On Thursday, Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran 60 Minutes correspondent, was honored with the Ridenhour Courage Prize at the National Press Club in Washington. Sharyn, as you’ll recall, is the journalist who produced the “Inside CECOT” package on the Salvadoran maximum security prison that her new boss, Bari Weiss, notoriously postponed for nebulous reasons. She is also the journalist who protested Bari’s right to meddle with her reporting, and the one who called her new bosses “mouthpieces” for the Trump administration to their face. And, as I recently reported, she is also almost certain to lose her job in a few weeks.

Given these particulars, CBS News was justifiably concerned about what Sharyn might say onstage Thursday night. In more amicable situations, journalists receiving awards are accompanied to events by a P.R. handler. Sharyn, who couldn’t give a shit about the company’s preferences, didn’t alert the network, which left the comms team scrambling to glean details about the proceedings from the organizers. On Thursday, CBS P.R. dispatched someone to the Press Club to watch the speech. Members of Sharyn’s team also announced they’d received text messages during the dinner inquiring about the event.

In an additional twist, Sharyn shared the stage with last year’s prizewinner, Bill Owens, the former 60 Minutes executive producer who left the show last year in defiance of Shari Redstone’s own meddling with the storied newsmagazine. During her remarks, Sharyn, who is well aware that Bari is unlikely to renew her contract, joked about following her longtime boss to the exits: “I always said I would follow Bill Owens over a cliff,” she quipped, “and I guess I finally did.”

Sharyn’s speech was unsparing in its criticism of Bari and her boss, David Ellison. “Sometimes the truth isn’t good for business, and sometimes you will be shown the door just for telling it,” she said. “Today, that same kind of ‘corporate calculation’ is happening in newsrooms across the country. Some executives are not asking, ‘Is the story true?’ They’re asking, ‘Is it good for business?’” She said the “Inside CECOT” preemption “wasn’t an isolated editorial argument. … It was the result of a more aggressive contagion: the toxic spread of corporate meddling and editorial fear.” (She also said that after the segment was pulled, “someone sent police to ‘SWAT’ our home.”)

Sharyn is channeling the anxieties of many CBS News veterans, as well as a broader audience of media observers who have been wringing their hands over the Ellisons’ overt prostrations toward Trump. Bari and her team, for their part, have long viewed Sharyn as insubordinate and, as Sharyn herself put it, “difficult.” They’re both right, of course, although it’s worth noting that Sharyn seems to have maintained good relations with 60 Minutes executive producer Tanya Simon, who has deftly managed to stay in the good graces of both parties here. Either way, they’re all better off without each other.

The question hanging over 60 Minutes now is whether Sharyn’s impending ouster will catalyze a more substantial exodus. Some sources at CBS News seem certain it will. But it’s worth remembering that when Bill left, his friend Scott Pelley quietly bemoaned the move but ultimately stayed put. Since then, only Anderson Cooper has decided to call it quits, and he has a full-time job at CNN and a somewhat formidable podcast. Ultimately, the temptation to play the hero here runs headlong into the sober realization that one’s voice can grow pretty quiet in the wilderness—as Bill knows, and Sharyn may soon learn.

Obviously, 60’s own voice runs the risk of growing more muted under Bari’s watch. As I’ve reported, her ambition is to franchise the asset beyond its Sunday night time slot, adding more digital programming and integrating new talent, including some contributors from The Free Press. That’s certainly the right instinct, but it also calls to mind Chuck Todd’s own quixotic bid for a similar expansion of Meet the Press with the addition of podcasts and newsletters. 60 Minutes, which still draws 8 million to 9 million viewers, may have enough brand power to live on in a post-linear landscape. But that’s contingent on not destroying the brand in the process.