrassment as she was ‘left in the dark’ ahead of her unceremonious CBS News firing, according to sources.
Both Sharyn Alfonsi and her team were unaware of the network’s decision not to renew her contract, Status reported.
The deadline for an extension quietly came and went on Saturday.
CBS formally fired the journalist on Thursday morning, hours after the New York Times revealed the circumstances surrounding her exit.
Also caught in the day’s exits was correspondent Cecilia Vega and 60 Minutes executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, Variety reported.
Vega and longtime correspondents Lesley Stahl, Anderson Cooper, and Alfonsi were part of a group who demanded that CBS name the show’s next executive producer immediately after longtime lead Bill Owens’s exit in April of last year.
CBS, on Thursday, also announced a new executive producer for the program, former New York Times tech columnist Nick Bilton.
He replaced longtime producer Tanya Simon, the daughter of legendary 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon. Simon temporarily received the executive producer job after some heavy backing from the journalists.
Outgoing 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi was ‘left in the dark’ ahead of her unceremonious CBS News firing on Thursday morning, according to sources
Also out is 60 Minutes’s executive producer, Tanya Simon (far right), and correspondent Cecilia Vega (second from right). Vega, Alfonsi (second from left) and veteran Lesley Stahl (far left) all heavily campaigned for Simon last year
She addressed her exit in an internal memo to staff Thursday.
‘While leadership has decided it is time for a new chapter – I want to be unequivocally clear about one thing: it has been an immense privilege to lead this broadcast,’ she wrote.
‘I could not be prouder of what we have built, fought for, and delivered together over the last year.’
Alfonsi, meanwhile, joined CBS in 2011 and made her 60 Minutes debut in 2015. She had been a regular presence on the program before her firing on Thursday.
She blamed her exit from the program on a clash she had with CBS brass back in December over decision to pull one of her segments on Wednesday
‘I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting,’ she told the Times.
The story was set to speak on conditions at Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), an El Salvadoran prison where the US has deported suspected illegal immigrants.
CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss argued that Alfonsi did not get enough administration officials on the record for the ‘important piece.’
CBS brass like editor Bari Weiss saw Alfonsi’s complaints about the station’s editorial decision in December as ‘insubordinate’. Weiss was named CBS News’ editor-in-chief back in October
Alfonsi slammed Weiss’s decision to spike her story about Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) in El Salvador in December as ‘political’. The prison had contained several inmates from the US who had been deported as suspected illegal immigrants
Alfonsi immediately tore into the decision in an internal email, accusing her bosses of political censorship. The email was promptly leaked to the press.
Aflonsi reiterated those claims to the Times Wednesday, as the paper broke the news on her 60 Minutes exit.
Alfonsi said her agent’s inquiries to the network about her 60 Minutes future had been ‘met with absolute silence.’
She added in a statement: ‘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,’ she wrote.
‘This was not a routine corporate transition; it was a deliberate choice,’ the statement continued.
It also praised ‘fearless, independent reporting’ seen from 60 Minutes in the past.
‘Today, CBS management is abandoning that mission, choosing access journalism over accountability and protecting power rather than scrutinizing it,’ she wrote, just hours before Weiss’s shakeup.
‘Journalists willing to challenge authority are being pushed aside in favor of those who will not.’
Fellow 60 Minutes long-timer Anderson Cooper recently left the program as well, reportedly due to frustrations with Weiss, who is in the midst of a network-wide overhaul
Stahl is also reportedly reassessing her CBS News future, after being passed over for the show’s recent sit-down with Benjamin Netanyahu arranged by Weiss personally
Alfonsi, Jon Wertheim, Bill Whitaker, Scott Pelley, Vega and Cooper all wanted Simon as a leader after the exit of Bill Owens. Only Wertheim and Pelley remain with the program a year later
The Daily Mail has approached CBS and Paramount for comment.
On Wednesday, several CBS executives told the Times that that they saw the drafting of an internal memo by Alfonsi in December as ‘insubordinate’.
Aflonsi, at the time, complained: ‘If the standard for airing a story becomes “the government must agree to be interviewed,” then the government effectively gains control over the 60 Minutes broadcast.’
‘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,’ she further warned, urging her colleagues to ‘hold the line.’
The changes on Thursday come just weeks after Cooper left the program after 20 years. His exit was also because of Weiss, Status reported.
Veteran 60 Minutes journalist Stahl is also mulling an exit after being passed over for a recent sit-down with Benjamin Netanyahu last month, per Status. The meeting was arranged by Weiss – an outspoken Israel supporter appointed by Paramount CEO David Ellison late last year.
The network has since been subject to an overhaul.
Owens and former CBS News chief Wendy McMahon both fled ahead of Ellison’s ascent in July, citing corporate overreach ahead of Paramount’s merger with Ellison’s Skydance.
Ellison, at the time, articulated a vision of the prime Paramount asset reaching people who are more centrist.
