Another 60 Minutes Veteran Exits Show With Apparent Swipe at Bari Weiss

(Sipa via AP Images)

Another 60 Minutes veteran left CBS News this week as longtime producer Henry Schuster announced his exit, the latest high-profile departure in the staffer exodus from the flagship program following Bari Weiss’s rise to departmental editor-in-chief.

Schuster, who joined 60 Minutes in 2007 after a 25-year career at CNN, announced his departure in a LinkedIn post on Monday, saying he had been planning to leave for some time after accepting a buyout earlier this year.

“It has been a great run at 60 Minutes and what I got to do there was extraordinary. But I have been thinking about leaving for a while now and when the opportunity presented itself in February, I took it. And finally, it is official,” he wrote.

Schuster said he has yet to decide on his next move, joking: “I will try to avoid being a cliché, so I’m not starting a podcast or Substack. At least not now.”

While emphasizing that his exit was voluntary, Schuster took an apparent swipe at the upheaval under Weiss, writing that his departure “has been overshadowed by the forced departures of so many colleagues and friends at the broadcast.”

His exit comes after months of dramatic personnel changes at CBS News following the appointment of Weiss, the founder of The Free Press, as editor-in-chief after Skydance Media completed its acquisition of Paramount Global. Skydance is led by David Ellison, whose company acquired Paramount in an $8 billion deal.

Weiss, who formerly worked as a columnist at The New York Times, has overseen the departure of executive producer Tanya Simon, as well as correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi.

Veteran correspondent Scott Pelley was fired in June after clashing with Weiss’s newly appointed executive producer Nick Bilton, hijacking a meeting to rage at the editorial direction of the program and to accuse the editor-in-chief of “murdering” 60 Minutes.

Weiss has faced scrutiny after reports of senior staff who objected to her editorial leadership and guidance. She also faced scrutiny after pulling a planned 60 Minutes segment on El Salvador’s CECOT prison from broadcast last year, demanding more input from the Trump administration. The segment aired weeks later.

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