This is per The Hollywood Reporter, which reports that the Bari Weiss-led organization made the decision official today. Few will be surprised, least of all Alfonsi herself; since at least April, the journalist has been publicly saying that she expected to be fired after Weiss took issue with her reporting on CECOT, the infamous Salvadoran prison that the Trump administration was sending people to. The segment ended up airing more or less unaltered a month later without the additional comments from the Trump administration that were purportedly the reason for the segment’s spiking, making Weiss’ concerns look, to use a technical term, like total bullshit.
Alfonsi isn’t the only one who was formally let go today. Tanya Simon, who was appointed executive producer of 60 Minutes last year after Bill Owens resigned, has also been fired, which was also expected. She’ll be replaced by Nick Bilton, a documentary filmmaker and former New York Times tech columnist with—you guessed it—no traditional broadcast news experience, according to the Times. As of last year, Bilton was reported to be writing the screenplay for a new Martin Scorsese movie starring Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson, which is admittedly cooler than anything Weiss has probably ever done but seems of dubious relevance in shaping one of the United States’ premier news programs. In a statement, Weiss called him “one of the most entrepreneurial journalists of our time and the perfect leader for one of the most entrepreneurial news brands of all time.” Perhaps we can finally get some of those scoops of ideas we’ve been hearing so much about.
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