60 Minutes just pulled a fast one—and nobody saw it coming.
Last night, CBS’s legendary news show torched its own parent company, Paramount Global, right on live TV. No polite PR spin. No sugarcoating. Straight-up war.
Scott Pelley, the OG correspondent, dropped the bombshell at the end of the show—calling out Paramount for basically pushing Executive Producer Bill Owens out the door.
“He could no longer protect the independence of 60 Minutes,” Pelley said, staring dead into the camera like he was ready to fight.
Ouch. That’s not a goodbye. That’s a gunshot.
Sources inside CBS told Vulture and Axios that Owens wasn’t about to play ball with corporate suits breathing down his neck. Paramount is dying to close that $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, and the Trump administration’s fingerprints are all over the approval process. Translation: Paramount doesn’t want any messy news stories rocking the boat.
Owens wasn’t about to sell out. So he bounced.
And here’s the real kicker: insiders say Paramount is ready to settle a $20 billion lawsuit filed by Trump against 60 Minutes—just to keep the merger deal sweet. That’s right. Throw journalism under the bus to chase a paycheck.
Bill Owens didn’t just resign.
He called bullsh*t on the whole system.
And 60 Minutes let him have the last word.
Power move. Period.
This is way bigger than one guy quitting. This is about whether 60 Minutes—the gold standard of TV journalism—is going to stay fearless, or roll over for the billionaires.
Stay tuned. This fight’s just getting started.