60 Minutes Staffer Says Bari Weiss Is ‘Gutting’ the Show – Predicts, ‘It’s Over’

CBS News

It is a tumultuous time for 60 Minutes, as CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss has initiated a major shakeup of the venerated news program.

This month, the network allowed correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi’s contract to expire without renewing it after she criticized Weiss for delaying her report on an infamous prison camp in El Salvador, where the Trump administration sent hundreds of migrants. The New York Post reported that Alfonsi has lawyered up.

On Thursday, Executive Producer Tanya Simon and correspondent Cecilia Vega were also shown the door, as was Executive Editor Draggan Mihailovich. Anderson Cooper, the CNN host and occasional 60 Minutes correspondent, left the show this month after he declined to renew his contract.

Weiss named journalist Nick Bilton as the show’s new executive producer.

The spate of changes comes a little more than a year after Bill Owens, the former executive producer, quit the program.

Hours after the news broke, Oliver Darcy of Status reported on the discontent behind the scenes, citing “more than half a dozen people inside 60 Minutes,” who slammed Weiss and Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, who acquired Paramount and its subsidiary CBS last year. One anonymous staffer declared the program is dead, or at least close to it:

Tears flowed openly in the newsroom. Staffers exchanged texts expressing not only heartbreak, but genuine anger at Weiss and Ellison for upending a program they treasure.

“They’re gutting us,” one “60 Minutes” staffer told Status. “It’s over. I don’t see how ‘60’ will be able to function after this.”

“Goodnight and good luck, motherfuckers,” the staffer added.

“Everyone—100% thought Tanya and Draggan did exemplary jobs,” another senior “60 Minutes” staffer told Status. “It hurts. We feel violated.”

Darcy also spoke with Owens, the former executive producer.

“They’re killing 60 Minutes,” Owens said.

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