Who is Sharyn Alfonsi? 60 Minutes correspondent criticizes Bari Weiss over shelving report for political reasons

Sharyn Alfonsi recently opened up about how a segment for 60 Minutes focusing on the maximum security prison in El Salvador has been shelved, a move she has cited as being politically motivated. According to New York Times, Sharyn Alfonsi, who is a journalist currently working as a correspondent for 60 Minutes since 2015, wrote an internal mail after the segment, which was supposed to air on Sunday, December 22, was pulled just three hours before airing by CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss. 

Sharyn Alfonsi, who is a recipient of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award in Journalism, studied at the University of Mississippi, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in journalism and political science. Prior to her path-breaking work at 60 Minutes, Alfonsi worked at ABC News and at WBZ-TV, Boston-based TV station. In the course of her decades-long career, Sharyn Alfonsi has also received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Recorded News Program for her reporting on the 2018 Parkland High School Shooting.

More about Sharyn Alfonsi's comments on Bari Weiss' decision to pull the segment on the high security prison in El Salvador hours before airing 

The decision to pull Sharyn Alfonsi's segment on 60 Minutes, which was reporting on the conditions inside the Terrorism Confinement Center, the high security prison in El Salvador, comes two months after Bari Weiss was appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of CBS News. According to New York Times, the decision regarding her appointment was announced by billionaire David Ellison back in October, a move that has since been criticized by many. This decision in itself came as Skydance acquired Paramount, after which Ellison was appointed as CEO of the newly formed Paramount Skydance merger, earlier this year in August.

According to reports, the segment titled "Inside CECOT" covered the plight of Venezuelan men who were being deported by the current administration and were being imprisoned in the high security prison, which has previously been described as "brutal" by the show in the trailer in the run-up to the airing. The segment was pulled despite having previously been cleared for airing by different internal teams within the organization. 

According to New York Times, Bari Weiss suggested numerous changes to the program writing that the segment "needed additional reporting." In her mail to her fellow correspontants, Sharyn Alfonsi explained how, despite the story being factually accurate, it was pulled for alleged "political" reasons. She wrote:

"Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”

Sharyn Alfonsi further added:

"We have been promoting this story on social media for days. Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of ‘gold standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet. I care too much about this broadcast to watch it be dismantled without a fight."

In one of her changes, Bari Weiss suggested an interview with Stephen Miller, the current White House deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security. This incident takes place one year after President Donald Trump sued 60 Minutes for allegedly airing an edited version of an interview with Kamala Harris. A settlement was later reached with Paramount for $16 million earlier this year in July, with the money reportedly going towards Trump's future Presidential library.