CBS News Falls to Trump: The Shocking Resignation of '60 Minutes' Producer Bill Owens
There comes a moment when journalistic integrity meets corporate reality. For Bill Owens, the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” that moment arrived on Tuesday when he announced his resignation to a stunned newsroom.
“It’s clear that I’ve become the problem. I am the corporation’s problem,” Owens told his staff, his voice breaking as he struggled to maintain his composure. After 37 years at CBS News and six years leading the iconic news program, Owens found himself backed into a corner where journalistic independence gave way to corporate and political pressure.
What happened here is that the Trump administration effectively forced out the leader of one of America’s most respected news programs. And nobody at Paramount — CBS News’ parent company — had the backbone to stand up for journalistic integrity.
This isn’t just about one producer losing his job. This is a five-alarm fire for press freedom in America.
The catalyst? A $10 billion lawsuit filed by Trump against CBS over what he called a “deceptively edited” October interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Legal experts have called the suit as frivolous, but that hardly matters when corporate interests are at stake.
The real story here is about Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, who’s desperately trying to secure Trump administration approval for her company’s multibillion-dollar sale to Skydance, a company run by the son of tech billionaire and Trump supporter Larry Ellison. Redstone has reportedly pushed for a settlement with Trump, despite the absurdity of his legal claims.