{"id":664762,"date":"2025-04-23T19:33:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T16:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/can-60-minutes-prized-independence-survive-a-major-deal\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T19:33:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T16:33:47","slug":"can-60-minutes-prized-independence-survive-a-major-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/can-60-minutes-prized-independence-survive-a-major-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Can \u201960 Minutes\u2019 Prized Independence Survive a Major Deal?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tA thing to know about 60 Minutes<\/em>, is that it has always, always, prided itself on being independent. Not just independent in the way that most news<\/a> programs are independent, but independent even from the rest of CBS News.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the vast majority of CBS News staff are stuffed into the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street, 60 Minutes<\/em> has long maintained a more traditional corporate office across the street, above BMW of Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat connective tissue has always been present in the stories 60 Minutes<\/em> presented: Unafraid to take on the powerful, explore the unexplored, and occasionally to give a different perspective on a public figure people thought they knew. Segments could stretch into the hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost, unprecedented for a TV news program.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd it has worked. 60 Minutes <\/em>has been the number one news program on TV for years, routinely breaking into Nielsen\u2019s top 10 list at a time when it seems like only sports break through.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd over the years CBS has tried to bring the 60 Minutes<\/em> secret sauce to other parts of the news division, betting that it could help elevate some of CBS News\u2019 other shows, including in the mornings and evenings, where CBS\u2019 offerings have languished over the years behind ABC and NBC.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat included 60 Minutes<\/em>\u2018 executive producer, Bill Owens, adding oversight of the CBS Evening News<\/em>, with a goal of bringing some of the 60 Minutes <\/em>ethos to the broadcast.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow Owens is out, telling 60 Minutes<\/em> staff that \u201cover the past months, it has also 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<\/em>, right for the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe told staff in a meeting \u201cin a million years, the corporation didn\u2019t know what was coming up, they trusted 60 Minutes<\/em> to report the stories and program the broadcast the way 60 Minutes<\/em> saw fit.\u201d But that has changed in recent weeks. Susan Zirinsky, the former president of CBS News, returned to the network in an executive editor role earlier this year after a 60 Minutes<\/em> segment about Israel was criticized as being \u201cbiased and one-sided\u201d against Israel from the ADL.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhile there is no way to cover such sensitive issues without provoking some degree of criticism, we have a responsibility to address those concerns,\u201d Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks wrote when Zirinsky was hired. \u201cThis includes feedback regarding perceived bias in some CBS News coverage. We cannot let this negatively affect our legacy or our future, our mission or our connection to our viewers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tZirinsky has reviewed some 60 Minutes <\/em>segments ahead of broadcast, a source says, something that was not typical beforehand. Semafor also reported<\/a> that Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone requested a list of upcoming story topics, another unusual change.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut its hard to look at the tumult at 60 Minutes<\/em> without the larger considerations at play: Redstone has a deal to sell Paramount Global to Skydance, controlled by David Ellison, in a deal financed by his father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe FCC is still reviewing the deal, and has to sign off on transferring any broadcast licenses. The agency sets a 180 day calendar to review deals. The Skydance-Paramount deal is on day 159. At the same time, the FCC is also reviewing a \u201cnews distortion\u201d complaint against CBS News over a 60 Minutes<\/em> interview with Vice President Kamala Harris last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn other words, the stakes are high, and the pressure is on, with a multi-billion dollar deal hanging in the balance. The FCC is believed to be seeking significant concessions from Skydance to secure app<\/a>roval, with an independent ombudsman, or an agreement to move staff or resources out of New York City and into cities where CBS has local stations among the possibilities.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe question internally at CBS News is whether, after more than 56 years, 60 Minutes<\/em> loses some of its long-held independence to secure the deal. Bill Owens was only the third EP in the show\u2019s history. Now there will be a fourth. But what happens next could determine if 60 Minutes<\/em> turns into jst another broadcast newsmagazine, or survives as the gold standard for the format.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor corporate titans, news is often more trouble than it is worth. There is, as the former NBC anchor Chuck Todd told THR<\/em> earlier this month, a \u201ccultural problem\u201d at play: \u201cThat, to me, is unfixable. Whether you\u2019re at Disney, Warner Bros., Comcast, you name it. They\u2019re moving into another space, and they don\u2019t have time to incubate this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe prize for Redstone is a multi-billion dollar payout, and the prize for Ellison is an entertainment empire. <\/p>\n

\n\tCBS News just one cog in that larger machine, and if it is gumming up a deal, there is a chance one side or the other looks for a way to grease things.<\/p>\n

\n\tTwenty one years ago, then-60 Minutes II <\/em>correspondent Charlie Rose travel<\/a>ed to San Francisco Bay to interview Larry Ellison, who had poured more than $100 million into building a boat and a team to win the America\u2019s Cup sailing competition.<\/p>\n

\n\tRose explored what made Ellison tick in the segment<\/a>, uncovering a competitive spirit: \u201cI\u2019m addicted to winning. The more you win, the more you want to win,\u201d Ellison told Rose.<\/p>\n

\n\tEllison has put billions of dollars from his personal fortune on the line to help his son win a major prize in Paramount Global. But what it takes to secure that win could determine the fate of the most-watched news show in America.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A thing to know about 60 Minutes, is that it has always, always, prided itself on being independent. Not just independent in the way that most news programs are independent, but independent even from the rest of CBS News. While the vast majority of CBS News staff are stuffed into the CBS Broadcast Center on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":664763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2063776_0184b3-H-2025.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2443,70278],"class_list":["post-664762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-cbs","tag-cbs-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}