New York
CNN
—
CBS News’ ‘“60 Minutes” addressed the surprise exit of its longtime executive producer Bill Owens on Sunday’s program, with anchor Scott Pelley saying that “no one is happy” about his departure.
In an extraordinarily blunt final segment of the news magazine show, Pelley revealed that CBS’ parent company Paramount “began to supervise our content in new ways” as it tries to complete a merger with Skydance Media, with Pelley adding that Owens “felt he had lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”
Owens announced last week he was leaving “60 Minutes” after 24 years with the program and 37 years at CBS News. No replacement was immediately named.
Pelley said that topics the show has pursued in its roughly 60-year history are “often controversial,” noting recent stories have included Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza and the Trump administration.
“Bill made sure they were accurate and fair,” Pelley said. “He was tough that way, but our parent company Paramount is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it.”
He added: “None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he had lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”
Pelley said Owens’ resignation last Tuesday “was hard on him and hard on us, but he did it for us and you.”
“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,” Pelley concluded.
The segment was also shared on various “60 Minutes” social media accounts with many of its correspondents reposting it, including Cecilia Vargas, Jon Wertheim, and CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
CBS News and Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Owens’ resignation letter, he said that in the the last few months it was made it clear that he “would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it” or make “independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes.”
“So, having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward,” Owens wrote, adding that “the show is too important to the country, it has to continue, just not with me as the Executive Producer.”
Owens’ decision to step down comes as Americans’ trust in media outlets has hit a low and as outlets find themselves under attack — including frequent jabs from the White House. In November, President Donald Trump slapped CBS News and its parent company, Paramount Global, with a $10 billion lawsuit that claims a “60 Minutes” interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris was grossly mis-edited by CBS at the Harris campaign’s direction.
Since then, Trump has repeatedly called for the network to lose its license and urged the Federal Communications Commission to punish the broadcaster. Ultimately, “60 Minutes” handed over the full transcript and video of the contested interview to the FCC, and Trump and Paramount this month agreed on a mediator in the lawsuit.
Shortly after reports of Owens’ resignation emerged, two “60 Minutes” producers spoke anonymously with CNN’s Jake Tapper. One source called Trump’s lawsuit “baseless” and stressed Owens’ refusal to apologize or bend while noting the top producer “fought for the broadcast and for independent journalism and that cost him his job.”
A second source was blunter.
“It‘s like a guy who has been battling for months against an attack,” this person said. “He sacrificed himself hoping it might make our corporate overlords wake up and realize they risk destroying what makes 60 Minutes great.”
