“60 Minutes” Rattles Viewers with Stunning Closing Segment, Implies That Trump Administration Is Pressuring Their Coverage

• 60 Minutes stunned viewers on Sunday night time by ending with a phase about their government producer, Invoice Owens, who resigned final week.

• Correspondent Scott Pelley spoke out on Owens’ departure, implying that CBS Information’ father or mother firm, Paramount International, had been influencing the present’s protection with the intention to appease President Donald Trump.

• Paramount is at the moment attempting to finish a multi-million greenback merger with Skydance, which might require regulatory approval from the Trump-appointed FCC.

Following the shock resignation of 60 Minutes government producer Invoice Owens, the information journal’s Sunday night time broadcast ended with a phase implying that President Donald Trump and his administration have had an inappropriate affect on the present. 

Correspondent Scott Pelley, in a phase of “The Final Minute,” insinuated that the present’s father or mother firm, Paramount International, had began to push again on a few of their extra hard-hitting segments — particularly these in regards to the present administration.

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The corporate is at the moment within the means of finishing a significant merger with Skydance, and wishes the Trump administration’s regulatory approval.

“Tales we pursued for 57 years are sometimes controversial — currently the Israel-Gaza battle and the Trump administration,” Pelley, 67, informed viewers. “Invoice made positive they had been correct and truthful. He was robust that method, however our father or mother firm, Paramount, is attempting to finish a merger. The Trump administration should approve it.”

“Paramount started to oversee our content material in new methods,” he continued. “None of our tales has been blocked, however Invoice felt he had misplaced the independence that sincere journalism requires.”

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In his resignation memo obtained by multiple outlets on April 22, Owens claimed that he had misplaced the flexibility to “make impartial selections” relating to the present and “what was proper for 60 Minutes, proper for the viewers.”

“Over the previous months, it has additionally turn into clear that I’d not be allowed to run the present as I’ve all the time run it,” he continued. “Having defended this present — and what we stand for — from each angle, over time with all the things I may, I’m stepping apart so the present can transfer ahead.”

In his phase, Pelley stated that “nobody right here is completely satisfied” about Owens leaving 60 Minutes. 

“However in resigning, Invoice proved one factor: he was the correct particular person to guide 60 Minutes all alongside,” the previous CBS Night Information anchor continued. “It was exhausting on him and exhausting on us, however he did it for us and also you.”

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Trump’s ongoing vendetta towards 60 Minutes is a significant roadblock for the Paramount-Skydance merger. The president is at the moment within the midst of a lawsuit with the present, over an interview they carried out with former Vice President Kamala Harris within the midst of her 2024 presidential marketing campaign.

Trump filed the lawsuit in October 2024, claiming that CBS Information edited one in every of Harris’ solutions with the intention to enhance her probabilities of successful the White Home. Whereas the community initially refused his authorized group’s demand for an unedited transcript of the interview, they did finally make it public January, following a request from the Federal Communications Fee.

Paramount’s authorized group has argued that the go well with is an “affront to the First Amendment and is with out foundation in regulation or truth,” noting that each one information reveals frequently edit interviews for readability, context and airtime — not in an effort to vary the details.

Nonetheless, in February, The New York Times reported that Paramount International’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, informed the board that she needed to settle the authorized battle with Trump. Whereas the NYT stated on the time that Redstone’s assertion didn’t point out the Skydance deal by title, it did “underscore the truth that a pending multibillion-dollar lawsuit from the president made it troublesome for Paramount to do enterprise.”

Redstone, the one daughter of late Viacom founder and CBS chairman Sumner Redstone. stands to make a big amount of cash if the merger is accomplished.

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Trump has made no secret about his need to deliver the regulation down on 60 Minutes, CBS Information and Paramount.

In an April 13 post on Truth Social, he referred to as for his appointed FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr, to impose fines and strip the community of its license over 60 Minutes segments on Greenland and Ukraine.

“They don’t seem to be a ‘Information Present,’ however a dishonest Political Operative merely disguised as ‘Information,’ and should be liable for what they’ve completed, and are doing,” Trump wrote. “Hopefully, the Federal Communications Fee (FCC), as headed by its Extremely Revered Chairman, Brendan Carr, will impose the utmost fines and punishment, which is substantial, for his or her illegal and unlawful habits. CBS is uncontrolled, at ranges by no means seen earlier than, and they need to pay an enormous value for this.”

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When 60 Minutes launched its 55th season in 2022, Owens informed PEOPLE that he and his group had “no real interest in altering the content material” of the historic information journal, even because the media panorama evolves.

“60 Minutes is a spot the place you are not going to get a partisan tackle something,” Owens said at the time. “I like to inform the workers we broadcast to the complete nation. We’re not aiming at anyone. We’re aiming on the complete nation, San Francisco to Kansas Metropolis to Sarasota to Hartford, Connecticut.”

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