CBS News Anchors Pay Tribute to Ousted 60 Minutes Producer: ‘Man of Great Integrity’
Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson closed their CBS Evening News broadcast on Tuesday with a tribute to longtime 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens after he stepped down amid pressure from network bosses.
“And finally tonight a story that is personal to us here at CBS News, ” Dickerson began, “Our friend and colleague, Bill Owens, announced today he is stepping down as executive producer of 60 Minutes.”
DuBois added that Owens left after he was “no longer allowed to run the broadcast as it had been run.”
Dickerson noted that Owens was also the supervising producer of the network’s evening news, adding, “He’s a man of great integrity. We will always be grateful to him for his wisdom, his guidance and above all, his friendship.”
“And we cannot thank him enough,” DuBois concluded.
Read the full segment below:
JOHN DICKERSON: Finally tonight, a story that is personal for us here at CBS News. Our friend and colleague, Bill Owens, announced today he is stepping down as executive producer of 60 Minutes.
MAURICE DUBOIS: In it’s more than half a century on the air, 60 Minutes has prided itself on independent reporting, but Owens said he was no longer allowed to run the broadcast as it had been run and to make independent decisions.
DICKERSON: 60 Minutes is at the center of a lawsuit filed by then-candidate Donald Trump, who claims the broadcast has not been fair to him. CBS’s parent, Paramount Global, is trying to resolve this suit as it works to complete a merger that needs government approval.
DUBOIS: Owens has stood firm, insisting 60 Minutes has done nothing wrong, and he would not apologize.
DICKERSON: Bill Owens was also the supervising producer of this broadcast. He’s a man of great integrity. We will always be grateful to him for his wisdom, his guidance and above all, his friendship.
DUBOIS: And we cannot thank him enough.
Owens resigned Tuesday amid pressure from CBS parent company, Paramount Global.
In a memo to staffers obtained by Mediaite, Owens said he was stepping aside because “over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience.”
CBS is embroiled in a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump over an interview 60 Minutes conducted last year with then-Vice President Kamala Harris after she secured the Democratic presidential nomination. CBS aired two different parts of a response Harris gave to a question. One part of the response was in a teaser for the show, and the other was aired on the show itself.
CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, is currently seeking government approval for a merger with Skydance. Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, reportedly cracked down on 60 Minutes over a segment the show reported on the war in Gaza she considered too critical of Israel.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper blasted Paramount Global and Trump’s lawsuit on his show Tuesday night.
“The president alleges that editing the 60 Minutes interview and running two different answers to the same question helped Vice President Harris and amounted to electoral fraud,” Tapper explained on The Lead. “In reality, this is just editorial discretion. Editors do it all the time with recorded interviews, including all the time with taped interviews by Fox [News].”
Owens was just the third producer to run 60 Minutes in its more than 50 years on the air.
Watch above via CBS News.
