\n<\/p>\n
Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim announced on Friday their decision to remain at CBS\u2019s 60 Minutes after the tumultuous firings of several of the show\u2019s senior correspondents and top producers.<\/p>\n
The three correspondents issued a joint statement, saying: \u201cWe have had a hard time deciding whether to stay \u2026 We don\u2019t want to see 60 Minutes die. We have been grieving because this whole mess has wounded and damaged the broadcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to stay and fight,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
Stahl, 84, and Whitaker, 74, had remained wildcards as they had not commented on the uproar that has plagued the show since the new management of CBS News ousted correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega and producers Tanya Simon, Draggan Mihailovich and Matthew Polevoy last Thursday as part of a total restructuring of the show.<\/p>\n
Then, on Tuesday evening, the network terminated veteran Scott Pelley, telling him in a legalistic email message that he was being fired for \u201ccause\u201d because of his conduct in an explosive meeting a day earlier with new executive producer Nick Bilton and the network\u2019s managing editor, Charles Forelle.<\/p>\n
During the meeting, Pelley criticized Bari Weiss, the former opinion commentator who became the network\u2019s editor-in-chief \u2013 an appointment which has sparked backlash among numerous CBS employees who raised concerns about impartiality.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s murdering 60 Minutes,\u201d Pelley said of Weiss. \u201cShe does not love this place. She was brought in to kill it and is doing exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Friday\u2019s note, the trio of correspondents said they were still \u201cdeeply upset by the firings\u201d of Simon and Mihailovich, who they described as \u201cstrong leaders who everyone respected\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as we can tell \u2013 because no explanation has ever been offered \u2013 they were expelled because they fought for our 60 Minutes values and stood up to protect our independence and integrity. Newsrooms are not supposed to run like dictatorships,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
The correspondents went on to also mention Alfonsi, Vega and Pelley, as well as Polevoy and senior producer Guy Campanile, who was also fired by CBS News.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to express how sorry we are that these principled, fair and honest journalists were treated so shabbily, with such indecency. It\u2019s been heartbreaking,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
Explaining their decision to stay, they said: \u201cWe feared that our returning might be construed as an endorsement of the existing power structure. That is simply, categorically not the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to \u2026 try and repair and preserve our reputation by continuing the Mike Wallace tradition of hold their feet to the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 60 Minutes insider told the Guardian on Friday that the correspondents \u201cstayed so as not to abandon their producers and staff, many of whom simply can\u2019t afford to quit\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an act of self-sacrifice, really, and of generosity,\u201d the insider said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re voting for the survival of 60 Minutes. I can guarantee you that they\u2019ll hold Bilton to his promise not to allow corporate interference.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a memo issued to 60 Minutes staff on Thursday, Bilton promised \u201cjournalistic independence\u201d, saying: \u201cWe will always pursue stories without fear or favor. We will always make the story the North Star \u2013 not relationships nor politics nor anything else \u2026 We will never be instructed by the ownership of the company on those stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, the three correspondents referred to Bilton\u2019s memo, saying: \u201cWe heard all the right things in yesterday\u2019s \u2018independence\u2019 memo. It went a long way, and now we need to see these commitments to our process and procedures put into action.\u201d<\/p>\n
They added: \u201cIf we can continue doing the work that made this show what it is \u2013 committing acts of independent, fearless journalism and storytelling \u2013 we\u2019re here for it. If not, we leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stahl is one of the most well-known and well-respected (and feared) television journalists of the past 50 years. She joined CBS News in 1971 and has worked on 60 Minutes since 1991, with a list of famous segments and sit-downs too long to mention.<\/p>\n
Before the 2020 election, Donald Trump \u2013 who was then up for re-election \u2013 cut short an interview with Stahl after it became contentious. \u201cExcuse me, Lesley, you started with me. Your first statement was, \u2018Are you ready for tough questions?\u2019\u201d Trump said. \u201cAre you?\u201d Stahl deadpanned. \u201cThat\u2019s no way to talk. That\u2019s no way to talk,\u201d Trump replied.<\/p>\n
In May 2025, in an interview with the New Yorker editor, David Remnick, Stahl expressed frustration with Paramount\u2019s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, after it became clear that her company planned to settle a flimsy lawsuit filed by Trump right before the 2024 presidential election. She said at the time that she was \u201cpraying\u201d that David Ellison, the chief executive of the company that had agreed to purchase Paramount, would respect editorial independence at the network.<\/p>\n
Asked if she was \u201coptimistic\u201d that that would happen for 60 Minutes, Stahl replied: \u201cNo, but there\u2019s also not a lot of dark thinking, either. You know, perhaps I am being blind \u2013 maybe I should understand what\u2019s coming. But I\u2019m not operating that way. I\u2019m not optimistic. I am not. I\u2019m pessimistic. I\u2019m pessimistic about the future for all press today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitaker joined CBS News in 1984, but only joined the cast of 60 Minutes in 2014. Notably, he was the correspondent who conducted the interview with Kamala Harris in October 2024 that served as the basis for Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the network.<\/p>\n
In February 2025, the network acceded to pressure from the Federal Communications Commission to release full transcripts and all video footage from the interview, revealing the show\u2019s production process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim announced on Friday their decision to remain at CBS\u2019s 60 Minutes after the tumultuous firings of several of the show\u2019s senior correspondents and top producers. The three correspondents issued a joint statement, saying: \u201cWe have had a hard time deciding whether to stay \u2026 We don\u2019t want to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[142,4699,2171,5162,24702,3279,24703,1931,13781,24705,24704],"class_list":{"0":"post-50105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-bill","9":"tag-cbs","10":"tag-fight","11":"tag-jon","12":"tag-lesley","13":"tag-minutes","14":"tag-stahl","15":"tag-stay","16":"tag-theyll","17":"tag-wertheim","18":"tag-whitaker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}