‘60 Minutes’ journalist says CBS contract ended after furor over delayed segment

Media‘60 Minutes’ journalist says CBS contract ended after furor over delayed segmentIn an interview with The New York Times, Sharyn Alfonsi said the expiration of her deal “sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom.”Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00"60 Minutes" correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi at a conference in 2022.Marla Aufmuth / Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 27, 2026, 12:48 PM EDTBy Daniel ArkinCBS News has reportedly declined to renew its contract with Sharyn Alfonsi, the “60 Minutes” correspondent whose segment about the Trump administration deporting Venezuelan men to a prison in El Salvador was abruptly pulled off the air late last year.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Alfonsi confirmed the expiration of her CBS News deal in an interview with The New York Times published Wednesday. CBS News and Alfonsi did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment on the matter.“It sends a chilling message to the entire newsroom,” Alfonsi told the Times. “I think it was a deliberate choice to penalize a journalist for refusing to sanitize accurate reporting.”“60 Minutes” ultimately aired Alfonsi’s segment in January after a last-minute postponement in late December that the correspondent had claimed was “not an editorial decision” but “a political one.”The segment featured interviews with men who were deported from the U.S. to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, or CECOT, in Tecoluca, El Salvador. The interviewees described torture and physical and sexual abuse at the complex.In an editorial call on Dec. 22, the morning after “Inside CECOT” was pulled from the “60 Minutes” lineup, CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss said she had held the story “because it was not ready,” according to a source.CBS News' editor-in-chief Bari Weiss moderates a town hall with Erika Kirk on Dec. 10, 2025.CBS via Getty Images file“While the story presen...