“60 Minutes” is in the news right now.
The six decades old revered news program lost its editor in chief yesterday. Bill Owens sent out a memo and made no secret that he felt he’d lost control of the show over the ever increasing anti-Trump tilt of stories.
I’m told he was fired by CBS owner Shari Redstone. “He did not quit,” says a source who claims that aside from the politics, Owens was not liked by the staff.
Now I’m told that Owens’ successor will likely be Tanya Simon, the show’s executive editor since 2019. Tanya is an accomplished and respected journalist and also the daughter of beloved late “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon.
My source, who has a long CBS history, says: “Trump wanted a head [on a stick] and he got one with Bill Owens.”
Trump — already suing “60 Minutes” over the Kamala Harris interview from last fall — was clearly provoked by Owens. Two weeks ago, ignoring a memo from Redstone, Owens aired two segments in the same night that made Trump look like an idiot. One was Scott Pelley’s interview with Ukraine president Zelensky. It was devastating. The other, equally bad, was about Greenland.
I was so excited about those reports I wrote about them here. Owens must have known what would happen. And now he’s out of a job.
I wonder if that episode will be repeated this summer.
keep refreshing…
