'60 Minutes' producer quits, citing interference

CBS News entered a new period of turmoil Tuesday after the executive producer of 60 Minutes, Bill Owens, said that he would resign from the long-running Sunday news show, citing encroachments on his journalistic independence.

- MICHAEL GRYNBAUM BENJAMIN MULLIN

In an extraordinary declaration, Mr Owens — only the third person to run the programme in its 57-year history — told his staff in a memo that “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.”

“So, having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward,” he wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The New York Times.

60 Minutes has faced mounting pressure in recent months from President Donald Trump, who sued CBS for $10 billion and has accused the show of “unlawful and illegal behaviour,” and its own corporate ownership at Paramount, the parent company of CBS News.