CBS student scholarship winner hits out at network during News Emmys: ‘Direction stains legacy of Mike Wallace’

A student journalist accepting a scholarship award named after CBS News broadcaster Mike Wallace called the network’s recent direction a “stain” on his legacy.

​Santiago Campos said that he wanted to thank CBS News “for funding this generous gift towards my education,” but the student journalist added, “I want to acknowledge how the recent direction of the outlet stains the legacy of Mike Wallace, the namesake of this scholarship.”​

Campos, a senior from the District of Columbia International School in Washington, D.C., was accepting the Mike Wallace Memorial Scholarship at the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ 47th Annual News & Documentary Awards in New York.

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“As corporate elites take hold over the very pipes through which our information flows, journalism that serves people becomes increasingly harder to come by, yet ever more crucial, and what the people want is the truth,” Campos said.

He concluded: “ So, if at any time you hesitate to utter the word genocide or remain silent in the face of blatant lies - remember to ask yourself, Who is this for? I hope you choose us.”​

The student journalist received the $10,000 scholarship after his winning submission looked at recent immigration crackdowns in the United States. The piece featured a personal story from his own family. ​

Campos produced his piece, which featured interviews with relatives about their deportation stories, for the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs. ​

Former CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley presented the award, noting that he looked “forward to seeing your work in the future.”​

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“God, we need young people like you right behind us,” he said, adding that he believed Wallace was “looking down at you with pride.”​

Pelley, who has been critical of the controversial CBS News Editor-in-Chief, Bari Weiss, also noted the contribution of 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who was in the audience.

Earlier in the day, Alfonsi claimed in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter that her contract with the network lapsed over the Memorial Day weekend.​ However, she remains technically employed as an at-will employee.

“Following an intense editorial dispute over [a] story, repeated attempts by my representation to establish a path forward were met with absolute silence from network executives,” the statement read. “The message could not be clearer: my time at 60 Minutes is apparently over.”​

The disagreement emerged last year after Weiss allegedly pulled a segment reported by Alfonsi about harsh conditions endured by Venezuelan men who were deported by the Trump administration. ​

Alfonsi has accused CBS News of penalizing a “journalist for refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting.”​

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The segment eventually aired in its entirety.​

Weiss told network staff in December that she held the story because it was “not ready.”

“While the story presented powerful testimony... it did not advance the ball—the Times and other outlets have previously done similar work,” she said on the network’s morning editorial call. “The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more.”

Weiss, the founder of The Free Press and a former opinion editor at The New York Times, was announced as the editor-in-chief of CBS News in October 2025.

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