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On Sunday night (April 27), 60 Minutes was coming to a close with its “Last Minute” segment. Host and correspondent Scott Pelley began, “A note on Bill Owens, the executive producer of 60 Minutes and until last week, our boss.” Owens resigned in a memo to the staff last week, citing a lack of journalistic freedom as the show’s parent company Paramount is cozying up to President Donald Trump while attempting a high-profile corporate merger.
As a montage of photos of Owens played, Pelley spoke about how much Owens’ presence and work was valued by the staff and correspondents at 60 Minutes before calling out Paramount. “Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires,” Pelley said. “No one here is happy about it.”Owens’ decision to leave 60 Minutes as just the third producer in the 60-year history due to not being able “to make independent decisions based on what was right for ’60 Minutes,’ right for the audience” in the wake of Paramount Global attempting to placate Trump as he sued CBS News last November claiming that the news program tried to influence voters by airing two different edits of Vice President Kamala Harris’ remarks on the show. In January, CBS put in a new layer of editorial supervision presumably to vet standards. That and other changes prompted Owens’ decision to resign. “Bill resigned on Tuesday. It was hard on him and it was hard on us,” Pelley said. “But he did it for us.”The move by Pelley reflects the mood of others working on 60 Minutes. Correspondent Lesley Stahl voiced her displeasure last week in an interview with Variety. “I have been made aware of interference in our news processes, and calling into question our judgement,” she said, adding: “That is not the way that companies that own news organizations should be acting.” Pelley has spoken out against CBS’ mismanagement before, alleging that he was removed from their evening news coverage due to questioning the workplace culture of the newsroom. It also falls in line with MSNBC anchors such as Rachel Maddow and Nicole Wallace to publicly question the network’s attempt at hiring former Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel as an analyst.
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According to reports, the senior producer for the long-running CBS investigative news program 60 Minutes resigned on Tuesday(April 22), citing a loss of journalistic independence. “Over the past months, it has … become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it,” Bill Owens wrote in a memo sent out to staff, adding, “To make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.
“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,” Owens concluded. His departure sent shockwaves through the news industry, as he was only the third person to ever hold that position in the show’s history. He maintained that he was not apologizing for the work done on the Harris interview in the memo, nor would he recommend a retraction.Observers quickly noted that the 57-year-old’s reference to losing journalistic control was tied to the show being sued initially for $10 billion recently by President Donald Trump, who took umbrage over the program’s October 2024 interview with Kamala Harris. Trump alleged that the interview was heavily edited to make him look bad. He recently upped the suit’s claims for damages to $20 billion.Another aspect of Owens’ resignation is that it comes at a tense time for CBS’ parent company, Paramount. Shari Redstone, the president, has been currying favor with Trump in order to get approval for the sale of her media conglomerate to Skydance Entertainment. Skydance Entertainment is run by David Ellison, the son of tech magnate Larry Ellison. Paramount reportedly has been in settlement talks with Trump since January. CNN’s Jake Tapper called the network out on Tuesday evening, addressing Redstone directly as he highlighted the severity of Owens’ resignation. “And that is the context of Shari Redstone’s likely bending of the knee. Hope the money’s worth it, Shari,” he said.
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Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed that she owns a Glock and has been to the firing range during her 60 Minutes interview.
On Monday (October 7), the anticipated 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris aired, and included among several of the key moments was Harris speaking about being a gun owner. “It’s a hard left turn here, but you recently surprised people when you said you were a gun owner,” interviewer Bill Whitaker began, “what kind of guns do you own and why did you get them?”
“I have a Glock, and I’ve had it for quite some time,” the Democratic presidential nominee replied. “Look, Bill, my background is in law enforcement, so there you go.” Whitaker then asked her if she’s ever fired it. “Of course I have,” she said with laughter. “At a shooting range. Yes, of course I have.”
https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1843450339774574637
The topic of the vice president being a gun owner was recently raised during her chat with Oprah Winfrey in Michigan last month, where she mentioned owning a firearm. “If someone breaks into my house, they’re getting shot,” she replied, which garnered laughter from Winfrey and the audience. Harris has mentioned being a gun owner before, as she began her first campaign for the presidency while she was still a U.S. Senator back in 2019. “I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do — for personal safety,” she said at the time. She also supported a ban on assault rifles and mandatory gun buybacks, but her current campaign position no longer supports buybacks.
The Harris presidential campaign still advocates for red-flag laws and universal background checks. Her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, has spoken publicly about being an avid shooter. He once was viewed favorably by the National Rifle Association, but saw his rating go from an A to an F after he supported tighter gun restrictions once he became governor.
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