CBS News declined to renew contract for ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent who clashed with top editor

NEW YORK -  CBS News has not renewed the contract of Ms Sharyn Alfonsi, the “60 Minutes” correspondent who clashed with Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss over a December report on a Salvadoran prison, according to an interview published on May 27 in the New York Times.

CBS pulled the segment – about a mega-prison where the US has sent hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants without trial – hours before it was due to air in the US, sparking accusations from inside “60 Minutes” and on Capitol Hill that the network was engaging in self-censorship under political pressure.

Ms Alfonsi told the New York Times on May 27 that she continues to be employed at CBS, albeit without a contract, and does not expect to return to “60 Minutes,” the storied news magazine show.

The network’s unwillingness to renew her contract “sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom,” Ms Alfonsi told the Times.

“I think it was a deliberate choice to penalise a journalist for refusing to sanitise accurate reporting.”

CBS is owned by Paramount Skydance.

A network spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters was unable to reach Ms Alfonsi for comment.

The mega-prison segment spread online in December, and then aired on CBS a month later.

Ms Alfonsi criticised the network’s decision at the time, writing in a note to her team that CBS pulled the report for “political” reasons.

In a December email to staff defending the decision to hold the piece, Mr Weiss wrote that winning back Americans’ trust “sometimes means holding a piece about an important subject to make sure it is comprehensive and fair.”

Skydance Media, run by Mr David Ellison - the son of longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, Mr Larry Ellison - acquired Paramount in August and installed Mr Weiss in October as editor-in-chief.

Mr David Ellison helped secure regulatory approval for the deal, which created Paramount Skydance, with the promise that the CBS network would reflect the “varied ideological perspectives” of American viewers.

Mr Trump has repeatedly pressured the Federal Communications Commission to revoke station licenses of major US broadcasters NBC and ABC and charge them for using the public airwaves, as he criticised their news programming.

Prior to the deal, Paramount paid US$16 million (S$20.44 million) to settle a 2024 lawsuit Mr Trump filed over a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice-President Kamala Harris, which he said gave a distorted view of his rival for the White House.

The FCC has said the settlement and regulatory review were unrelated. REUTERS