A longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent has no doubt about what led to the behind-the-scenes tumult and growing list of staff departures at the flagship news program.
CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss announced this week that “60 Minutes” executive producer Tanya Simon would be replaced by tech journalist and filmmaker Nick Bilton. Executive producer Draggan Mihailovich and correspondents Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi were also ousted from the program.
Speaking to Status in an interview published Friday, former “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft acknowledged questioning the show’s direction in recent years, but said he couldn’t have predicted the current state of affairs.
The ongoing shakeup, he said, is being driven by President Donald Trump.
“Since I retired, I often wondered what would happen to ‘60 Minutes,’” said Kroft, who concluded his run at the program in 2019 after 30 seasons. “But I never expected it would be executed by the president of the United States.”
“There is no smoking gun,” he continued. “But [Trump’s] fingerprints and DNA are all over this. He’s been making threats against ‘60 Minutes’ and how he wanted it gone. And he finally got his wish.”
JS reached out to representatives for CBS News and “60 Minutes” for comment on Kroft’s remarks, but did not immediately hear back.
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CBS News brought on Weiss, who had no prior broadcast experience, as its editor-in-chief in October. The network’s parent company, Paramount, also acquired The Free Press ― which Weiss had founded in 2021 ― for a reported $150 million.
The move was indicative of CBS News’ shift toward more Trump-friendly coverage. In July, Paramount agreed to pay the president $16 million to settle a lawsuit he brought against the company over a “60 Minutes” episode that he argued, without evidence, had been edited to flatter then-Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election.
Prior to her CBS tenure, Weiss publicly railed against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, claimed the Me Too movement had gone too far and conducted a friendly interview with former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, a longtime Trump supporter, on her podcast.
Her editorial strategy since joining CBS has been widely perceived as allotting more favorable coverage to conservative causes and members of the Trump administration.
In December, Weiss pulled a “60 Minutes” episode about a prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration had been sending Venezuelan migrants by claiming that it wasn’t “ready” just hours before it was set to air. Alfonsi, who reported the piece, argued Weiss’ decision was “political,” and not “editorial.” The episode would eventually air in January.
Weiss was also reportedly angered by Anderson Cooper’s emotional farewell from “60 Minutes” earlier this month, particularly after Cooper ― a 20-year veteran of the program ― advocated for its “independence” in his remarks.