It was a CBS News reunion of sorts in Miami as former “60 Minutes” boss Bill Owens and Wendy McMahon, the news division’s former president and CEO, detailed their 2025 resignations and spoke out against the current regime at the inaugural Jupiter Festival.
“It was like the match was fixed, and I felt like I needed to do something to bring attention to it,” Owens said of his exit. “I was like a crazy person standing in the room with a grenade saying, ‘I’ll do it. I swear to God, if you take one more step.’”
Owens left “60 Minutes” after nearly 37 years at CBS News, citing corporate editorial interference amid the network’s legal dispute with President Trump, who sued CBS and Paramount over the editing of a Kamala Harris interview. Seeking FCC approval for its sale to David Ellison’s Skydance, Paramount was preparing to appease Trump with a $16 million settlement, even as First Amendment experts argued the president’s lawsuit had little legal merit.
Leading up to the 2024 election, after “60 Minutes” ran an abridged promo clip of the Harris interview, Trump claimed the show edited his opponent’s remarks to make her appear more favorable. CBS rejected his claims and said the interview was not “deceitful” and “fairly represent[ed]” Harris’ answers.
Owens explained that “60 Minutes” did not release the full transcripts of interviews because it would set a bad “legal precedent.” Still, top brass at the previous Paramount regime had other priorities.
During this time, Owens said there was “interference” and “calls for editorial censorship” at “60 Minutes,” which came “from above, from ownership through corporate leadership.”
“The corporation is telling us to do things that are not journalistically sound,” he said. “We’re pushing back against them. Now Trump is elected, and they don’t want us to be doing [negative] stories about [the new administration].”
Owens said “60 Minutes” was doing the type of pieces the show has always done, investigating Elon Musk’s DOGE and mass firings at the Justice Department. But with more corporate eyeballs on the show ahead of the acquisition, Owens said, “Every week we’re being told, ‘Stop that. What are you doing?’”
After Trump took office in 2025, FCC chairman Brendan Carr pressured CBS News to turn over the full, unedited transcript and camera feeds from the Harris interview, which were published on the FCC website. The result was underwhelming, as it became clear the interview had not been doctored but rather condensed, as is standard procedure for broadcast television.
McMahon, who resigned less than a month after Owens with a vague statement about her disagreements about the future of CBS News, also elaborated on her departure: She didn’t agree with CBS’ apology and its settlement with Trump and she didn’t agree with the idea of the network having an ombudsman, which was later installed by the Ellison regime. McMahon said she departed because she looked at the direction the newsroom was heading and came to the conclusion that “I could not lead that from a journalistic perspective, or a business one.”
Owens and McMahon resigned from CBS News in mid-2025, before the Skydance regime tapped Bari Weiss to serve as McMahon’s successor. The two echoed criticism of Weiss’ handling of the shake-up among the staff of “60 Minutes” this past summer.
In August, reports circulated that Owens was looking to raise money for a new program, potentially even recruiting ex-“60 Minutes” correspondents like Scott Pelley to join. Sources close to Owens denied those reports at the time, and Owens did not divulge his future plans at Jupiter Festival. But he did talk about the Hollywood courting process that unfolded after he exited CBS News.
“When I left ‘60 Minutes,’ all of the streamers wanted to talk to me and I had all the meetings,” Owens said. “Every meeting was the same. At the end they’re like, ‘Hey, we really appreciate what you did, et cetera, et cetera, but we could never work with you.’”
The executive producer has a theory for why: “Because they had already paid their tribute to Trump.”
