The executive producer of CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Bill Owens, only the third in the venerable newsmagazine’s history, said he will leave his job, 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 past a lawsuit filed against CBS News by President Donald Trump and secure its future in a merger with Skydance Media.
“Over the past months, it has also become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it,” Owens told staffers in a memo Tuesday, adding: “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.”
Paramount Global declined to comment.
Owens’ decision to leave comes as executives at Paramount, including controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, have continued to express interest in settling a lawsuit filed by Trump in federal court in the Northern District of Texas in November, alleging that “60 Minutes” tried to mislead 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 sought to have the case thrown out in a subsequent filing.
Owens has in recent weeks urged the program’s popular correspondents to focus on their jobs, but according to three people familiar with the matter, there have been discussions among staffers about how to protest any perception that Paramount would actively undermine the program, one of the jewels of TV journalism, by settling a legal matter viewed by many experts as flimsy at best. Trump and Paramount had already engaged a mediator to help settle the matter, having been unable to do so on their own.
More to come…
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