The crisis of the famous 60 Minutes current affairs program is deepening in the United States

60 Minutes is an investigative current affairs program whose reputation has been built on harshly challenging those in power, long background stories and editorial independence.

Stateside 60 Minutes is downright an institution. It has been on the CBS program since 1968 and is one of the most influential news programs in the country.

Therefore, the firing of an extremely distinguished correspondent is much bigger news in the US media than the termination of a single reporter’s employment.

Pelley was fired shortly after harshly criticizing CBS News’ new management. According to The Guardian Pelley said in an editorial meeting that CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss “Murder 60 Minutesin”.

He also criticized the program’s new executive producer Nick Biltonia and his qualification for the task.

Seen by AP in the termination notice, Bilton accused Pelley of using Bilton’s first staff meeting to disparage him and the channel’s management.

68 years old Pelley is not just any TV face. He started at CBS News in 1989, and later served as a White House correspondent. After that, he worked, among other things CBS Evening Newsin as an anchor.

On 60 Minutes he has been a prominent figure for more than two decades. CBS itself describes Pelley on its website as “one of the most experienced and awarded journalists of our time”.

The company mentions that he won half 60 Minutesin of significant awards during his time on the show, having reported on several wars and interviewed several US presidents.

According to CBS, Pelley has won a record 51 Emmy Awards in his career.

In the background affects jthe dispute that broke out in July 2025 60 Minutesn story about Venezuelan immigrants deported from the United States to El Salvador. The Trump administration had transferred the men to El Salvador’s CECOT giant prison, which has been heavily criticized by human rights organizations.

Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsin the investigative portion done by was to come out On 60 Minutesbut CBS pulled the show shortly before it aired. According to Alfons, the section was fact-checked and approved both by CBS’s legal department and by the monitoring of journalistic standards.

Later, the shelved segment was accidentally posted on Canada’s Global Television Network’s app and began circulating online. The story contained stories of beatings, torture and sexual violence by two deported Venezuelan men.

Shelving decision impersonated the editor-in-chief Weiss, who considered that the story was not ready for publication. According to him, it needed more perspective from the Trump administration.

Last week, the crisis took a new turn when drastic personnel changes were made at 60 Minutes. The management of the program was changed and Sharyn Alfonsi’s contract was not renewed.

Alfons himself commented that the decision was “a conscious choice to punish the journalist for not agreeing to embellish news based on facts”.

60 Minutes has for decades been an example in the United States that slow, expensive and influential investigative journalism can also be done on television. Pelley’s firing now raises the question of whether this tradition is crumbling just when there would be a particularly great need for monitoring the use of power.

The fear is that politically sensitive reporting will be softened in a situation where the owners of media companies need the approval of the authorities for large business arrangements.

A billionaire at the beginning of the year By Jeff Bezos owned by The Washington Post dismissed about a third of its delivery, i.e. about 300 employees.