The iconic news program ’60 Minutes’ is under great pressure

« If you have ever worked hard for a boss because you admired him, you will understand that we enjoyed here. » With those words, Scot Pelley, presenter of the iconic American news program, took Sunday evening farewell to his bossexecutive producer Bill Owens. « Bill resigned on Tuesday. That was tough for him and for us. But he did it for us and for you. Stories that we have chased for 57 years are often controversial. (…) Bill made sure they were honest and balanced. »

Owens announced his departure last week before a bewildered editors. He was only the third executive producer in the 57-year history of 60 minutesthat thanks to strong reports and investigative journalism has become an institute. Owens was employed by CBS News for 37 years, and was at the helm of 6 years 60 minutes. But his journalistic independence had to make it against political and business pressure in recent months. « It is clear that I have become the problem, » he said. « The company is done with me. »

In a farewell memo, that in the hands fell from The New York TimesOwens wrote that his departure is due to the fact that he was less and less capable of ‘making independent decisions based on what is good for 60 minuteS, good for the public. In recent months it has become clear that I can no longer lead the program as I have always done. So, after the show and what we stand for from every corner and with everything I could have defended, I now step aside so that the show can continue. ”

During his emotional farewell, Owens told about his resistance to the creeping control that paramount paramount tries to exert on the show via the CBS channel. Shari Redstone, the most important shareholder of Paramount, is seen by many as the driving force. Because she needs the approval of President Trump to sell Paramount to Skydance, a media company that is run by the son of Tech millionaire and Trump supporter Larry Ellison. But Trump has sued CBS because 60 minutes An interview with his rival Kamala Harris would have edited in her favor. Although the legal land is weak, the company controls a settlement.

In January, Redstone complained to CBS managers about a broadcast of 60 minutes About the war between Israel and Hamas. In response, CBS Susan Zirinsky, former director of CBS News, appointed as a kind of ‘editor -in -chief’ who had to supervise the ‘journalistic standards’ of the editors. Owens saw this as a first step on a dangerous « sloping plane », in the direction of checking sensitive 60 minutes programs before being broadcast. He opposed this infringement of journalistic independence.

60 minutes In his long history, was previously collided with the interests of his owners. In 1995, CBS forced the program a report on how tobacco giant Brown & Williamson had not been concealing health risks. Some CBS drivers had an interest in avoiding legal problems with the company. Eventually The Wall Street Journal ran away with the unveiling. And in recent years, the program was accused of promoting books and films that are published by sister companies of Mediaconglomerat Viacom (Paramount).

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Nevertheless, employees of the program find the current busy more serious. They are concerned about the journalistic independence of 60 minutes After Owens worked out for defending it. In his farewell memo he tried to keep the courage in any case. He wrote that 60 minutes will continue to report on the government, as every future government will beat. « This program is too important for the country, it must continue, just not with me as an executive producer. »

Tanya Simon will, at least temporarily, take over the baton from Owens and will also be seen as an important candidate to definitively replace him. She is the daughter of the beloved 60 minutes correspondent Bob Simon, has been working at CBS News since 1996, and was appointed editor-in-chief of the program in 2019. If she does indeed become Owens successor, she would be the first woman to lead the program.

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