Sharyn Alfonsi, a “60 Minutes” reporter, reportedly berated one of CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss’ closest allies at the network during a heated meeting about her delayed report about the notorious El Salvador prison CECOT.
Alfonsi, a longtime correspondent for the newsmagazine, sent a note to colleagues fuming over the late December decision by Weiss to hold the story, “Inside CECOT,” claiming it was done for political rather than editorial reasons.
Weiss insisted it lacked key context and needed additional reporting, but she gave it the green light to air with a few minor tweaks during last Sunday’s episode.
Puck’s Dylan Byers reported on Wednesday that, despite weeks of bickering through intermediaries, Weiss and Alfonsi had not met in person until the week before the segment finally aired.
“Sharyn seemed angry and annoyed throughout the meeting and resistant to any input,” Byers wrote, citing “multiple sources.”
Alfonsi then reportedly snapped at deputy editor Adam Rubenstein, a former New York Times opinion editor who Weiss brought to CBS and also works for The Free Press.
Rubenstein offered feedback on the controversial segment when Alfonsi yelled, “You don’t get to produce me,” according to Byers.
’60 MINUTES’ AIRS LONG-DELAYED ‘INSIDE CECOT’ SEGMENT AFTER BEING PULLED BY BARI WEISS
“She then accused him of being ‘a mouthpiece’ for the administration and asked him whether he had ever produced a minute of television news before. He said he had and urged her not to take anything personally, at which point Sharyn almost left the room,” Byers wrote.
Alfonsi was unable to get a comment from the Trump administration. She did add more context to her in-studio outro to include data and information that Weiss had requested. The initial version went viral online after it accidentaly aired in Canada.
CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alfonsi is no stranger to controversy. She came under fire in 2021 for a “60 Minutes” segment in which she challenged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and painted a narrative that he had given supermarket chain Publix preferential treatment on distributing COVID vaccines because its PAC had donated $100,000 to his campaign.
However, the story came under significant criticism, including from Democrats like Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz. Publix had more than 800 locations in the state, making it an ideal location for distributing the vaccines to a state with a high senior population.
Publix fired back against the notion that it essentially bribed DeSantis, calling the suggestion “false and offensive.”
CBS stood by the story at the time, even though the “pay-for-play” narrative was debunked. In addition, DeSantis accused CBS of cheaply editing a back-and-forth that aired between him and Alfonsi that omitted context about the story.
Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick and David Rutz contributed to this report.
