'60 Minutes' chief resigns, saying show's independence was compromised

The longtime head of CBS' 60 Minutes resigned Tuesday, as the network's parent company grapples with President Trump's lawsuit over an interview the show did with Kamala Harris last fall.

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"60 Minutes" executive producer Bill Owens, left, shown with executive editor Tanya Simon in 2019. Owens resigned Tuesday, saying corporate leaders were no longer letting him "make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience." Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Invision

toggle captionEvan Agostini/Invision/AP/Invision

The longtime head of CBS' 60 Minutes resigned Tuesday, as the network's parent company contemplates a settlement with President Trump over his lawsuit focusing on an interview the show did with then-Vice President Kamala Harris last fall.

In an emotionally charged meeting Tuesday afternoon, and again in a note to staff released publicly shortly after, the show's executive producer, Bill Owens said he was departing after 37 years with CBS News following months of heavy-handed treatment of the show by corporate leaders.

Owens, only the third leader of the show in its more than half-century history, did not explicitly cite Trump. But the president's open rancor toward 60 Minutes looms over all. Corporate parent Paramount and its controlling owner, Shari Redstone, are seeking the approval of federal regulators to sell it to the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison. The billionaire software mogul is a friend of Trump who visited the president at the White House earlier this year.

"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," Owens wrote. "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."

At the meeting, according to two attendees, Owens said he had "lost independence from corporate." (The two people required anonymity to speak publicly due to the fraught professional environment at the show and the network.)

60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, a longtime collaborator and friend of Owens, told colleagues, "This isn't something Bill is doing of his own volition: There was no choice in any of this," according to one of the attendees.

Last fall, before regaining office, Trump sued CBS' parent company Paramount in his personal capacity. Trump pointed to the fact that the network aired two different versions of an answer Harris gave about Israel and Gaza – one on Face the Nation and the other on 60 Minutes. He demanded the network release the transcript of the raw interview, which it ultimately did this year once Trump was in office and his chief broadcasting regulator sought it. Trump was later joined by a Congressional ally in his lawsuit and doubled his demand to $20 billion.

Legal observers spanning the ideological spectrum say Trump does not have a good case. His lawsuit spuriously alleges election interference by CBS over the kind of discretionary editorial choices that routinely confront broadcast journalists, they say.

Redstone had been outspoken about the massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas in October 2023. She was rankled by some CBS coverage of Gaza, including a CBS Mornings segment last fall and a 60 Minutes story in January.

Owens has repeatedly told colleagues he would refuse to apologize to Trump. The chief executive of CBS News and Stations, Wendy McMahon, also has opposed settling.

According to an attendee of Tuesday's meeting, McMahon appeared tearful and told the people assembled that she had been supportive of everything that Owens had done.

In her own note announcing Owens' departure, CBS News chief McMahon wrote, "working with Bill has been one of the great privileges of my career. Standing behind what he stood for was an easy decision for me, and I never took for granted that he did the same for me."

She said CBS News already had begun conversations with correspondents and senior leaders about the next steps for the show. Owens' deputy Tanya Simon, a longtime 60 Minutes producer whose father was a correspondent for the show, will run the program for now; the network says it will be led permanently by someone who comes from within its ranks.

Corporate sale pending before Trump administration

Paramount's controlling owner, Shari Redstone, has billions of dollars at stake as she seeks to close a sale of the company to Skydance Media. (Skydance Media CEO David Ellison is the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, whose billions are underwriting the deal for Paramount and CBS. Trump has called Larry Ellison a friend.)

The deal is under formal review by the Federal Communications Commission, led by Trump's pick as chairman, Brendan Carr. The FCC is reviewing the acquisition because it entails the transfer of Paramount's licenses to use the public airwaves for its 27 local television stations.

Lawsuit equates interview with "voter interference"

In Trump's lawsuit, filed before a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas, Trump's lawyers argued that CBS engaged in "unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive and substantial news distortion."

"It's laughable and it's an affront to the First Amendment," Heidi Kitrosser, a law professor at Northwestern University who focuses on issues involving free speech and presidential powers, says of Trump's case. "His concern first and foremost is to intimidate the press."

FCC Chairman Carr gave ballast to Trump's suit by requesting CBS share raw footage and full transcripts of the 60 Minutes Harris interview, which was one of Trump's demands. Carr did so after reviving a complaint against CBS that had been filed by a conservative public interest group. Carr's Democratic predecessor had dismissed the complaint in her final days in office.

CBS had previously refused to release the raw materials, citing the importance of maintaining journalistic independence from governmental interference.

Shortly after Carr's request, CBS announced it was legally required to comply, though the network had challenged the agency's requests and demands in the past. (One such appeal, over a complaint filed by the late former President Jimmy Carter, reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981.)

After receiving the unedited material, the FCC publicly posted links to it. CBS swiftly followed suit. The network also published a statement that said the material showed there had been no bias in how it presented the Harris interview.

A plea to stay the course

Carr told Fox News that day that an investigation was warranted under "news distortion" concerns because CBS played different answers on two different programs in response to the same question.

"The [federal] policy says you can't, you know, swap answers out to make it look like somebody said something entirely different," Carr said. "Clearly, the words of the answers were very different."

The transcripts and videos appear to show that CBS editors pulled from slightly different points in the same response, with Harris speaking vaguely as she attempted to sidestep controversy over the incendiary issue of Israel and Hamas.

After the transcript's release, Trump denounced CBS. "CBS should lose its license, and the cheaters at 60 Minutes should all be thrown out, and this disreputable 'NEWS' show should be immediately terminated," Trump posted online. (CBS as a network doesn't hold a license; the local stations on which it is broadcast do.)

On April 13, Trump doubled down, accusing 60 Minutes of treating him unfairly and saying he was "honored" to be suing the show, CBS and Paramount.

"They did not one, but TWO, major stories on 'TRUMP,' one having to do with Ukraine, which I say is a War that would never have happened if the 2020 Election had not been RIGGED, in other words, if I were President and, the other story was having to do with Greenland, casting our Country, as led by me, falsely, inaccurately, and fraudulently," Trump posted to Truth Social.

In his parting note, Owens urged the 60 Minutes staff to stay the course.

"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," he said.

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