Bari Weiss brings Trumpism to “60 Minutes”

Republican dismantles MAGA 'sabotage' of 60 Minutes for Trump’s ego

Last week, the broadcasting world was shocked by the sudden firing of two correspondents and key production staff at the legacy news program 60 Minutes. Now, the figure behind the shakeup — CBS News chief and MAGA media personality Bari Weiss — is being accused of attempting to “sabotage” the show for the benefit of President Donald Trump. While such accusations may be expected from liberals, even conservative voices are slamming the “shameful” decision. “There are many words that can be used to describe 60 Minutes: Venerable. August. Excellent. Important. Beloved,” writes longtime Republican strategist Steve Schmidt. “But since the purchase of CBS News by the Ellison family, another word belongs on the list: Sabotaged.”As Schmidt suggests, under its new ownership, CBS News — and as a result, 60 Minutes, which is part of CBS — has been reworked in a way that critics say is a blatant effort to support Trump’s political project. After its purchase, Weiss — an opinion journalist with no experience in broadcast news — was appointed to helm the organization, and since then she’s raised many eyebrows with her decisions. The latest involves the firing of anchors Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega and executive producer Tanya Simon, who were replaced by Nick Bilton, who, like Weiss, also has no background in TV news. This has prompted no shortage of outrage, including from those on the right. Says former Fox host Megyn Kelly, Weiss is “loathed” for her actions. And according to Schmidt, the program has been “assaulted with malicious intent by new corporate leadership that appears determined to gut one of the last remaining institutions in American journalism in order to satisfy a corrupt political arrangement with Donald Trump.”“The destruction isn’t accidental,” asserts Schmidt. “It’s deliberate. It’s strategic. It’s ideological. It’s transactional.” As he noted, 60 Minutes has long been known as a serious program where facts and credibility mattered. “That is what is being destroyed for no reason beyond the insatiability of Trump’s ego.”Shortly after the firings were announced, it was revealed that longtime 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley had subsequently laid into Weiss and Bilton, accusing the former of trying to “murder” the show and arguing that the latter has “slender” qualifications for his new job. “Scott Pelley represents the tradition that built the program,” says Schmidt, explaining that he got to know him while staffing for Senator John McCain, whom Pelley interviewed. “There was no performance. There was no ideological hysteria. There was no narcissism. There was no branding exercise. There was no desperate attempt to become the center of the story. There was journalism. There was rigor. There was seriousness.” Schmidt notes that while Pelley has never made his politics obvious, “The same obviously can’t be said for Bari Weiss.”“Her ideological agenda radiates from every pore of her public conduct,” Schmidt claims. “Her loyalties plainly do not include CBS News, 60 Minutes, institutional integrity or the preservation of a shared factual reality. She’s not a steward. She’s a vandal. Additionally, she’s staggeringly incompetent.”Schmidt argues that while many viewers have tuned into 60 Minutes for decades, watching with a trust that was “earned through excellence, not algorithms,” and “through reporting, not branding,” “now Bari Weiss has effectively stolen something Americans love in order to help deliver profits to the son of one of the richest men in the world, while accommodating the demands of an American fascist who despises the First Amendment, and views journalism as an enemy to be subdued.”According to Schmidt, “America is living through a period during which many of its most important institutions are being hollowed out from within by weak people desperate for proximity to power, and terrified of losing money.” Furthermore, “What’s happening at CBS News isn’t merely a business story. It’s a warning story. It’s a story about how institutions collapse. Not all at once, but piece by piece. Compromise by compromise. Coward by coward.”“Americans should understand clearly: when journalism dies, corruption flourishes,” concludes Schmidt. “And that’s why what is happening right now at CBS News should outrage every American who still believes truth matters in a free society.”

Can Joe Rogan Save ‘60 Minutes’ or Is It Already Dead?

60 Minutes Star Accuses CBS Chief Bari Weiss of “Murdering” the Show

The fight inside 60 Minutes is tearing CBS News’s venerated broadcast to shreds.A staff editorial meeting reportedly flew off the rails Monday morning when longtime host Scott Pelley tore into Bari Weiss’s new pick to run the news magazine as its new executive producer: Nick Bilton, a former Vanity Fair writer with next to no formal experience in broadcast journalism.Weiss announced Bilton’s hire the same day that she fired a large swath of the show’s crew, which some at 60 Minutes are referring to as “Black Thursday.” The axed staff include correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi (who criticized Weiss’s decision to delay Alfonsi’s report on a notoriously brutal CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador), correspondent Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon, and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich.The meeting was intended to introduce Bilton to the show’s team, though Weiss herself was conspicuously absent. With the chief of CBS News missing, the meeting devolved into hostilities, including one particularly heated moment in which Pelley accused Weiss of “murdering” the show, according to audio of the meeting obtained by Status News.“Bari loves this institution,” Bilton told staffers during the meeting. “She loves 60 Minutes.”“She’s murdering 60 Minutes,” Pelley countered. “She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it—and she’s doing exactly that.”“You come into our house and expect to be welcome?” Pelley asked Bilton. “Why was Tanya Simon fired? Why was Sharyn fired? Why was Cecilia fired? Why Draggan? Do you know the names of the people that were fired?” He openly questioned Bilton’s credentials and said, “We don’t trust you.”CBS News managing editor Charles Forelle attempted to intervene in the exchange to no avail. The exchange reportedly left staffers wondering whether Pelley would resign from his post, reported Status.Bilton, nonetheless, did not have satisfactory answers for the producers and crew, according to two staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity to The Washington Post. At one point, he unintentionally made staffers laugh out loud when he claimed he would bring in people who are already capable of doing the work of a 60 Minutes correspondent, one of the most revered jobs in the industry.When asked if the show could expect more layoffs, Bilton said, “Not right now.”Weiss has only been in charge of CBS News for seven months, but her business decisions have already cratered its legendary reputation. Once the “gold standard” of broadcasting, and home to some of journalism’s most venerable names, such as Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, the outlet is now making news for all of the wrong reasons.

“60 Minutes” Correspondent Pelley Calls Out CBS Execs for “Murdering” Program

The meeting came less than a week after mass firings at the network – an incident workers have dubbed “Black Thursday.”

60 Minutes meeting blow-up has CBS News reeling: 'By far the worst I've ever seen'

In the aftermath of the explosive first meeting between the remaining "60 Minutes” staffers and new Bari Weiss hand-picked executive producer Nick Bilton, executives at CBS News are picking through the rubble of the very public spectacle of a news organization in crisis.According to media watchdog Status, during the brief 15-minute Monday meeting, noted 60 Minutes co-host Scott Pelley raked Bilton over the coals as Pelley pointed out that his boss, Weiss, has "no qualifications for her job" and added that Bilton has “slender qualifications for this job."According to audio obtained from the meeting by Status, that came after Pelley accused, "She's murdering '60 Minutes'. She does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it—and she's doing exactly that."Late Monday, Status reported that Weiss has since been nowhere to be seen, with Oliver Darcy reporting, “Pelley’s extraordinary remarks immediately led staffers inside '60 Minutes' to wonder whether he was leaving the program. Pelley has not commented on the matter, but I’m told he has not quit—at least not yet. Instead, it appears he is daring Weiss to fire him.""Bari may have six bodyguards but she seems afraid to stand by her man Nick and face the grilling at '60 Minutes,'" one television news executive told Status. "No other explanation for sending him [Bilton] to slaughter today and not being there."Inside CBS News and parent company Paramount, Pelley's takedown detonated like "a nuclear bomb," dominating conversations throughout the media conglomerate. Yet the silence from leadership was equally striking, Darcy wrote.Hours after Pelley's attack, CBS News had issued no statement addressing the crisis. Weiss remained notably absent, and network leadership — to whom Weiss directly reports — offered nothing beyond a Paramount spokesperson declining to comment.A veteran television news executive told Status that Pelley's confrontation was unprecedented in scale and severity. "Every new executive lives in terror of those meetings with star talent and staff, and we have all been put through the wringer by angry anchors and employees. But this was by far the worst I've ever seen. By far. A star anchor says you don't have the relevant experience, why did you even take this job, you'll never be welcome here. Savage," the executive said.Despite the apparent catastrophe, one top media executive suggested the situation could be salvaged, telling Darcy during a phone call that the best path forward is to "move Weiss back to her anti-'woke' The Free Press, pay out Bilton's contract, rehire the fired '60 Minutes' staff, and admit the recent moves had been a mistake. Then install a seasoned news manager to oversee CBS News."

Morning Minute: Go Day in Cali

Dems hit by last-minute Platner anxiety before Maine Senate primary

Democrats have been caught in the bind Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) sought to avoid when he backed Gov. Janet Mills over Graham Platner in the Maine Senate race.Why it matters: Democrats must now support an untested and largely unvetted outsider as he faces intense media scrutiny over his relationship with women in a must-win race.⏰ Maine's Democratic primary to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R) in November is in eight days.🔄 Zoom in: Practically, it might be feasible to swap out candidates. Politically, it will be close to impossible."I've heard some of my colleagues' concerns about what we've read in the papers," Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who backed Mills, told Axios. "But at the end of the day, we've got to win.""We know that at this point this man can still win the race, and as long as he continues, I think we'll all be there," Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said.✈️ Driving the news: Platner will have an opportunity to address senators' concerns during a meeting with Senate Democrats tomorrow afternoon, followed by two fundraisers, as Axios scooped today."I'll know more after tomorrow's briefing on that," Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said. "But clearly, campaigns and candidates have to be fully transparent as things come out.""He has to answer those questions directly and forthrightly. They're fair questions," Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said. "It's going to be on him to answer them, and it's going to be up to the voters of Maine to decide."⚡️ The intrigue: Some of Mills' political allies have encouraged her to reactivate her campaign, according to people familiar with the matter. So far, she has demurred.But she fueled speculation today that she could rejoin the race, telling the Portland (Maine) Press Herald: "People have the impression that I 'withdrew' or 'dropped out,' but I simply suspended active campaigning. I am still on the ballot."🪓 Between the lines: Democrats do have a break-glass option if more damaging revelations emerge.Maine law allows a party to replace its nominee if the primary winner withdraws by the second Monday in July, which is July 13. The replacement would be selected at a party convention rather than through another primary.✅ The bottom line: Progressive senators who backed Platner in their proxy battle with Schumer aren't abandoning him."I think it's important for us to focus on the issues facing working families a little bit more than Graham Platner's marriage," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said."Susan Collins has a history of supporting Donald Trump," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told reporters. "Graham Platner is showing the courage and determination to take that on. I believe that's what the people of Maine care most about."

Candidates scramble for last-minute votes across CA before governor and mayor primaries

On the eve of California’s primary election, candidates are crisscrossing the state to make their final pitch to voters before they head to the polls on Tuesday.