60 Minutes is set to air a new segment critical of President Donald Trump even as its bosses at Paramount are trying to settle his $20 billion lawsuit.
The long-running newsmagazine plans to run a segment on Sunday hitting out at the president’s efforts to target law firms through executive orders.
‘On the campaign trail, President Trump vowed to wield the power of the presidency to go after his perceived enemies,’ the segment description reads in a press release from CBS News on Thursday, according to Deadline.
‘Now in the White House, Trump is using executive orders to target some of the biggest law firms in the country that he accuses of “weaponizing” the justice system against him.’
The segment will be entitled ‘The Rule of Law,’ and will be reported by correspondent Scott Pelley – just one week after he went rogue and leveled a blistering accusation against his own corporate bosses, Bloomberg reports.
In his signature calm but forceful tone, Pelley used the broadcast’s final segment – aptly named ‘The Last Minute’ – to address the sudden resignation of the show’s executive producer, Bill Owens.
But what began as a tribute to a respected colleague quickly morphed into an extraordinary on-air condemnation of CBS parent company, Paramount Global, which Pelley claimed had been taking a more active role in the show’s journalism.
Pelley suggested the interest from Paramount bosses had come amid a desperate bid to secure political favor from the Trump administration – exposing what he called the dangerous erosion of editorial independence at one of America’s most storied news programs.
Scott Pelley will report a segment critical of President Donald Trump on 60 Minutes on Sunday
The segment will focus on President Donald Trump’s efforts to target law firms through executive orders
‘Bill resigned Tuesday. It was hard on him and hard on us, but he did it for us – and you,’ Pelley told viewers, before delivering the bombshell.
‘Our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways.’
‘No one here is happy about it’ Pelley revealed about the extra supervision that corporate leaders are imposing. He also noted how in quitting, Owens proved he was ‘the right person to lead 60 Minutes all along.’
The newscaster went on to make it clear that even though no stories have been blocked outright, Owens believed the creeping corporate oversight had crossed a red line and was undermining the very foundation of journalistic integrity.
‘None of our stories has been blocked,’ Pelley declared, ‘but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires. No one here is happy about it.
‘Stories we’ve pursued for 57 years were often controversial, lately the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair—he was tough that way.’
Owens, 58, had been with CBS News for decades and served as only the third executive producer in 60 Minutes’ 57-year history since 2019.
In his resignation letter, Owens cited corporate interference as the breaking point, saying it had ‘become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it – to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience.’
Shari Redstone, the owner of CBS News parent company, Paramount, has tried to assuage the president amid merger discussions with Skydance Media
The show’s executive producer, Bill Owens, abruptly resigned last week
Owens – a respected figure who recently helped overhaul CBS’s Evening News – went on to promise that ’60 Minutes will continue to cover the new administration,’ and ‘future’ ones as well.
‘The show is too important to the country,’ Owens ultimately declared, weeks after sources told DailyMail.com how the bigwig was ‘feeling the pressure’ brought by the Trump lawsuit.
He reportedly added during a ’60 Minutes’ staff meeting last Tuesday: ‘It’s clear the company is done with me.
‘It has to continue, just not with me as the executive producer,’ Owens said.
His ouster came as the network’s parent company, Paramount Global, is trying to finalize a high-stakes merger with Skydance Media, a deal that hinges on receiving the green light from federal regulators under the Trump administration.
Yet the network also remains embroiled in the defamation lawsuit filed by Trump himself, who claims the show manipulated an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris last fall to paint her in a more favorable light.
Trump has claimed the network cut down Harris’ ‘word salad’ answer to a question about the Israel-Hamas conflict. By doing so, he claims the network was helping the Democratic nominee secure the White House.
Employees at the network, though, have said they were simply trying to fit Harris’ answer into their one-hour broadcast.
CBS continues to field a lawsuit filed by the president centered around an October interview with then Vice President Kamala Harris that aired on the once-prestigious program
Many, including Owens, were reportedly left dismayed as their corporate bosses tried to assuage the president in an apparent effort to get their $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media approved.
Executives at Paramount have reportedly supported settling with Trump and paying him as much as $20 million, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The company has not yet addressed the internal revolt, and representatives for the company did not respond to media inquiries following Pelley’s on-air remarks.
But Shari Redstone, the owner of Paramount, has reportedly asked the network’s chief executive if it were possible to delay running sensitive stories about the president on 60 Minutes amid the merger discussions.
She has wanted to sell Paramount since at least April last year, when it was reported that David Ellison’s Skydance Media was among the leading contenders to buy the media behemoth.
The deal with Ellison, son of Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison, now needs to be approved by July 6, or else another 90-day extension will be triggered by the FCC, prolonging the process.
Trump has expressed his confidence that he would win his lawsuit
Yet the discussions appeared to hit a snag this week when the FCC warned CBS that ‘all options remain on the table’ as it continues to investigate the controversial 60 Minutes interview with Harris.
Complainants have said the station broke the ‘news distortion’ rules by cherry picking only a portion of Harris’ answer.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr has previously rejected a bid from CBS to dismiss the complaint. His latest comment suggests that all avenues will be used to probe CBS, and the network could be hit with a hefty fine if it was found in violation of the rules.
Meanwhile, Trump has expressed his confidence that he would win his lawsuit.
‘The case we have against 60 Minutes, CBS and Paramount is a true WINNER,’ he wrote on his Truth Social platform Wednesday.
‘They cheated and defrauded the American People at levels never seen before in the Political Arena.’
He went on to reiterate his claims that the network deceptively edited Harris’ answer, saying the news program ‘perpetrated a Giant FRAUD against the American People, the Federal Election Commission and the Federal Communications System.
‘The bottom line is that what 60 Minutes and its corporate owners have committed is one of the most egregious illegalities in Broadcast History,’ the president said.
‘Nothing like this, the illegal creation of an answer for a Presidential Candidate, has ever been done before, they have to pay for it…
‘It is vital to hold these Liars and Fraudsters accountable,’ he concluded.