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Posted on 04/23/2025 7:24:36 PM PDT by Red Badger
Status obtained the audio of Tuesday’s stunning “60 Minutes” meeting where Bill Owens, fighting back tears, said he’s become “the corporation’s problem”—and made it clear he wasn’t leaving by choice.
Late Tuesday morning, chatter started spreading through the halls of CBS News. A one o’clock meeting had suddenly been scheduled for the “60 Minutes” staff. It was short notice and there was no stated agenda. Alarm bells started to ring. By early afternoon, as producers and correspondents filed into a room on the 14th floor of the CBS Broadcast Center on Manhattan’s West Side, the tension was unmistakable.
Anderson Cooper appeared on Zoom from Rome, where he’s covering the death of Pope Francis. Inside the room was CBS News boss Wendy McMahon, Lesley Stahl, Scott Pelley, and the rest of the show’s top-tier staff—many of whom had spent decades working with Bill Owens. He stood at the front, visibly emotional, and delivered the news himself: after 37 years at CBS News, and six leading "60 Minutes" as executive producer, he would be stepping down in the coming weeks. “So an email is going to go out now that says I’m leaving,” he said, adding, “It’s clear that I’ve become the problem. I am the corporation’s problem.”
Owens, of course, wasn’t simply announcing a retirement. He was sending a message: "60 Minutes" is under sustained corporate pressure and he was doing what he thought was best to protect the storied newsmagazine's reputation. Fighting back tears, he described a breaking point between the show’s editorial independence and corporate control. “I do think this will be a moment for the corporation to take a hard look at itself and its relationship with us,” he told the room.
“People have asked, should we walk out? No. The opposite," Owens said. "I really, really, really believe that this will create a moment where the corporation will have to think about the way we operate, the way we’ve always operated, and allow us to operate like that.”
This account is largely based on audio of the meeting obtained by Status, providing a verbatim record of what was said inside the room as Owens addressed the staff. The recording captured the emotional tenor of the moment—including the various applauses and unmistakable strain in Owens’ voice—as well as the remarks from McMahon, Stahl, and Pelley that followed.
The meeting and timing of Owens' announcement came against a backdrop that has loomed over CBS News for months. Paramount Global, the network’s parent company, is trying to finalize a high-stakes merger with David Ellison’s Skydance Media—a deal that’s been slowed, if not outright stalled, by a baseless lawsuit Donald Trump filed against “60 Minutes.” Shari Redstone, who controls Paramount, has made it clear she wants the case resolved. In recent days, lawyers for Trump and Paramount have entered mediation to explore how that might happen.
Both Owens and McMahon have rejected the idea of settling on Trump’s terms. As we exclusively reported last month, Jeff Shell, the incoming president of the new Paramount, communicated to both that they needed to get on board with a deal. But neither have been willing to agree to any settlement, especially one that might involve apologizing to Trump.
The pressure has been intense—and not just from inside the company and the executives who will soon control it. Brendan Carr, Trump's Federal Communications Commission chair, has used a related complaint against CBS News to torment Paramount. Carr's approval is required for the Paramount-Skydance merger to close and it has been quite clear that a greenlight likely won't be given until Trump’s lawsuit is resolved.
Suffice to say, what Redstone decides next will define far more than just the fate of "60 Minutes." If Redstone agrees to settle Trump’s lawsuit in order to push her merger through, it won’t just be a capitulation, it will be a stain on the legacy of the show, and on her own. The house of Walter Cronkite will have bowed before Trump on the world stage. It will forever be known that when CBS News was tested, it folded.
A spokesperson for Redstone declined to comment on Owens’ departure.
In any case, for Trump, the resignation of Owens, whose top rated "60 Minutes" has treated the thin-skinned president to aggressive and unflinching coverage, will already be seen as a victory. Trump has long vilified and raged against the show, and now the man who resisted corporate pressure and defended its editorial independence is stepping aside. It’s hard to imagine Trump not enjoying every bit of it—especially given that it has thrown the program into chaos, with staffers very much wondering what it means for the program. Will “60 Minutes” slowly be drained of its editorial independence, particularly with a merger on the horizon? Will some of the top correspondents, like Stahl and Pelley, opt to leave with Owens? Will all of this noise around the show tarnish its brand and trust with viewers?
In her own remarks at the Tuesday meeting, McMahon tried to answer the questions as best as she could. She acknowledged that the news “is incredibly difficult to hear.” She told staffers that Owens would remain with the network for a short period of time and added, “Bill will be with us in the weeks ahead so there will be time, there will be opportunity, to thank him for his contributions to ‘60’ to CBS News and to really journalism, writ large.”
McMahon called the remarks Owens delivered “brilliant and beautiful in its honesty,” and said she respected his decision and timing “because I respect Bill.” She also made a pledge to staffers in the room about what comes next: “I can assure you that the next leadership team of ‘60 Minutes’ will be from within ‘60 Minutes.’”
Stahl, who has spent more than half a century at CBS, addressed Owens directly, saying, “I have had many bosses, many bosses. And very good ones. But I have never been so proud to work for anyone as I have over the last year working for you.” She praised his ethics and courage, adding, “I think you taught us all a lesson of following principle and being courageous and fighting for what you believe in. And I know you have taken a hell of a beating.” She ended by saying, “I honestly don’t know how we are going to go on with you. And I mean that.”
That comment prompted the room to erupt in loud applause.
Later, Stahl asked a pointed question: “Is there a commitment from the corporation that they will step back?”
Owens replied, “The corporation is not talking to me at the moment. But I can tell you that young lady over there has our back and continues to fight this fight, week by week,” a nod to McMahon.
Near the end of the meeting, Pelley, who has worked alongside Owens for three decades, offered a deeply personal tribute. “No one could be a better champion for ‘60 Minutes’ or journalism in America writ large,” he said.
“This isn’t something Bill is doing on his own volition. You’re not being abandoned. There was no choice in any of this,” Pelley added. “Leaving you would have been the last thing that Bill Owens would do. And that gives you some sense of the sacrifice that he is making for us—the kind of sacrifice as he has made all the years he has been here.”
Owens then closed the meeting with one last reminder: “Don’t take this place for granted. And let’s just keep going.”
The applause that followed was long and sustained.
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Not a shred of bias in the overlong piece of written diarrhea.
Nope.
L
The article kept saying “editorial independence”.
All I ever heard from that show was the sounds of Operation Mockingbird.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
bovine excretion
Trash, objecting to being taken out.
They speak of themselves as if they’re heroes heroes storming the beaches at Normandy.
They’re despicable self-promoting children of Satan.
There is nothing more glorious than Trump taking them down.
What a glorious time to be alive!
What liberals have done to me and many others in jobs demands justice. God WILL repay them, they just don't believe it. No quarter and none expected.
The noise will be the tarnish. The bias is the what? Polish?
I haven’t watched it in decades..............
What’s not to love when a covey of communists and supporters get into an internal pissing match...
Imagine how wonderfully warm it would be if they all spontaneously combusted...
What do you expect from Oliver Darcy? I hope Trump humiliates CBS. I hope Leslie Stahl has to kiss his butt.
I don’t watch 60 Minutes and have no knowledge of it’s political leanings. Is it a biased show?
En Extrema..................
In the 60’s and 70’s it was an investigative reports show. It was the most popular show on the tube. Something different every week.
Then Mike Wallace and Co. changed it to a political hatchet job show. Democrats good. Republicans bad. Same thing every week..........
Mr. President, THIS IS 60 minutes! Lol
If they think Stahl and Pelley are top-tier, I think I identified their problem.
Leslie Stahl was the one who interviewed Trump and when he mentioned the Russia Hoax, used against him, she immediately interrupted and said “It’s been debunked!”
He said, “How?”
And she just said, “Because it’s been debunked!”.
She has no brains inside that shriveled husk she calls a body............
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