CBS News in Turmoil Over ‘Perfect Storm’ of ‘60 Minutes’ and Redstone Pressure to Settle With Trump

The exit of “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens in the face of Trump administration pressure has roiled CBS News and alarmed journalists, fueling speculation about where the organization goes from here, especially if there are further concessions to clear the path to parent Paramount Global’s merger with Skydance Media.

Although she refused to discuss the specific situation at “60 Minutes,” Paramount Chairman Shari Redstone didn’t help matters Tuesday night, when she told TheWrap at an event in New York that freedom of the press involves “telling both sides of the story, giving the facts, not giving opinions. And I think that’s our responsibility as a media company.”

Given that opinion would also fall under the heading of protected speech, Redstone’s limited view of the First Amendment sounded like a way of seeking to mollify President Donald Trump, who first sued “60 Minutes” for $10 billion over a piece about then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris and has since railed against the program’s coverage of him, calling on his FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, to punish the network.

Those concerns are not unfounded, given that Carr has used social media to complain about “news distortion” and opened investigations into media companies for their DEI practices on what outside observers and some fellow commissioners believe to be flimsy, politically motivated grounds.

Les Rose, a 30-year CBS News veteran who worked with “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker and is now a professor at Syracuse University, told TheWrap former colleagues have been calling the pending merger and Trump’s pressure tactics against the network a “perfect storm,” leading to the prospect of concessions that would represent a blow to CBS’ reputation.

“It’s just heartbreaking to see the head of ’60 Minutes’ stepping down under some corporate pressure,” Rose said, adding that Owens “was the rock there.”

Chris Bury, DePaul’s senior journalist in residence and a longtime correspondent for ABC News’ “Nightline,” told TheWrap his first thought upon hearing the news about Owens was that it represented “another unnecessary capitulation by a prominent news organization.”

“This is an egregious example of a proud, credible news organization capitulating because its corporate masters want to make more money,” he said. “’60 Minutes’ is the longest-running television newsmagazine program in American history. Its reputation is stellar among the journalistic community. This action by Bill Owens is disturbing and alarming to me.”

The New York Times also reported in late January that Redstone “strongly supports the effort to settle” Trump’s “60 Minutes” lawsuit, and that the parties have since agreed on a mediator, despite the widespread belief within CBS News that the program did nothing wrong.

A CBS executive insisted there had been no changes to the network’s standards, but noted that Owens resented having additional layers introduced into the process.

Based on reporting in Oliver Darcy’s Status newsletter and the Times, the meeting at which Owens announced his departure Tuesday was both emotional and unsettling to “60 Minutes” correspondents, several of whom — including Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley and Whitaker (who conducted the Harris interview) — are past retirement age and could choose simply to leave if they are upset with the direction of the newsroom.

On Tuesday’s edition of “CBS Evening News,” anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois addressed the situation surrounding Owens’ exit, with Dickerson introducing it as “a story that is personal for us here at CBS News,” calling Owens “a man of great integrity.” Separately, Stahl told Variety that Owens’ departure is “crushing,” urging the company to understand that “60 Minutes’” reputation is “one of the reasons that CBS News is valuable.”

Earlier in the day, CNN’s Jake Tapper quoted an anonymous source at the network who said Owens “wouldn’t bend” to demands that CBS apologize to the president for its interview with Harris and described his resignation, based on the pressure from above, as “shameful.”

Those comments mark early salvos in what could become an ongoing public-relations nightmare for CBS News, which has already undergone a number of significant changes in recent months and weathered a tumultuous few years.

In January, veteran executive Susan Zirinsky returned as interim executive editor, with CBS officials citing a desire to deliver “balanced, accurate, fair and timely reporting, including highly complex, sensitive issues like the war in the Middle East.”

Citing unnamed sources, Semafor reported that Owens objected to the oversight, which he intimated in his resignation announcement, and that Redstone had sought to be kept advised on reporting about the Trump administration, an assertion Paramount denied.

Redstone, who appeared Tuesday at a screening of the documentary “The Children of October 7,” has reportedly been particularly concerned with CBS’ coverage regarding Israel, saying during a panel discussion, “I’ve been fighting racism and antisemitism for a long time, but after Oct. 7, it became my life.”

Zirinsky’s appointment followed the exit of Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, who left the role of CBS News president after less than a year in the job. Her predecessor, Neeraj Khemlani, departed after just a two-year stint, and Tom Cibrowski joined the news division as president and executive editor last month.

Rose cited observers who have noted the irony of the play “Good Night, and Good Luck” — starring George Clooney as legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow — currently playing to packed houses on Broadway while the news division undergoes this latest test of its resolve.

But the destabilization of CBS News is part of a deliberate strategy by the Trump administration to bully and intimidate news organizations, by threatening to pull FCC licenses, through lawsuits and constant insult-tweeting by the president.

Many would argue that the strategy is working.

ABC News paid President Trump $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit in December. A month later, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, paid the president $25 million to settle a lawsuit he brought against the company for indefinitely banning him in 2021, following the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot.

In addition to the turmoil surrounding “60 Minutes,” there’s apprehension within the division that CBS News will face broader job cuts as a cost-saving measure once the Skydance merger closes.

CBS News had no comment beyond the memo CBS News and Stations president-CEO Wendy McMahon issued to staff, saying that the company remains “committed to ’60 Minutes’ and to ensuring that the mission and the work remain our priority. We have already begun conversations with correspondents and senior leaders, and those will continue in the days and weeks ahead.” Sources say McMahon reiterated those sentiments in a meeting on Wednesday.

But journalism veterans have also expressed concern that CBS News will be forced to apologize or settle what they see as a meritless lawsuit in order to secure regulatory approval.

“It’s clear for anyone who has spent any time considering the lawsuit against ’60 Minutes’ that it’s a complete sham and obviously frivolous,” Bury said. “What happened in terms of the interview that offended President Trump is just standard television journalistic procedure.”

Rose also expressed faith, and hope, that “60 Minutes,” even in a diminished linear-TV landscape, will continue to survive, citing the commitment of the people who work there to the example Murrow set decades ago.

“It’s a group full of people, full of great journalists that only want to get it right,” he said. “In order to get a story on, you have to go through layers and layers and layers of folks questioning your efforts, and at the same time they’re doing it for a very good reason. They never want to get it wrong.”

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