60 Minutes Producer Resigns, Claiming He Can’t Make ‘Independent Decisions’
You mean you cannot keep it as a left-wing show that deceptively edits interviews with people like failed Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris to make them appear intelligent and competent?
Bill Owens, executive producer of 60 Minutes, resigned because he can no longer “run the show” as he has always done.
Why is that? Well, ORANGE MAN BAD:
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. To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience. 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.
So, Owens, you mean you cannot keep it as a left-wing show that deceptively edits interviews with people like failed Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris to make them appear intelligent and competent?
The horror!
Don’t forget the smear job against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the state’s COVID vaccine rollout.
60 Minutes framed its “report” on the rollout as a “pay-to-play” scheme between DeSantis and Publix. The news program insisted DeSantis would give Publix contracts for the vaccines if it gave his campaign $100,000.
Democrat Jared Moskowitz, the outgoing director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, even bashed the 60 Minutes story:
Jared Moskowitz, the outgoing director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, said that when the state needed to open up more COVID-19 vaccinations faster in late December and early January, he reached out to Walmart first about a potential partnership. But the company said it wouldn’t be ready to go for 21 days.
“I then got on the phone with Publix,” Moskowitz said. “And I said, when can you start? 72 hours. That’s it! That’s the whole story!”
The decision comes as Paramount Global and President Donald Trump will supposedly start mediation for his $20 billion lawsuit over the Harris interview.
Trump claims the edited Harris interview misled viewers and harmed his campaign.
Owens had to pat himself on the back on the way out:
The fact is that 60 Minutes has been my life. My son was 6 months old, my wife was pregnant with my daughter and my mother was in a coma when I spent 5 weeks on the battlefield in Iraq with Scott. My 60 Minutes priorities have always been clear. Maybe not smart, but clear.
—
Look, I have worked at CBS News for 37 years, more than half of that at 60 Minutes, I have been shot at and threatened with jail for protecting a source. I have overseen more than 600 stories as Executive Producer of 60. I know who I am and what I have done to cover the most important stories of our time under difficult conditions. I am also proud to have hired the next generation of correspondents and to call Lesley, Bill, Anderson, Sharyn, Jon, Cecilia and Scott friends. Scott one of my closest.
Dude, I saw the bias in 60 Minutes when I was a crazy leftist.
Here’s the full memo:
The fact is that 60 Minutes has been my life. My son was 6 months old, my wife was pregnant with my daughter and my mother was in a coma when I spent 5 weeks on the battlefield in Iraq with Scott. My 60 Minutes priorities have always been clear. Maybe not smart, but clear.
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. To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience. 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.
The show is too important to the country, it has to continue, just not with me as the Executive Producer. Please remember, people didn’t think we would survive without Mike or Ed or Don or Jeff. We did. You will.
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.
Wendy McMahon has always had our back, and she agrees that 60 Minutes needs to be run by a 60 Minute producer. Tanya has been an amazing partner, as have Claudia and Debbie, Matt Richman and Matt Polevoy. I am grateful to all of them.
Look, I have worked at CBS News for 37 years, more than half of that at 60 Minutes, I have been shot at and threatened with jail for protecting a source. I have overseen more than 600 stories as Executive Producer of 60. I know who I am and what I have done to cover the most important stories of our time under difficult conditions. I am also proud to have hired the next generation of correspondents and to call Lesley, Bill, Anderson, Sharyn, Jon, Cecilia and Scott friends. Scott one of my closest.
Thank you all, remain focused on the moment, our audience deserves it.
Bill
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Comments
Haven’t watched 60 minutes since they did that fluff piece on Buddy Cianci, who they said went to prison for being mayor.
No, he went to prison for running a ‘racket’ out of the mayor’s office.
60 minutes is not the cutting edge expose’ show they want to pretend it is.
“60 minutes is not the cutting edge expose’ show they want to pretend it is.”
It never was.
Really? I thought he went to prison for beating the everloving s* out of his wife.
Well… bye.
Bub bye, Bubba.
And good riddance!
I understood 60 Minutes, CBS News, ABC News, and NBC News were garbage organizations staffed by garbage people based entirely on their coverage at the end of the Vietnam War. The marked contrast of coverage between the Carter administration and the Reagan administration reinforced that opinion, and nothing any have done in the decades since has altered that opinion an iota.
“I have been shot at”
Has he? By who and when?
Maybe no one watches your garbage.
Following Hillary around at airports?
Maybe his wife
He was there, in Bosnia, taking fire as he exited the aircraft with Hillary…(s)
Good riddance.
That was a dangerous time. I get tremors just thinking about it.
Is it seared into your memory?!?
Sounds like the lawyers have been trying to keep him from causing too many more lawsuits. Only 57 years too late!
So big deal, Harry Whittington was shot by Dick Cheney and he lived.
Owens has nothing to worry about. CNN is always looking for someone with his level of journalistic integrity.
What a whiny a$$ way to go out.
I stopped watching “60 Minutes” more than 30 years ago. The best part was often Andy Rooney’s short commentary at the end. He got suspended several times for telling the truth. In America (and probably elsewhere too) telling the truth gets one into more trouble than lying. Not surprising as the truth often hurts. Orwell: “In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Although evidently the attribution to Orwell lacks evidence.
To get some insight into what happened to CBS News, read “Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye,” by Robert Metz. CBS once subsidized the News Division. After Corporate decided that the News Division must be self supporting, the quality declined. Today (in my opinion) CBS and the other major networks have become junk, or as Newton Minow told the National Association of Broadcasters in 1961: American commercial television programming [is] a “vast wasteland.”
On the positive side, the major networks continue to lose credibility and audience. Ultimately they will vanish unless the government subsidizes them as it does in Canada.
“Although evidently the attribution to Orwell lacks evidence.”
I see that here.
I notice that all the earliest attributions are not to George Orwell, but “G. Orwell. Perhaps it was actually said at an SDS meeting by the first quoter’s college roommate, Greg Orwell.
60 minutes is an
hour past its prime
It’s not even 60 minutes when you factor in the commercials.
What these progressive “journalists” don’t seem to understand is that they don’t own the corporations they work for and don’t get final decision over what is said and done. It is the corporation that bears the brunt of any idiocy or lying or antagonism created by the “journalist”, As some point it is too much.
If a “journalist” wants full editorial control he should start his own media outlet. Failing that just stfu.
It’s a pity this mindset can’t be transferred over to colleges. Their professors are constantly degrading the college brand through their insane antics and comments. YES you idiot admins and directors, the idiot professor does speak for the college when the college name is affixed to his name as he spouts inanities, lies, and offensive remarks. They are your employees. You own them and their stupidity.
He’s saying he did get final decision, for many years. A lot of damage that will take generations to undo, to the national psychology. But it’s because the shareholders were complicit and approved, and the old politics have suddenly stopped working and so the shareholders want something else.
It must have been nice to be able to run the show all those years, on a network he didn’t build in a country he didn’t build, just as he wanted without any constraints. Wish I had a job like that.
All bubbles must pop.