Departures of Alfonsi, Vega, Pelley precede new hires at newsmagazine
In a memo to staff Tuesday, Bilton announced the new roster for the program’s upcoming season. The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat will join as a correspondent, Bilton said. Documentarian and author Sebastian Junger will become a contributor. Former “CBS Evening News” and morning show anchor Norah O’Donnell will expand her existing role with “60 Minutes” and join full time as a correspondent.
Gianna Toboni, a documentary filmmaker and veteran of Vice News, and Trevor Phillips, whom CBS News previously named its senior global affairs correspondent, will also join as contributors.
Bilton said the correspondents and contributors will carry on the program’s “tradition of fearless, independent and impartial reporting” and described them as “entrepreneurial journalists who understand how to reach modern audiences.”
The hires follow a period of transition at CBS News since Bari Weiss took over as editor in chief of Paramount’s CBS News last fall. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Bilton, who was brought in to run the program in May after the ouster of executive producer Tanya Simon, has been tasked with rebuilding the program during the summer offseason.
Last winter, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi clashed with Weiss over the editor’s decision to hold a story about an El Salvador maximum-security prison, according to the Journal. Alfonsi called the move political. Weiss has said she held the story, which later aired with additional material bookending the segment, because she believed it required additional reporting and she had concerns about the comment-seeking process. Alfonsi’s contract was not renewed at the end of last season.
Correspondent Cecilia Vega was let go as part of Weiss’s overhaul in May, the Journal reported. Scott Pelley, one of the show’s longest-serving correspondents, departed after pushing back against the firings, criticizing Weiss and questioning Bilton’s qualifications during a staff meeting.