The news broke on Tuesday afternoon: Bill Owens, the longtime executive producer of 60 Minutes, resigned from his post. If you read between the lines, he might have been fired for failing to fall in line with Paramount Global owner Shari Redstone’s vision of what news should be. Either way, this is another serious blow to journalism and another shameful acquiescence to the Trump administration. Now, CBS News — the house that Murrow and Cronkite and 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt built — has caved to corporate pressure and a president who has gone from calling anything critical of him “fake news” to trying to compel the most stalwart media institutions to bow at his altar.
It started with ABC, which agreed to pay $15 million after George Stephanopoulos described Trump’s dressing room attack on E. Jean Carroll as rape instead of sexual assault (even though the judge characterized it as rape). Rather than get embroiled in lengthy and public litigation in a case most observers said it was likely to win, ABC decided to settle. Then the Associated Press, one of the most reliable sources of news and information ever since it was established in 1846, was kicked out of the White House briefing room for its failure to adhere to the president’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. And now Trump is even threatening to withhold government funding for long-established institutions of journalistic excellence like PBS and NPR, because he sees them as “radical left monsters.”
It’s open season on the free press, and for those outlets owned by corporations, it may prove to be deadly. As Brian Lowry of The Wrap wrote, “60 Minutes found itself in a particularly awkward position, having drawn Trump’s ire at a time when the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, is seeking to ensure no roadblocks get thrown in the way of its pending merger with Skydance Media, amid ongoing regulatory review.” In other words, corporate greed won.
Intrepid journalism is apparently the roadblock to a multi-million dollar payout to Redstone, whose interference in the news division began to surface months ago, when she publicly defended Tony Dokoupil, a host of the network’s morning show, for monopolizing the conversation and challenging writer Ta-Nehisi Coates about his book on the plight of the Palestinians. People can agree or disagree about the way Dokoupil handled that interview. But Shari Redstone should not be weighing in, especially given the timing. It’s only gotten worse: She reportedly had also asked for a heads-up if 60 Minutes was working on a story having to do with the president.
I remember getting a note from Bob Wright, the then-president and CEO of NBC, about an interview I had done with Condoleezza Rice. He felt I had been too tough on her and said he had heard comments from others saying the same thing. I politely responded that I would not tell him how to run his business and appreciated it if he would not mess with my journalism. It was a clear line I did not want him to cross.
In full disclosure, I was no fan of Bill Owens. I found him and his predecessor, Jeff Fager, to be duplicitous bullies. But I was heartened to see that under extraordinary corporate pressure, he insisted the program continue to investigate and critique the Trump administration’s policies on immigration and DOGE cuts eliminating the watchdogs that actually prevent “waste, fraud, and abuse.” After recent pieces on Zelensky and Greenland ran (the Greenland piece was pretty innocuous), Trump jumped on Truth Social to criticize 60 Minutes, claiming, “They are not a ‘News Show,’ but a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as ‘News,’ and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing,” adding that he hoped FCC Chair Brendan Carr “will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior.”
What 60 Minutes reported on was neither “unlawful or illegal.” But the aforementioned Brendan Carr is the same person who will be in a position to approve the Paramount Skydance merger. If you think the whole thing sounds like a kind of modern media extortion plot, you’re not alone.
Meanwhile, in his statement to staff, Owens said “60 Minutes will continue to cover the new administration, as we will report on future administrations. We will report from war zones, investigate injustices, and educate our audience. In short, 60 Minutes will do what it has done for 57 years.” It’s hard to take that promise seriously with the specter of Trump’s retributive rage hanging over the heads of the journalists who work there. Or the influence of their corporate overlord Shari Redstone (or the new owners who may not have the stomach to stand up to the Trump administration) — who would rather throw indispensable reporting under the bus for the sake of raking in millions. Let’s hope the 60 Minutes stopwatch will keep ticking every Sunday night, doing what it does best.
If not, as Edward R. Murrow warned us, “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” It seems we are well on our way. And the wolves are licking their chops.
