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Did Donald Trump break “60 Minutes”?
Scott Pelley on Sunday night time smashed the “in case of emergency” glass — one thing “60 Minutes” staffers hope they by no means should do.
In a uncommon transfer that put the internal workings of “60 Minutes” on full show to the general public at giant, Pelley on Sunday night time mentioned final week’s shock exit of Bill Owens — simply the third govt producer in this system’s historical past and its guiding mild since taking the position in 2019 — and the stress the workers felt was being placed on the long-running newsmagazine by Paramount Global, dad or mum of CBS News. His look teed up one of the vital dramatic examples in latest reminiscence of media conglomerates discovering themselves at odds with information divisions which can be speculated to be impartial at a time when they’re apprehensive about meddling from the Trump administration.
“Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires,” Pelley stated on air. Owens introduced final week he would go away this system, citing an growing lack of potential “to make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.”
Over the course of a virtually six-decade tenure on air, “60 Minutes” has investigated politicians, firms and army maneuvers. It’s not a shock that Paramount would possibly need an additional layer of scrutiny on this system, say three individuals aware of the matter, and certainly, the present is believed to have tightened its requirements evaluation course of following the 2013 broadcast of a phase that examined an assault on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and was discovered to be missing in its efforts to substantiate assertions of a key supply.
Still, it’s one factor to deal with journalism, say three different individuals aware of the present, and fairly one other to have scrutiny added by Paramount because it navigates its manner towards a essential acquisition of its property by Skydance Media. The deal would add recent capital to Paramount’s operations and assist controlling shareholder Shari Redstone keep her household fortune. However, it seems to have been slowed down by a lawsuit filed in opposition to CBS by President Donald Trump in November alleging the present tried to mislead viewers with completely different edits of an interview with former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
The transaction was within the backdrop when Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks in January put in former CBS News President Susan Zirinsky as an “interim executive editor” on the information division, after controversies that he stated spurred “feedback concerning perceived bias in some CBS News protection.” While Zirinsky and members of her group have been held in excessive regard, “60 Minutes” staffers felt they have been being put below a decidedly completely different microscope: one with a lens on how the present’s tales would possibly have an effect on Paramount’s enterprise.
Such dynamics have served to distract the workers from their mission, says one particular person aware of the present. Pelley’s Sunday phase proved inspiring, this particular person says, with a protection of this system’s integrity in public that helped to refocus staffers’ consideration on the work they have to do to shut out the present season over the following three weeks.
This isn’t the primary time “60 Minutes” has discovered itself at odds with the corporate that owns it. In 1995, CBS compelled the newsmagazine, then run by founder Don Hewitt, to carry a report alleging that tobacco large Brown & Williamson had hidden the well being dangers inherent in its cigarettes. At the time, some CBS executives had an curiosity in avoiding authorized entanglements with that firm. In the top, The Wall Street Journal beat “60 Minutes” to the story, and CBS News was accused by The New York Times of betraying the legacy of one among its best-known journalists, Edward R. Murrow.
Pelley isn’t breaking as many taboos as he may need up to now. Viewers are rising accustomed to seeing anchors take their company house owners to job, as Rachel Maddow has finished at MSNBC. At Disney’s ESPN, the outspoken Pat McAfee final 12 months known as out one of many community’s senior executives on air.
At first blush, Pelley and McAfee would possibly appear to have little in widespread. As media conglomerates navigate an period through which their economics are much less sure, nevertheless, on-screen outbursts would possibly simply change into extra frequent.