Everyone get your handkerchiefs out.
“60 Minutes” ends its season tonight. It will not return in the same condition.
The most respected news program on TV will not see its 60th birthday in 2028 wit the same independence and courage of its convictions.
Probably leaving: correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Bill Whitaker.
The former saw her El Salvador prison story postponed and then played on a night no one was watching. CBS News chief Bari Weiss sees Alfonsi as a threat to her world domination and string pulling by Trump.
Watch Alfonsi’s CECOT story here.
Whitaker, who’s done such a great job, turns 75 this summer, and is Black. Weiss isn’t crazy about either trait. He’s going to retire, at least from CBS. He should be given a huge send off, but Weiss will probably get him a gift card to Sephora.
Lesley Stahl, in her 80s, will probably stay until Weiss does something really bad to her. Scott Pelley? It’s 50/50 he’ll come back in the fall. But Weiss can’t really do the show without him.
Executive producer Tanya Simon is also a coin toss. She comes from establishment CBS News. Her father was beloved correspondent Bob Simon, who survived being kidnapped and all kinds of other atrocities only to die in a rogue Uber on the West Side Highway. Simon will have to decide if she can go forward with a “60 Minutes” for Fox News viewers, or go elsewhere.
The clock is ticking. You can hear it. Loudly.
