{"id":26152,"date":"2025-04-29T19:47:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T19:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=26152"},"modified":"2025-04-29T19:47:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T19:47:59","slug":"60-minutes-host-scott-pelley-talks-about-former-executive-producer-bill-owens-leaving-the-show-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=26152","title":{"rendered":"’60 Minutes’ Host Scott Pelley Talks About Former Executive Producer Bill Owens Leaving the Show – Video"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A quiet resignation turned into a bombshell revelation, as the “60 Minutes” host exposed the alleged corporate and political forces reshaping “60 Minutes” \u2014 and the principled stand that reportedly cost Bill Owens his role.<\/p>\n

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Scott Pelley, longtime host of “60 Minutes,” stunned viewers on April 28, 2025, with a moment of candor during the program’s broadcast.<\/p>\n

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Addressing the resignation<\/a>\u00a0of executive producer Bill Owens, Pelley explained that Owens’s departure was not simply a personal decision, but rather the result of alleged growing corporate influence over the show’s editorial independence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A screenshot of Scott Pelley addressing Bill Owens’s resignation from a video dated April 28, 2025. | Source: YouTube\/60 Minutes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“In tonight’s last minute, a note on Bill Owens, who until this past week was executive producer of ’60 Minutes,'” Pelley\u00a0began<\/a>. He highlighted Owens’s nearly 40-year career at CBS News, the producer of “60 Minutes,” including 26 years at the news program, noting his global coverage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“His was a quest to open minds, not close them,” Pelley\u00a0said<\/a>, reflecting on the admiration Owens earned from his staff. The host continued, revealing the underlying reasons for Owens’s departure. “Bill resigned Tuesday. It was hard on him and hard on us, but he did it for us and you,” he stated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A screenshot of Scott Pelley from a video dated April 28, 2025. | Source: YouTube\/60 Minutes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He\u00a0pointed out<\/a>\u00a0that while the show has always pursued controversial stories \u2014 most recently about the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration \u2014 Owens had ensured that every report remained “accurate and fair.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, Pelley noted that external pressures were reportedly mounting. “But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” he\u00a0claimed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A screenshot of Scott Pelley from a video dated April 28, 2025. | Source: YouTube\/60 Minutes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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While emphasizing that no story had been blocked, Pelley made it clear that Owens believed the show’s independence had been compromised. “Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires,” he\u00a0stated<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“No one here is happy about it. But in resigning, Bill proved one thing \u2014 he was the right person to lead ’60 Minutes’ all along,” Pelley\u00a0continued<\/a>. The video of Pelley’s remarks, posted to “60 Minutes”” official YouTube channel, quickly drew widespread attention and sparked debate online.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Inappropriate,”\u00a0<\/i>one netizen\u00a0commented<\/a>. Another\u00a0shared<\/a>,\u00a0“He should be fired. The show was once the most respected show on television. Not anymore.”<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A third person\u00a0typed<\/a>,\u00a0“So dishonest,”<\/i>\u00a0while another\u00a0wrote<\/a>,\u00a0“I can smell the totally clueless and self-important ‘smug’ from here. Tone deaf!”\u00a0<\/i>Someone else\u00a0added<\/a>,\u00a0“Pelley has always been one sided.”<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bill Owens of “60 Minutes” onstage during the Showtime portion of the 2013 Winter TCA Tour at Langham Hotel on January 12 in Pasadena, California. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Some viewers\u00a0reacted with humor<\/a>\u00a0to the segment, finding the situation amusing. Critics\u00a0questioned<\/a>\u00a0Pelley’s characterization of “60 Minutes” as “accurate and fair,” suggesting that both he and the program have become increasingly disconnected from the public.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, others\u00a0praised the move<\/a>, applauding the importance of standing firm on one’s principles. Other supporters also\u00a0expressed approval<\/a>, saying it was the right time to speak out when something seemed wrong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bill Owens during day two of Collision 2022 at Enercare Centre in Toronto, Canada, on June 22. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Amid the growing controversy, more information about Owens’s departure emerged. In a memo obtained by New York Post, he\u00a0wrote<\/a>, “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.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“To make independent decisions based on what was right for ’60 Minutes,’ right for the audience. So, having defended this show \u2014 and what we stand for \u2014 from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward,” he\u00a0added<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bill Owens during day two of Collision 2022 at Enercare Centre in Toronto, Canada, on June 22. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Owens also addressed his staff in an\u00a0emotional meeting<\/a>\u00a0held across the street from CBS News headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. According to a recording obtained by The New York Times, his voice was raw as he struggled through his remarks, even reportedly tearing up at times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s clear the company is done with me,” he reportedly\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the room, which included correspondents Lesley Stahl and Pelley. Stahl, visibly moved, praised Owens and noted that he had “taken a hell of a beating.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Lesley Stahl, Anderson Cooper, Scott Pelley, Bill Whitaker, Cecilia Vega, Jon Wertheim, Sharyn Alfonsi, and Bill Owens of “60 Minutes” photographed in 2023. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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During the meeting, Owens voiced his frustration with the additional oversight imposed by CBS executives. “In a million years, the corporation didn’t know what was coming up \u2014 they trusted ’60 Minutes’ to report the stories and program the broadcast the way ’60 Minutes’ saw fit,” he\u00a0said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He warned that any\u00a0change to that traditional arrangement<\/a> represented “a really slippery slope.” However, despite his resignation, he encouraged his staff to stay.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I do think this will be a moment for the corporation to take a hard look at itself and its relationship with us,” he\u00a0said<\/a>, urging the team to continue producing the kind of journalism “60 Minutes” was known for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The situation unfolds amid an increasingly hostile relationship between the show and President Donald Trump. In 2024, Trump filed a\u00a0$10 billion lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0against CBS, accusing the network and “60 Minutes” of election interference.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Donald Trump photographed at Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on December 15, 2016. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The lawsuit alleged that the program’s interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris had been\u00a0unlawfully edited<\/a>\u00a0to favor her 2024 presidential campaign, labeling the conduct as “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the\u00a0complaint filed<\/a>\u00a0in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Trump’s legal counsel claimed CBS’s coverage was designed to “mislead the public and attempt to tip the scales” of the election. The lawsuit demanded that CBS release the full, unedited transcript of the interview.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Donald Trump at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, on December 7, 2024. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Notably, cases filed in the Amarillo Division of the Northern District of Texas are automatically assigned to Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee,\u00a0raising questions<\/a>\u00a0about possible “judge shopping.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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CBS firmly rejected Trump’s claims,\u00a0stating<\/a>, “The Interview was not doctored; and ’60 Minutes’ did not hide any part of the Vice President’s answer to the question at issue. ’60 Minutes’ fairly presented the interview to inform the viewing audience, and not to mislead it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Donald Trump filming for “Meet the Press” in Washington, D.C. on June 21, 2019. | Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Prominent First Amendment attorneys also\u00a0dismissed the lawsuit as meritless<\/a>. Charles Tobin, representing CNN in several cases, described it as “a frivolous and dangerous attempt by a politician to control the news media.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Floyd Abrams, famed for defending the Pentagon Papers,\u00a0echoed<\/a> this sentiment. Harvard law professor Rebecca Tushnet called the lawsuit “ridiculous junk” that “should be mocked.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Trump also criticized “60 Minutes” on his social media platform, Truth Social, on April 14, 2025,\u00a0writing<\/a>\u00a0in part, “Almost every week, ’60 Minutes,’ which is being sued for billions of dollars […] mentions the name ‘TRUMP’ in a derogatory and defamatory way.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the\u00a0post<\/a>, the President accused the program of misrepresenting stories related to Ukraine and Greenland, claiming “60 Minutes” was no longer a legitimate news program but a “dishonest Political Operative.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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