The executive producer of the renowned CBS newsmagazine, 60 Minutes, voluntarily quit this past week, and that has never happened.
Bill Owens stepped away from one of the most coveted jobs in all of TV journalism. He was only the third EP in the 57 year history of the broadcast.
In his resignation announcement, Owens wrote “it has 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.”
Remember the words “independent decisions.”
Most of the so-called pundits and media experts are laying the blame for Owen’s resignation on Donald Trump, but that’s not the whole story.
60, as it is called inside CBS, indeed has had a very difficult year. It is under intense pressure from Trump. He has sued CBS for a ridiculous $10 billion over the way the broadcast edited its interview with Kamala Harris during the election campaign. In the final cut, an answer she gave was edited in a way that made her sound less word-salady and more succinct.
Normally that lawsuit would be laughed out of court, with CBS using First Amendment protections and that would be that.
But…Paramount Global, the company that owns CBS and it’s overlord, Shari Redstone, are desperately trying to wrap up the sale of the company to Skydance, a Hollywood movie company headed by nepo baby David Ellison.
That deal was hard enough to put together given Paramount’s dire financial straits but on top of that, Shari must get the federal government to green light the sale due to the requirements and restrictions of the Federal Communications Commission.
Redstone and the Skydance folks have reportedly been pressuring Owens to apologize for the way the Harris interview was edited, to help get Trump off their backs and to get the sale approved.
Owens said that was never going to happen.
In addition to the Harris hullaballoo, Shari Redstone is also reportedly upset with some of the stories that have run on 60, like the one I wrote about in January. (Click on the link if you want to refresh your memory CBS, Hamas and Israel).
She forced CBS News management to install a well-respected former president of the news division, as another set of eyes on the broadcast’s editorial content.
“In a million years,” Owens wrote in his goodbye letter, “the corporation didn’t know what was coming up—they trusted 60 Minutes to report the stories and program the broadcast the way 60 Minutes saw fit.”
That invasion of the sacred 60 Minutes editorial space, even by a CBS News lifer, was too much for Owens to stomach.
And to understand why that is, you must first understand the 60 Minutes culture.
I was a news Senior VP, albeit on the local news side at CBS, for 14 years. But one time I flew too close to the 60 Minutes sun and got scorched.
When I was at CBS, the 60 Minutes boss was a guy by the name of Jeff Fager. Fager was only the second executive producer in the show’s history, suckled by the founder of 60, the TV news legend, Don Hewitt.
So how did I get f’ed by Fager?
Do you remember the world headline-making arrest in 2011 in New York City of Dominque Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund and a favorite to be France’s next president? He was arrested at JFK as he was about to leave on a plane back to Europe, and he was charged with the sexual assault and attempted rape of a housekeeper at the Sofitel Hotel.
It was a huge, international cause celebre.
Given that the alleged crime occurred in Manhattan, the case fell into the lap of that borough’s district attorney, Cy Vance, Jr.. (Keep in the back of your mind that he’s the son of the famous US statesman, Cyrus Vance, who, among other things, was President Jimmy Carter’s secretary of state.)
With me so far?
Weeks went by with no comment from Vance, Jr. Would he prosecute or would he drop the charges?
Finally, he announced he was dropping the charges against Strauss-Kahn and would hold a news conference to explain everything.
Wow and great!
On Wednesday, August 23rd, dozens of reporters from all over the world gathered in Vance’s media room, and just as he came out to the podium, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck.
Everyone scattered, and the news conference ended before it began.
Well, that sucked, but I thought for sure Vance would reschedule. Why wouldn’t he?
I was shocked when his office said, nope, not gonna reschedule. We’re done, we’re not gonna talk about the case.
That didn’t sit well with me, so the next day, I dispatched one of my strongest reporters to wait for Vance as he returned to his Manhattan apartment, to ask him why he let Strauss-Kahn go free. That didn’t sit well with Vance. He blew past my reporter and fled into his home.
The next day, I got a scathing phone call from his press person. How dare I, yada, yada, yada, she screamed. I screamed back and we ended on a sour note.
Okay, it wasn’t the first time a public official got angry with me for doing my job.
So what does this whole Vance megilla have to do with 60 Minutes?
Well, my boss got a call from Jeff Fager, demanding I apologize to Vance’s office.
Why? Because 60 Minutes was interested in doing a profile of Cy Vance, Jr., given his pedigree, and was now being told there was no way he would do it, and it was all my fault.
So I said to my boss, let me call Fager and explain, journalist to journalist, why I did what I did and I’m sure he’ll understand and maybe even say atta boy.
I should have known better. Fager wouldn’t even take my call. That’s because in 60 Minutes world, no one else’s journalism counts and only journalists inside that world matter.
And that’s why Bill Owens, the guy who took over for Jeff Fager, got so bent out of shape that someone, outside of the 60 “family” would dare even look at one of his scripts to see if it’s fair and balanced.
There’s a monumental self-righteousness that is deeply embedded in the DNA of 60 Minutes and in those who work there.
In the end I caved, ate crow and made amends with Vance. I did it because I was loyal to my boss, not to Jeff Fager. The irony is, I don’t believe 60 Minutes ever even did that Vance profile piece.
So this past week, when I read that Bill Owens quit 60 Minutes over what he called interference in his “independent decisions,” it reminded how the high-and-haughty are now being watched very carefullyt.
You know what I have to say about that? Good, it’s about time.