’60 Minutes’ producer Bill Owens resigns over editorial concerns
Executive producer of CBS News’ ‘60 Minutes,’ Bill Owens, has stepped down from his role, citing concerns over editorial and journalistic independence.
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Turmoil at “60 Minutes” spilled from behind the scenes to front of camera over the weekend.
In a rare on-air rebuke April 27, longtime correspondent for the CBS newsmagazine Scott Pelley said the broadcaster’s parent company Paramount had become heavy-handed in its oversight.
His comments came in response to executive producer Bill Owens’ resignation from the show last week. Owens resigned after saying he had lost journalistic independence.
“It was hard on him and hard on us,” Pelley said. “But he did it for us and you.
“Stories we’ve pursued for 57 years are often controversial: lately, the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way,” he continued.
“But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” Pelley said. “None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”
Announcing his resignation, Owens wrote in an internal memo seen by Reuters that it had “become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it” or “to make independent decisions,” and that after defending the show “from every angle, over time with everything I could,” he had elected to step down.
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USA TODAY has reached out to a rep for “60 Minutes” for comment.
Pelley’s comments come as the Trump administration bears down on media outlets it views as biased or over-critical. Both as a candidate and now as president, Donald Trump has taken legal action against several of the major news networks, and his press office has shut out some legacy media outlets from access they previously enjoyed.
“No one here is happy about it,” Pelley continued of the changes at “60 Minutes.” “But in resigning, Bill proved one thing: He was the right person to lead ’60 Minutes’ all along.”
Trump sued “60 Minutes” last year over claims the show favorably edited an interview with then-opposing political candidate Kamala Harris. The program later released the transcripts of the interview and the case entered mediation in April.
CBS as a whole is also under investigation after Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr reopened a previously closed probe into the network’s alleged “news distortion.”
These disputes arrive against the backdrop of an attempted merger between Paramount, which owns CBS, and Skydance Media, a merger that Carr and the FCC have the power to block.
Contributing: Reuters
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