On April 22, Bill Owens, only the third executive producer of “60 Minutes” in its 57-year history, abruptly resigned from his position, citing editorial interference from management at CBS. And now, the news magazine itself has aired a stinging rebuke of that interference, delivered on-air by host Scott Pelley as the closing segment of its April 27 broadcast.
The network’s parent company, Paramount, has been trying to clear the way with the Trump administration’s Department of Justice for its Skydance merger. Following Trump’s lawsuit against “60 Minutes” for what the now-President and his attorneys had suggested, with little basis, was a flattering edit to a 2024 interview with his opponent Kamala Harris, Paramount appears to have become worried it might not be smooth sailing for the merger after all.
Therefore, in January, CBS introduced a new layer of management to add extra supervision in vetting stories across CBS News’ portfolio of shows. Susan Zirinski, who had once been president of CBS News, was named interim executive editor. In his on-air rebuke, Pelley was clear to mention that CBS had not killed any stories about the Trump administration or its effect on Americans’ lives in the past few months. But his statement made it clear that interference had occurred.
“In tonight’s ‘Last Minute,’ a note on Bill Owens, who until this past week was executive producer of ’60 Minutes.’ He was our boss. Bill was with CBS News nearly 40 years, 26 years at ’60 Minutes.’ He covered the world. He covered combat, the White House. His was a quest to open minds, not close them. If you’ve ever worked hard for a boss because you admired him, then you understand what we’ve enjoyed here. Bill resigned Tuesday. It was hard on him and hard on us. But he did it for us. And you. Stories we’ve pursued for 57 years are often controversial. Lately, the Israel-Gaza War and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way. But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he’d lost the independence that honest journalism requires. No one here is happy about it, but in resigning Bill proved one thing: He was the right person to lead ’60 Minutes’ all along.”
The on-air criticism, unusual for “60 Minutes” — though Lesley Stahl expressed her displeasure — follows increasing discontent across the broadcast journalism world as executives balance their reporters’ independence with a desire to play nice with the administration. MSNBC was already in a mess, with falling ratings and Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s misguided November visit to Mar-a-Lago. The network then fired Joy Reid and reduced Alex Wagner’s visibility. NBCUniversal is hoping to spin off the network as its own company later this year. Jon Stewart had also called out CNN and NBC News for telling reporters not to share their opinions.
Mark Thompson seems to have stabilized the ship at CNN. He needed to, following Trump-courting missteps during the Biden years such as firing Brian Stelter (who’s now been rehired) and hosting a town hall with Trump the day after he’d been found liable for rape as the verdict in the E. Jean Carroll civil trial. Not to mention that little matter of cutting from sobering footage during the first day of the war on Ukraine in 2022 to an Applebee’s commercial.
How to navigate this moment is something all the networks are struggling with, but in the case of CBS and “60 Minutes,” one thing does seem clear: The moves of the past few months that prompted Owens’ departure were made to serve Paramount’s interests, not the viewers’.
Watch the entire segment of Pelley discussing Owens’ departure below.
