The 60 Minutes correspondent responsible for a shelved report about a notorious jail used to house Trump deportees has blamed the decision on a culture of “corporate meddling and editorial fear” in the CBS newsroom.
Sharyn Alfonsi’s report on El Salvador’s CECOT megaprison was originally due to air in December but was abruptly pulled by CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, who said the segment needed input from Trump administration officials.
In a leaked memo to her colleagues at the time, Alfonsi defended the segment. “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” she wrote. “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now—after every rigorous internal check has been met is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”
The report was eventually aired in January, with Alfonsi telling viewers, “Since November, 60 Minutes has made several attempts to interview key Trump administration officials on camera about our story,” she said. “They declined our requests.”
Appearing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Thursday night to accept the Ridenhour Courage Prize, Alfonsi spoke publicly about the saga for the first time.
“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, according to 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.”
She also discussed “corporate calculations” taking place at media companies, observing, “Some executives are asking not, ‘Is the story true?’ But, ‘Is it good for business?’”
Explaining why she refused to make any changes to her report, Alfonsi said it was factually correct and she felt “any change to it might reflect poorly on CBS and 60 Minutes.”
“Because our audience is smart, they would view any change to the story as capitulation or censorship.”
“My stance did not make my new bosses very happy … I believe I was doing my job, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared.”
Alfonsi also argued that the media industry is worried about the wrong things, including offending those in power, losing access, or lawsuits.
“What we should all be afraid of is silence,” she countered, explaining that, as she learned at her first job, as a waitress, “there is a fine line between being a team player and being an accomplice.”
The Daily Beast has contacted CBS News for comment.
Alfonsi joked about her future at the network, expressing gratitude for her award and hope that she will still have a job.
“Thank you for this award,” she said. “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,” she added, referring to her short-lived waitressing career.
Alfonsi is not the first 60 Minutes star to speak publicly about the crisis at the network since the MAGA-friendly Weiss was installed by nepo-billionaire David Ellison.
Correspondent Norah O’Donnell said in a February interview that CBS has seen a lot of leadership changes, which have been “challenging.”
“I think with so many leadership changes, people are fearful about what the future means.”
Veteran reporter Scott Pelley criticized the former owners of CBS News for caving in the face of significant pressure from President Donald Trump and settling his lawsuit over the editing of a Kamala Harris interview for $16 million.
“Our previous owners at CBS faced political pressure and crumbled‚” he said at the National Press Foundation’s annual journalism awards in March.
The show lost its biggest star when Anderson Cooper declined to renew his contract with the program in February, instead opting to focus on his work with CNN, and his family.
