Invoice Owens, the highest producer at 60 Minutes, introduced Tuesday that he’s quitting the present as a result of he’s not in a position to run this system like he has up to now.
In a memo to workers members, Owens wrote that’s he not in a position to make unbiased choices based mostly on what is correct for the viewers of the investigative information program.
“Having defended this present — and what we stand for — from each angle, over time and with the whole lot I may, I’m stepping apart so the present can transfer ahead,” he wrote within the memo, as first reported by The New York Instances.
Owens’ resignation comes as CBS father or mother firm Paramount World has been working to settle a US$20 billion lawsuit filed by U.S. President Donald Trump final fall. Trump took situation with the way in which this system edited an interview with then-vice president Kamala Harris, claiming this system was deceptively edited to favour Harris.
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Trump additionally demanded a retraction and even advised CBS’s broadcast license be revoked.
The community has denied Trump’s claims about its modifying, saying in a press release final October, “Former President Donald Trump’s repeated claims towards 60 Minutes are false,” and insisting that “the interview was not doctored” and “didn’t disguise any a part of” Harris’s reply to the query at situation.
In a separate assertion, reviews NBC Information, 60 Minutes mentioned it turned over an excerpt from the Harris interview to CBS’s Face the Nation program, which selected to make use of an extended clip of the previous Democratic presidential candidate’s reply.
“Similar query. Similar reply. However a unique portion of the response. Once we edit any interview, whether or not a politician, an athlete, or film star, we attempt to be clear, correct and on level,” the assertion mentioned. “The portion of her reply on 60 Minutes was extra succinct, which permits time for different topics in a large ranging 21-minute-long section.”
In response to earlier reviews from the New York Instances, Paramount has been partaking in settlement talks with Trump, however Owens had informed his workers he wouldn’t apologize for the Harris interview as a part of a settlement.
In Owens’ memo to workers, reviews Politico, he promised that 60 Minutes will proceed to cowl the Trump administration “as we are going to report on future administrations,” and shared some phrases of confidence.
“The present is just too essential to the nation, it has to proceed, simply not with me because the Govt Producer,” he wrote.
In response to the Los Angeles Instances, Owen had been a longtime CBS worker with 37 years of service below his belt. He was the third govt producer in 60 Minutes‘ 57-year historical past, and in addition oversaw CBS Night Information.
World Information has reached out to CBS for remark.
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In Canada, ‘60 Minutes’ airs Sunday nights on World at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
— With recordsdata from The Related Press
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