(SOUNDBITE OF CLOCK TICKING)
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Tonight, "60 Minutes," considered the most successful news broadcast in the history of American television, launches a new season. And there's a lot riding on it. CBS News is under new management, and the new editor in chief promised big changes when she took over last year. She fired "60 Minutes'" executive producer, along with several top correspondents, and that's led to accusations of ideological bias. As NPR's David Folkenflik now reports, scrutiny of the program's 59th season is likely to be intense.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Some of the most recognizable stars of "60 Minutes" will no longer appear. Scott Pelley is gone. Anderson Cooper - gone. So, too, are Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi. That's four of its seven correspondents last year, and top executives were fired too.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SCOTT PELLEY: It's like your spouse being murdered.
FOLKENFLIK: Pelley spoke to The New York Times in June shortly after being fired.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PELLEY: The people I leave behind treated in this way - that breaks my heart, and it's going to take me a long time to get over it.
FOLKENFLIK: It's been a year of crises, kicked into motion by political forces and pressures far greater than any single show. In 2024, before returning to the White House, President Trump sued CBS over a "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris. Legal experts called the case frivolous. CBS' previous owners had paid Trump $16 million last year to settle the case just days before federal regulators approved the sale of its parent company, Paramount.
David Ellison is the new owner, relying on family money. He spoke to Bloomberg News last October about his ambition to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery as well. It's the parent company of CNN, HBO and Warner Bros. Studios.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
DAVID ELLISON: We have a good relationship with the administration.
FOLKENFLIK: His dad, the billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, advises and supports Trump. David Ellison has wooed Trump, too, even honoring him at a banquet. But he told Bloomberg he wants to compete with digital titans Netflix and Amazon with no partisan agenda.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELLISON: We want to become the most trusted destination in news media. That is our goal.
FOLKENFLIK: That same month, he brought in a new editor in chief for CBS - Bari Weiss - and paid $150 million to buy the center-right opinion and news site called The Free Press that Weiss had founded.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BARI WEISS: This is an opportunity to speak for the 75% - for the people that are on the center-left and the center-right.
FOLKENFLIK: At a conference last fall, Weiss said she wanted to return CBS to its mission of capturing...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WEISS: What is actually going on in the world. Not the world as propagandists and ideologues imagine it to be, but what's actually going on in the world and in your community.
FOLKENFLIK: Yet many journalists at CBS had trouble trusting Weiss, given how she was hired and what she has said. Weiss has argued that major media outfits, including CBS, are too reflexively critical of Trump. All three fired correspondents claim, once Weiss got to CBS, she meddled in their stories to blunt coverage critical of the Trump administration. CBS has said she simply raised questions during editing, as any good editor would do. Trump has spoken approvingly of Weiss and the Ellisons' bid for Warner, yet he has remained aggrieved by CBS coverage and the show. For example, there was this exchange on "60 Minutes" in April.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "60 MINUTES")
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you're horrible people.
FOLKENFLIK: Trump spoke here to CBS' Norah O'Donnell, who had read from the writings of the man charged with trying to assassinate him at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "60 MINUTES")
TRUMP: Excuse me. You shouldn't be reading that on "60 Minutes." You're a disgrace.
FOLKENFLIK: Scott Pelley was himself ousted in June for challenging the show's brand-new executive producer, Nick Bilton, over the earlier firings. CBS did not make Bilton available for comment. He replaces Tanya Simon, a veteran whose father had himself been a "60 Minutes" correspondent. Here's former CBS News chief Wendy McMahon.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WENDY MCMAHON: So am I concerned that the DNA of "60 Minutes" is being rewritten in real time?
FOLKENFLIK: McMahon spoke last week at a conference staged by the media newsletter Status. She said she was withholding judgment for now.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MCMAHON: Am I concerned that, in the quest to transform, that the problem has been misdiagnosed and we are potentially changing, dismantling the very thing we are meant to protect? Yes. I am absolutely concerned.
FOLKENFLIK: Ratings had risen 9% last year under Simon, so why did it require reinvention? Ira Rosen was a producer at "60 Minutes" for nearly 25 years.
IRA ROSEN: Their core belief, I think, is that you'd fix a show or change a show while it's still successful.
FOLKENFLIK: He tells me he's spoken with Bilton and other senior leaders at the show. Rosen says the firings were crude and handled unfairly. But he says "60 Minutes" must evolve to compete for attention with podcasts, streamers and social media. And Rosen says he believes in Bilton's promise to hold power to account.
ROSEN: I kind of know the people who work there. And I'm pretty confident that they're going to do some really, really surprising and good journalism.
O'Donnell is returning to "60 Minutes" tonight with the story of an Air Force officer rescued in a daring raid after his plane was downed in Iran. Lesley Stahl is returning, too, with a look at the lawyers and lobbyists seeking to convince Trump to grant their clients pardons - one story the administration might well welcome, one it might not.
One note - Trump's regulators still technically have an ongoing investigation of CBS and one final element yet to approve on the Warners deal, a last bit of leverage left over the Ellisons and CBS.
David Folkenflik, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
