Maybe they will stay?
The new executive producer of “60 Minutes” vowed in a memo Thursday to uphold the CBS News property’s commitment to pursue stories “without fear or favor” and to not be “instructed by the ownership of the company” on sensitive reports, even as many at the Paramount Skydance news outlet continue to wonder if the show’s remaining correspondents — Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim — will remain with the program following a broad hollowing out of its senior ranks.
“The foundation of ’60 Minutes’ is its journalistic independence,” wrote Nick Bilton, who was named executive producer of the newsmagazine last week, adding: “We will always make the story the North Star — not relationships nor politics nor anything else.”
Bilton, who has had command of the venerable news property for all of a week, is trying to keep the trio of correspondents on board. The three met with one another on Wednesday to consult over the state of the program and how they should deal with it, according to a person familiar with the matter, and Bilton and Stahl are said to have met for dinner Wednesday evening, this person says, where she peppered him with questions about how he intended to move forward. CBS News was not able to offer an immediate comment about the details of their meeting.
Bilton praised Stahl, Whitaker and Wertheim and said he had spent much time listening to them. “We talked about what makes ’60 Minutes’ exceptional, about the traditions and legacy of the past, about how you do the work that produces such momentous pieces,” Bilton said. “We also talked about change: About new audiences, new platforms, and new ways of storytelling that these new audiences need. We’ll speak more about that in the weeks to come.”
In an interview with Variety last week, Bilton indicated that he was eager to do more than just a Sunday-night showcase. “The show is on the air one day, one night, one hour a week, and to me there is an incredible opportunity to take the show and do a lot of things with it,” he said.,
Bilton has replaced Tanya Simon, a longtime senior steward of the show and a daughter of one of its former correspondents, Bob Simon. Her deputy, Draggan Mihailovich, was also ousted, along with two of the show’s correspondents, Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega. Anderson Cooper announced in February that he would not rejoin the program in its 59th season in the fall.
Most shocking, however, has been the exit of correspondent Scott Pelley, who has, along with Stahl, been one of the correspondents most associated with the program. Pelley was terminated earlier this week following a heated verbal exchange with Bilton at a “60 Minutes” town hall. Pelley pressed the new executive producer — and senior executives at CBS News — as to why his colleagues had been fired and whether they truly had the qualifications to produce the premium journalism that is associated with “60 Minutes.”
“Discussion, debate and disagreement are essential to the making of good journalism,:” Bilton said Thursday in his memo. “All will be done in good faith, and always with respect and trust-and with fidelity to the practices that have served us well for 58 years.”
Maria Gravlovic, a producer who has been with CBS News since September of 2006, has been named the new executive editor of “60 Minutes.” Gravlovic had worked in the past with Pelley, including on a piece that ran during the show’s 58th season premiere, in which the correspondent traveled to Utah to interview Spencer Cox, the state’s Republican Governor.
More to come…
Source: variety.com
