‘Hell of a First Week!’ New ’60 Minutes’ EP Commits to ‘Journalistic Independence’ in Staff Email Meant to Calm the Waters

Screenshot via CBS

The new executive producer of CBS News’s 60 Minutes, Nick Bilton, sent an email to staffers on Thursday seeking to calm the waters following a week of turmoil at legendary news magazine.

New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin obtained the email sent in the wake of the firing of longtime correspondent Scott Pelley. Bilton was named executive producer on May 28, despite having experience as a broadcast TV news producer.

“It has been a trying and difficult few days. I know that,” Bilton began his email. “I’ve spent a lot of time in conversation with many of you, and especially with Lesley [Stahl], Bill [Whittaker], and Jon [Wertheim].”

“There are a few things I want to emphasize now,” Bilton wrote of the “extraordinary show.”

He continued:

The foundation of 60 Minutes is its journalistic independence. We will always pursue stories without fear or favor. We will always make the story the North Star — Not relationships nor politics nor anything else. We will be guided always by what makes the best piece for our viewers. And it should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: We will never be instructed by the ownership of the company on those stories.

Sunday night works. It’s the best hour of television journalism anywhere. We’re going to continue to do the things we do that make is so great — the scheduled screenings, the the detailed script work, the editing, the long format of the pieces. I am a curious person and I love stories, and as executive producer I will shape the show writ large. I’ll bat around idea with you, I’ll dive into scripts and edits with you, and I will sign off on pieces. The fearless correspondents and the intrepid producers will continue to be the core of each piece we broadcast.

Bilton added, “Discussion, debate, and disagreement are essential to the making of good journalism. All will be done in good faith, and always with respect and trust — and with fidelity to the practices that have served us well for 48 years.”

Those themes echoed Bilton’s termination letter to Pelley, where he wrote of the correspondent’s lack of respect: “Yesterday, you hijacked my first meeting with staff to disparage me, my qualifications, and my intentions with remarkable incivility and contempt,” Bilton wrote in that letter before telling Pelley he would not have a future at 60 Minutes.

Despite speculation by Puck’s Dylan Byers that 60 Minutes could see a mass exodus of all “existing talent” from the show within the next few weeks, Bilton did not hint at further firings or shakeups.

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