Tick, Tick, Boom

Paramount delivers “60 Minutes” to Donald Trump on a gold platter

For anyone who watches the next season of “60 Minutes” this fall, understand this: It is not the “60 Minutes” we have all come to trust and respect. It will be a diminished, Trump-approved version.

There is a tendency to view this as a story about journalism and corporate finance. But more than anything it is about big business in bed with big politics to monopolize news for their benefit, not for the country as a whole.

It pains me to write this, but the president and the corporate billionaires who curry his favor have eviscerated the best news program in the world, one that I called home for many years. So far, three correspondents have been fired, one left, and the broadcast’s top producers were let go.

Sharyn Alfonsi, one of the three correspondents dismissed, wrote, “They fired the best of us and anyone wondering whether ‘60 Minutes’ is over can stop wondering. What’s left will carry the name, but without the spine or courage that made it matter.”

Going forward, every interview, every story, every shot should come with an asterisk superimposed on the screen right next to the CBS eye: *“This story was approved by Donald Trump.”

He won’t personally read the script or sanction the stories, of course, but the higher-ups know what Trump wants to see, and especially what he doesn’t. The president is no doubt thrilled at the demise of a journalistic nemesis that continually called his bluff.

David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, CBS’s parent company, may have pulled the trigger, but Trump, in effect, ordered the hit. Ellison and his father Larry are huge Trump supporters who have bent over backwards to make and keep him happy.

Remember when Trump sued CBS? David Ellison quickly came to heel, paying the president a $16 million settlement on a bogus suit.

Bari Weiss, the editor-in-chief of CBS News, is a bit player in this drama, executing decisions that are made far above her pay grade. Ellison paid $150 million for her conservative media company, The Free Press, before installing her at CBS. The former opinion writer, with no television news experience, is now working to move CBS News to the political right to garner Trump’s approval.

Scott Pelley, who was fired from “60 Minutes” on Tuesday, accused Weiss of “murdering” the broadcast. I agree and would add that it was premeditated. No objective-minded person would destroy something that has been the most successful news program in television history for almost six decades, made tons of money, and is the gold standard for broadcast journalism.

Just two weeks ago, Paramount issued a press release celebrating “60 Minutes,” which included the following accolades:

• 60 MINUTES closed out the 58th season as America’s #1 news program, for the 52nd straight season – extending its record-setting performance.

• 60 MINUTES averaged 9.1 million viewers in its 58th season, according to Nielsen most current ratings, up 9% from its season 57 average. The CBS newsmagazine is also up 5% in the key A25-54 demo.

• 60 MINUTES reached more than one in three Americans at least once this season on linear and live streaming.

• 60 MINUTES made the top 10 for every week this season and top five 12 times.

• Nearly 20 billion minutes of 60 MINUTES have been consumed this season across linear and streaming.

• The total video views across 60 MINUTES social platforms are up 185% year over year.

• The total engagement with our content across 60 MINUTES social platforms is up 137% year over year.

• Our views for TikTok are up 85% year over year.

• Our views for Instagram are up 65% year over year.

• The digital traffic for web articles on CBSNews.com is up 18% year over year.

The release also stated, “Tanya Simon is the executive producer of 60 Minutes.”

Well, not for long. That record, which would be the envy of ANY television producer, news or otherwise, wasn’t good enough. Simon and her top deputy were fired just days later. In a way, the success of “60 Minutes” is the issue. If it wasn’t as good as it is and fewer people watched, the president wouldn’t care as much.

With that covetable season, the nonsensical changes at the broadcast clearly are not because it is underperforming, though Weiss is trying to spin it that way. She claims the program must change to survive the “new media landscape.” Unless that landscape is on Mars, I don’t know what she’s talking about. You can see for yourself it wasn’t just surviving but thriving, before she blew it up.

The first episode of “60 Minutes” aired in 1968. More than 2500 episodes later, it is going strong. Why? Because we are a country that craves a national conversation and “60 Minutes” was often the catalyst for tough discussions about important issues, but ones that don’t have a Trump-sympathetic censor.

More than any other news program, “60” took us to undiscovered places and introduced us to insightful people with stories that needed telling, shot in that intimate, close-up “60 Minutes” style.

The news magazine’s talented corps of investigative producers and reporters found and executed stories no one else could. These stories are expensive and time-consuming to produce.

The “60 Minutes” formula is replicable, with the right people, enough money, and a platform willing to air it. We have heard from a former “60 Minutes” insider that such discussions are in the works. Fingers crossed. Until then, we are left with a sanitized “60” that will play well for an audience of one.

I’m left saddened by the knowledge that this American institution is being killed. Although it can’t be duplicated, I’m hopeful that efforts to build something like it may succeed.

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Stay Steady,
Dan