Sharyn Alfonsi said the expiration of her deal “sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom.”

60 Minutes journalist slams CBS for ending her contract after clash with Bari Weiss over yanked story

Sharyn Alfonsi said the expiration of her deal "sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom."

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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May 27, 2026 3:36 p.m. ET

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Sharyn Alfonsi; Bari Weiss. Credit:

Michele Crowe/CBS; Mary Kouw/CBS

- *60 Minutes *correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi is accusing CBS of ending her contract over a clash with Bari Weiss about a yanked story.

- "It sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom," she said.

- Alfonsi previously spoke out after her segment about the Trump administration deporting Venezuelan men to a prison in El Salvador was abruptly pulled off the air.

*60 Minutes* correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi is putting CBS on blast for declining to renew her contract with the show.

Alfonsi, whose segment about the Trump administration deporting Venezuelan men to a prison in El Salvador was abruptly pulled off the air late last year, announced Wednesday that she has not been offered a contract to return for the show's 59th season, which begins in fall.

During an interview with *The New York Times*, Alfonsi revealed that her contract lapsed over Memorial Day weekend and shared her belief that this was due to issues that she publicly raised about CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.

"It sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom," Alfonsi, who has been with the iconic program since 2015, told the *Times*. "I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting."

Sharyn Alfonsi on '60 Minutes' in 2023.

Per the *Times*, Alfonsi's contract expired on Saturday. A source close to the journalist said her team had not heard from CBS recently, though she remains employed by the network and has no plans to willingly step down.

"I’m not resigning," Alfonsi told the *Times*. "If they want me gone because I did my job, they’ll have to fire me."

** has reached out to CBS for comment.

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In December, the pulled *60 Minutes *segment sparked outrage within the network, which announced that it would not be air the planned segment covering the Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration and taken to a notorious El Salvador maximum-security prison.

In an email to fellow correspondents obtained by the *Wall Street Journal* at the time, Alfonsi called the move "corporate censorship." She wrote that Weiss "spiked our story" in a decision she deemed political, and not an editorial call.

Alfonsi wrote that the team had asked Weiss to discuss her last-minute call, but "she did not afford us that courtesy/opportunity."

Michele Crowe/CBS

Alfonsi continued, "Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. If the administration's refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a 'kill switch' for any reporting they find inconvenient."

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*60 Minutes* ultimately aired Alfonsi’s segment in January, after the dispute became national news. The segment featured interviews with men who were deported from the U.S. to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism in Tecoluca, El Salvador. They detailed enduring torture and physical and sexual abuse at the complex.

In her email, Alfonsi referenced the interviewees, writing, "These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless."

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