Sharyn Alfonsi says she fears for job after Cecot fight
Sharyn Alfonsi said on Thursday evening that she hopes she still has a job at CBS News after she pushed back on changes to her Cecot prison report. Speaking after receiving the Ridenhour prize for courage at the National Press Club in Washington, the veteran 60 Minutes correspondent tied the dispute to what she called “the spread of corporate meddling and editorial fear.”
Alfonsi’s Cecot report
Alfonsi said the Cecot segment about Venezuelans sent to the prison in El Salvador was pulled after she refused to alter it. The piece was first scheduled for the 21 December edition of 60 Minutes and aired about a month later on the 18 January edition, but she said it was not meaningfully different from the original report.
She said CBS asked the team to try again to book a Trump administration official for comment, but that effort failed. The aired segment lacked an on-air interview with a Trump administration official, and Alfonsi said the original story was factually correct.
Weiss and CBS News
At the time, Alfonsi alleged that Bari Weiss had “spiked” the story for political purposes. Weiss said the segment was delayed because it did not sufficiently include the perspective of the Trump administration. Alfonsi said any change could have made CBS and 60 Minutes look as if they were yielding to pressure.
“But rather than just running the story, they asked us to change it. I refused,” she said. “Not because I’m a pain in the ass, which I am, but because the story was factually correct, and I argued that any change to it might reflect poorly on CBS and 60 Minutes.” She also said viewers would have seen any change as “capitulation or censorship.”
September for 60 Minutes
Alfonsi said, “My hope recently has been that I still have a job” and added, “And every morning I wake up to another headline that says I’ve been fired.” She also said, “If I am fired, it will not be the first time.”
The dispute leaves her future at the network in jeopardy, and it was unclear whether she will return for 60 Minutes’ 59th season, which begins in September. CBS has been approached for comment, and the question now is whether the program keeps one of its best-known correspondents after a public break over editorial control.
