’60 minutes’ Paramount calls for the exit of the executive producer in rare on-Air reprimand

Everything seemed normal in the first 98% of Sunday from “60 minutes” on CBS. But the remaining 2% may have shocked viewers.

In the “Last Minute” segment of the show, Correspondent Scott Pelley told the public of the Reverend Newsmagazine that Bill Owens, the executive producer of the program, chose to leave last week as Paramount Global, the parent of CBS News, tries the Gaza region in the Gaza region in the Gaza region.

“Paramount started to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill thought he lost independence that honest journalism,” said Pelley. “Nobody here is happy with it.”

The segment offered a rare copy of the “60 minutes” staff who criticized the management of the parent company of the Nieuwsmagazine, one of the highest rated programs of the TV and one of the most respected vehicles of journalism, and the show that are opening its inner operation for viewers who are probably not aware of them.

Owens, just the third executive producer in the nearly six-decade history of the show, surprised many last week by saying he intended to leave the program, citing an increasing lack of ability “to make independent decisions based on what was right for ’60 Minutes,’ right for the audience” as parent company Paramount Global Tries To Move Fits A Lawsuit Filed Against CBS News by President Donald Trump and Secure its Future in A Merger Withdance Media. At issue has been the interest of Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, in finding a way to move past what is perceived as a slow-walk of regulatory approval for the pending acquisition of her company by Skydance President Trump filed a suit in federal court in the Northern District of Texas in November, alleging that “60 minutes” Tried to Miskead Voters by Airing Two Different Edits of Remarks Made in an interview with Former Vice President Kamala Harris, then Trump’s rival for the White House. CBS tried to have thrown the case away, and many legal experts have expressed the idea that the legal status of the suit is thin.

Paramount set up a new low editorial supervision of CBS News in January, with Susan Zirinsky, an experienced producer and former CBS newspresident, mentioned as ‘interim -executive editor’ who was assigned to supervise standards and to help with the vet and journalistic practices. The new role was created after a series of controversies associated with CBS news reporting in various shows, including “60 minutes” and “CBS Mornings.” But the structure turned out to be alarming for people who merge “60 minutes” every week. Owens said on Tuesday that he was confronted with an increasing lack of power “to make independent decisions based on what was good for ’60 minutes’, good for the public.”

The show has enjoyed an unprecedented level of autonomy in its almost six decades, and although it has long screened its stories for legal control and compliance with the standards of journalism, it is allowed to monitor itself. Suddenly, producers were asked to include someone else in his process. In this case, Al Ortiz, a former senior producer of CBS News and head of news standards and practices, helped to control stories, according to three of the people who are familiar with the issue. In the past, Ortiz had enjoyed a warm relationship with Owens and enjoyed respect during his career, but his new presence let the show producers feel that they were followed by outsiders with motivations that were not entirely focused on the program. The dismissal of Owens is seen by ’60 minutes’ employees as a warning signal for companies about the possible erosion of the credibility of the news magazine.

“Bill resigned on Tuesday. It was difficult for him and it was difficult for us,” Pelley said. “But he did it for us.”

News anchors have not often received the leeway to criticize the company that their salaries pays on the vehicle owned by the company. In the past year, however, more news staff has been put on the belt.

MSNBC and older NBCUIVERSAL SALL STULED MUCH OF THE MOST PROMINENT ANKERS from MSNBC, including Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace and Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, to carp on a decision by NBC News Mercda -Personeel. The credibility of McDaniel was under a microscope, but the sight of a parade of anchors that employers and managers Lambast was an eyebrow increase to put things mild. In the same year, Disney’s ESPN had to be struggling with host Pat McAfee, a boisterous host, who swung Invective at a former senior executive, Norby Williamson, who, according to the host, had tried to sabotage his program.

In the past, actions that were considered a mild rebellion were punished – and quickly. Josh Elliott, the former ‘Good Morning America’ team member who arrived at NBC Sports at CBS News, got a grip as an anchor of the new streaming effort of the Paramount Global Division and then called CBSN. But one day in 2017, he let it slip that he was promoted to work from some of CBS News Linear properties, without doing this to do this from managers. Instead of being shown a new desk, the anchor was shown the door. The decision of Brooke Baldwin in 2020 to post on Instagram that her afternoon -cnn program was cut for campaign coverage and that the decision was “not my choice” would have the top managers at the outlet furious. She left CNN in 2021 after she became popular with the public.

The indignation on “60 minutes” is palpable. Correspondent Lesley Stahl told Variety Last week that “I have been informed of interference in our news processes and questioning our judgment,” added: “That is not the way in which companies have to deal with those news organizations.”

The choice of Pelley to deliver the message in the air may have been suitable. The anchor has not been afraid in the past to challenge CBS News Management. In 2019, Pelley went to CNN’s “reliable sources” media-News program to claim that in 2017 he was collected CBS ‘Avondnieuws in 2017 after he had collected complaints internally about the workplace culture of the news division. “We have a dark period of the last years of the evening of the evening of the ‘Evening News’ Said in the double news’ would not stop complaining in the management of the hostile working environment.”

It is also known that Pelley is close to Owens. While the two reported from Iraq in 2003, Owens sprinted to give Pelley a gas mask after hearing an explosion above the head, for fear that the anchor was about to be harmed by a chemical attack. “It turned out that the scale that exploded was not a chemical weapon,” Pelley recalled Variety In 2020. “But he didn’t know that.”