Former CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon says she is “absolutely concerned” that the DNA of “60 Minutes” is being rewritten in real time and that a push to transform the program may be dismantling the very thing it is meant to protect.
Speaking at the Status Summit, McMahon said she would not declare “60 Minutes” dead until she sees the next edition, but she warned that the problem facing the show may have been misdiagnosed.
“Am I concerned that the DNA of ’60 Minutes’ is being rewritten in real time. Am I concerned that, in the quest to transform, that the problem has been misdiagnosed. And we are potentially changing, dismantling, the very thing we are meant to protect? Yes. I am absolutely concerned,” she said.
“But I will stop short of weighing in on the death of ’60 Minutes’ until I see this next ’60 Minutes.’”
 |
| Wendy McMahon |
“My last year at CBS News, Stations and Syndication was largely spent defending, protecting, standing up for and oftentimes fighting for the editorial independence of ’60 Minutes,’” she said. “I think it’s deeply concerning to have colleagues I trust, some in the room here today, saying so very directly and so very plainly that they experienced editorial interference firsthand. I wasn’t there, but I trust them completely in that.”
The Wrap reports she also addressed President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against “60 Minutes,” calling it frivolous, while discussing her departure from CBS. McMahon stepped down last May as president of CBS News and Stations. In a memo at the time, she said it had “become clear the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” the New York Times reported. She described relations with parent company Paramount Global as “challenging.”