Veteran 60 Minutes reporter Lesley Stahl has spoken out concerning the ongoing lawsuit in opposition to CBS by President Donald Trump, expressing her considerations over how her community bosses are dealing with the state of affairs.
Showing on The New Yorker Radio Hour on Friday (Could 30), Stahl touched on the latest resignations of longtime 60 Minutes producer Invoice Owens and CBS Information president Wendy McMahon. She additionally stated she was “indignant” with Paramount World chairwoman Shari Redstone’s method to the Trump lawsuit.
“To have a information group come beneath company stress—to have a information group advised by an organization, ‘do that, try this along with your story, change this, change that, don’t run that piece.’ I imply, it steps on the First Modification, it steps on the liberty of the press,” Stahl stated, per Fox Information Digital. “It steps on what we stand for. It makes me query whether or not any company ought to personal a information operation. It is rather disconcerting.”
Owens stepped down as 60 Minutes producer in April, citing an growing lack of means “to make unbiased selections primarily based on what was proper for 60 Minutes, proper for the viewers.”
Trump is suing CBS Information for what he claims was biased reporting on 60 Minutes, particularly an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, which Trump alleges was edited in a solution to mislead voters within the 2024 presidential election. Paramount World, the mum or dad of CBS Information, is trying to merge with Skydance Media, a deal that reportedly requires the inexperienced mild from federal regulators beneath the Trump administration.
Stahl, who described Trump’s lawsuit as “frivolous”, revealed there have been talks of a mass workers walkout following Owens’ departure. Nevertheless, she famous how Owens urged his former colleagues to not give up on his behalf. “He explicitly requested us to not resign,” she shared.
“The ache in my coronary heart is that the general public doesn’t admire the significance of a free and robust and difficult press in our democracy,” Stahl continued. “Even the Founding Fathers acknowledged that we have to have a powerful fourth property to carry our elected officers accountable, and to proceed to cleanse the system. The general public doesn’t appear to need what we do to be a part of our public life.”
Stahl stated she believes Paramount will finally settle with Trump; the President reportedly lately rejected a $15 million settlement. Nevertheless, she admitted that she is “already starting to consider mourning, grieving” for what the longer term would possibly maintain for 60 Minutes.
“We’ll hopefully nonetheless be round, turning a brand new web page and discovering out what that new web page goes to seem like,” she acknowledged.
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