CBS News Under Fire Again as ‘60 Minutes’ Airs More Anti-Trump Stories Despite New Owner’s Pledge To Restore Fairness

CBS News’s “60 Minutes” appears to be intent on acting as though it is business as usual, despite new owner David Ellison’s desire to clean up the network’s alleged liberal slant.The news magazine program’s latest episode kicked off with a fairly friendly interview with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, who helped negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. However, any indication that Mr. Ellison would significantly reshape the show’s editorial voice seemed to be thrown into doubt as journalist Scott Pelley interviewed a fired lawyer for the Department of Justice, Erez Reuveni, who had previously alleged that the Trump Administration had planned to intentionally ignore court orders. During the interview, Mr. Reuveni spoke about the Trump Administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to quickly remove alleged members of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. He said that a then-top DOJ official, Emil Bove, called a meeting with lawyers and told them that if a court issued an order blocking the use of the Alien Enemies Act, “We may have to consider telling that court, ‘F— you.’”“I felt like a bomb had gone off. Here is the number three official using expletives to tell career attorneys that we may just have to consider disregarding federal court orders,” Mr. Reuveni said. The interview with Mr. Reuveni was the latest installment of segments highlighting what “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley calls violations of norms, national security conventions and the “rule of law” by the Trump Administration. Last week, “60 Minutes” led with a fired Biden-appointed national security official, Tim Haugh, with Mr. Pelley making the argument that his firing made the U.S. less safe.In the previous “60 Minutes” season, which ended in May, Mr. Pelley did a “rule of law” segment featuring one of Mr. Trump’s fiercest opponents, Marc Elias, arguing that Mr. Trump was a threat to Democracy.Sunday night’s interview was celebrated by liberal commentators on social media. The head of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato, wrote on X, “If you care about JUSTICE in the United States, you MUST watch this frightening @60Minutes segment about the LAWLESSNESS now at the Trump Justice Dept.”However, conservative accounts criticized the show for the interview. A law professor at George Mason University, Rob Luther, wrote, “The New York Bar Attorney Grievance Committee dismissed these allegations against Judge Bove. I discourage @60minutes and its guests from defaming sitting federal judges. The bar licensure authorities – and other regulatory authorities- may not appreciate it.”Mr. Luther’s post refers to the New York State Attorney Grievance Committee’s decision not to investigate Mr. Bove’s conduct but instead to transfer the matter to the DOJ. Mr. Luther also tagged the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr. Another conservative user, Bret Weingart, commented on the “60 Minutes” interview, writing, “60 Minutes is nothing more than corporate propaganda with advertising to pay for it.”“Bari Weiss, call your office. 60 Minutes is doing yet another hit piece on the President Trump, as they continue to ignore a decade of crimes by democrats,” said a conservative writer, Mark Mendlovitz.The “60 Minutes” episode also included an interview with artist Amy Sherald, conducted by journalist Anderson Cooper. Ms. Sherald made headlines in July after she withdrew a planned show at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery due to concerns that the museum would remove her depictions of a transgender Statue of Liberty. Ms. Sherald told Mr. Cooper that she does not think “there’s anybody more patriotic than a black person.”Ms. Sherald told “60 Minutes that there were “conversations about the work being censored.”“The show was ‘American Sublime.’ It was a whole narrative. And a trans woman is a part of that narrative for me. Any kind of contextualization around the work would have been unacceptable, and it would’ve deviated from how the work was originally conceived. And because of that, I felt like my only choice was to pull out,” she said. Curiously, Mr. Cooper referred to the transgender Lady Liberty as “a transgender person” while Ms. Sherald said “transgender woman.” Mr. Cooper’s use of the phrase was in his recorded “track,” not the interview itself, which means the phrase was carefully considered. “60 minutes has really gone down hill. This is your story??” one user wrote on X about the interview.Last week, “60 Minutes” interviewed Tim Haugh, a retired four-star general who was fired from his job as the head of the National Security Agency and the U.S. Cyber Command in April after a right-wing activist accused him of being “disloyal” because he was appointed by President Biden.The interviews featuring subjects critical of the Trump Administration are a continuation of the same kind of stories “60 Minutes” ran last spring that criticized the 47th president’s budget cuts and foreign policy. In previous years, the persistent anti-Trump coverage may have been vexing to conservatives but not unexpected. However, the apparent lack of change in the show’s editorial slant comes as CBS News is under new management and as its owners signaled a desire to purge the network of its alleged left-wing and anti-Israel bias.Before the FCC approved Skydance’s acquisition of CBS’ corporate parent, Paramount, executives made written commitments to unbiased journalism and to presenting a diverse range of viewpoints. Liberal journalists and commentators fretted that Mr. Ellison and the new owners would strip “60 Minutes” of its unprecedented level of independence. Speaking to reporters in August, shortly after taking over the Tiffany Network, Mr. Ellison declined to comment on whether “60 Minutes” would be allowed to operate with the same level of autonomy.Skydance officials also hired a former president of the Hudson Institute, Kenneth Weinstein, to work as an ombudsman and monitor complaints of bias at the network. In a memo to employees on Monday, the president of Paramount, Jeff Shell, said that the “ombudsman process is about transparency, not oversight.”“As part of broader efforts to continually improve our journalism, our goal is to strengthen trust — with our viewers, our readers, and one another — by listening carefully and addressing concerns,” the memo added. Paramount said that “consumers, employees, and others” can email complaints to the ombudsman.Earlier this month, Paramount announced Bari Weiss, the founder of the pro-Israel, anti-woke outlet the Free Press, will serve as CBS News’s editor in chief, in yet another signal that the new management wants to shift the network’s editorial voice. With the new owners in control for nearly three months, it appears that CBS News employees are trying to buck their new bosses’ edicts and thwart attempts at change in the hopes that they can outlast them – a well-known practice for the left-wing staffers.While the staff at “60 Minutes” likely prepared this week’s stories weeks or even months in advance, the decision to go ahead with them as planned appears to corroborate a report from the New York Times that employees at the network see no signs of bias in their coverage and may be reluctant to accept changes. Ms. Weiss met with the “60 Minutes” staff last week, the Times reports, and asked why much of America believes the show is biased.The staffers reportedly responded with “stunned awkwardness” and expressed a belief that their reporting is “firmly nonpartisan.”At least one correspondent at “60 Minutes” is open to criticism of the show: Mr. Cooper. A former editor of OK! Magazine, Rob Shuter, reported that after Ms. Weiss’s meeting, “60 Minutes” correspondents held a private meeting to “plot their response.”“They felt blindsided and humiliated — and they wanted to hit back,” one source told Mr. Shuter.During that meeting, Mr. Pelley, Lesley Stahl, Cecilia Vega, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim complained about Ms. Weiss’s “outsider arrogance.” Notably, Mr. Cooper was reportedly absent from that meeting as he believes it is not “time to circle the wagons” but rather it is time to “listen.” One source told Mr. Shuter, “[Mr. Cooper] knows public trust is fading.”CBS News did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

CBS News Under Fire Again as ‘60 Minutes’ Airs More Anti-Trump Stories Despite New Owner’s Pledge To Restore Fairness

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