Article in The Guardian by Leonie Chao-Fong, 4/22/24
Headline: “60 Minutes executive producer leaves program over journalistic independence”
Subhead: Bill Owens says in staff memo ‘it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it’ “
“Bill Owens, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, says he is leaving the flagship news program because he lost his journalistic independence.
“In a staff memo obtained by the New York Times, Owens said that ‘over the past months, it has 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’ . . .”
“He said the show will continue to cover the new Trump administration, adding: ‘The show is too important to the country. It has to continue, just not with me as the executive producer.’ ”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/22/60-minutes-executive-producer-leaves-bill-owens
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Article in Mediaite by Michael Luciano, 4/22/25
Headline: “Tapper Rips CBS Owner for 60 Minutes Shakeup Amid Trump Pressure: ‘Hope the Money’s Worth It, Shari’ “
“CNN’s Jake Tapper pilloried the controlling owner of CBS’s parent company after the departure of the executive producer of 60 Minutes on Tuesday.
“President Donald Trump is suing CBS over an interview 60 Minutes conducted last year with then-vice president Kamala Harris after she secured the Democratic presidential nomination. CBS aired two different parts of a response Harris gave to a question. One part of the response was in a teaser for the show, and the other was aired on the show itself.
“ ‘The president alleges that editing the 60 Minutes interview and running two different answers to the same question helped Vice President Harris and amounted to electoral fraud,’ Tapper explained on Tuesday’s edition of The Lead. ‘In reality, this is just editorial discretion. Editors do it all the time with recorded interviews, including all the time with taped interviews by Fox [News]’. . .”
