“They’re killing ‘60 Minutes.’”
That’s how the iconic newsmagazine’s former executive producer Bill Owens, who quit last summer citing corporate interference, put it to me by phone on Thursday as news broke about the firings ordered by the widely disliked and distrusted CBS News Editor-In-Chief Bari Weiss.
Owens, who does not make such comments lightly, was not alone in describing the state of affairs at the David Ellison-owned network in such dire terms.
“Since I retired, I often wondered what would happen to ‘60 Minutes,’” Steve Kroft, the former longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent, told me Thursday. “But I never expected it would be executed by the President of the United States.”
“There is no smoking gun,” Kroft added. “But [Donald Trump’s] fingerprints and DNA are all over this. He’s been making threats against ‘60 Minutes’ and how he wanted it gone. And he finally got his wish.”
Inside the halls of the newsmagazine on Manhattan’s 57th Street, the mood was grim. Heartbroken staffers said goodbye to colleagues and worried openly about the future of a television institution. “It’s like a funeral in here,” an insider told Status. “People are devastated.”
This story is based on the accounts of more than a half-dozen people inside “60 Minutes” and those close to the show. A CBS News spokesperson declined to comment.
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Thursday morning started much like any other for “60 Minutes” executive producer Tanya Simon…
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