“60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reportedly blew up at a deputy for her boss Bari Weiss after her report on El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison was shelved, yelling at the supervisor, “You don’t get to produce me!”
Alfonsi also accused the deputy, Adam Rubenstein, of being a “mouthpiece” for the Trump administration during the Jan. 12 meeting, which Weiss also attended, according to Puck News.
At issue was a report on El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison that Weiss yanked last month because it was not “comprehensive and fair” and lacked a response from the Trump administration.
Alfonsi was reportedly resistant to Weiss’s repeated requests for alterations to the segment, which were relayed from the boss through intermediaries including “60 Minutes” executive producer Tanya Simon.
The reporter “dug in” as Weiss “made her frustrations well known to friends and fellow executives,” Puck News reported, with one source calling the situation a “hostage standoff.”
While the editor in chief “repeatedly” asked for updates, Alfonsi “refused to provide” them, a move that the boss and her team began to see as insubordinate, according to the outlet.
During the meeting at Weiss’ office, Rubenstein started to explain a “666” tattoo that was spotted in a photo of CECOT prisoners provided by the Department of Homeland Security — the symbol is associated with the Aryan Brotherhood.
Suspected gang figures involved in Central American crime syndicates have also been known to wear a “666” tattoo.
According to Puck News, Rubenstein “began explaining the connotations” of the tattoo to Alfonsi, who “seemed angry and annoyed throughout the meeting.”
That’s when she reportedly gave him the put down telling him he’s not her editor and accused him of being a Trump “mouthpiece.”
Alfonsi also asked Rubenstein if he had ever produced a minute of television news in his career, according to Puck.
It stated that Rubenstein replied he did indeed — “at which point Sharyn almost left the room.”
The standoff over “Inside CECOT” ended only after a month of contentious negotiations.
Under the final arrangement, Alfonsi’s reported segment aired Sunday without alterations, but she amended her in-studio postscript to include additional context demanded by Weiss and her deputies.
That included ICE-supplied data showing that nearly half of the deported Venezuelan men had criminal convictions or pending charges, despite the original version of the report’s mention that only a small fraction were violent offenders. There were also new details about a prisoner whose tattoos — including a swastika and the “666” — had raised concerns among network executives.
Puck reported that the outcome did little to heal internal divisions, noting that the episode exposed deep mistrust between Weiss and the veteran journalists at “60 Minutes.”
The Post has sought comment from CBS News.
