Iced out 60 Minutes star correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi has torched CBS News boss Bari Weiss—daring the MAGA-curious editor to fire her.
Alfonsi told The New York Times that she is anxious about the future of the iconic program as long as Weiss leads the network’s news programming.
“For the last 60 years, it’s been the same formula: tell the truth, hold the power accountable, don’t blink,” she told the Times. “And it’s unclear what next season looks like.”
Alfonsi, 53, said the show has already gone downhill since Weiss, 42, entered the fold last fall.
“There’s a feeling that the wall has come down between editorial independence and corporate interests,” she added. “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.”
Alfonsi’s contract with CBS expired on Saturday. She said her agent’s calls about a renewal with the network have gone unanswered, and she does not expect to return to 60 Minutes, where she has been a correspondent since 2015.
The journalist, who was behind the controversial CECOT report that Weiss held but eventually aired, said she has no plans of resigning from CBS News. If Weiss wants her gone, she will have to say as such.
“I’m not resigning,” she told the Times. “If they want me gone because I did my job, they’ll have to fire me.”
Alfonsi’s fears of a whole new 60 Minutes next season may be coming true.
Not only will the show be without Anderson Cooper—who also reportedly clashed with Weiss over “abnormal” edits—for the first time in two decades, but the Times also reports that Weiss is readying the program for a “significant shake-up.”
Among the changes, according to the Times, are introducing “a raft of new contributing journalists,” “shorter digital segments,” and “launching in-person events where fans of the show can interact with 60 Minutes stars.”
The paper reports that the fate of Tanya Simon, the program’s executive producer, remains “unclear.” It adds that Weiss is weighing whether to hire an “outside journalist” to oversee the program alongside Simon.
“People are afraid, and they’re waiting for something monumental to happen here,” a longtime CBS insider told The Guardian this month.
That insider added that viewers can expect massive changes to 60 Minutes for the show’s 59th season, with whispers of layoffs and even opening up airtime to other CBS journalists, such as the MAGA-curious CBS Evening News host Tony Dokoupil.
Alfonsi says her quiet ouster should be a red flag for everyone at CBS. She told the Times, “It sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom. I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting.”
Legendary 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, 84, has not hinted at leaving the program, but Status reported last month that she was angered by Weiss offering Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the opportunity to be interviewed by a different CBS journalist.
Variety reports that veteran correspondents Scott Pelley and Bill Whitaker have time remaining on their contracts. It adds that Whitaker, who has been with CBS since 1984, has no interest in retiring even amid the significant turmoil within CBS’s news division.
There have been no reports on whether the show’s other correspondents, Jon Wertheim and Cecilia Vega, plan to depart or not.
