By Joe Flint

Early last October, "60 Minutes" Executive Producer Bill Owens sat in a screening room at the show's New York headquarters, watching an edit of a highly anticipated Kamala Harris interview.

Executive editor Tanya Simon told Owens that Harris's remark about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be used in the Monday, Oct. 7, show was different from an edited clip the Sunday morning show "Face the Nation" was using Oct. 6.

Owens asked was it a "legal edit," meaning the answer the then-presidential candidate had given in the "Face the Nation" clip was part of the response to the same question he wanted for "60 Minutes." Simon said it was. Owens responded: "That's fine."

That seemingly innocuous decision set off a legal battle between "60 Minutes" and then-candidate Donald Trump, who sued CBS News for $10 billion, accusing the network of deceitfully editing the interview to make Harris sound better. The Federal Communications Commission has opened a probe over possible news distortion, and demanded that CBS release the full interview transcript and video earlier this week. The FCC and CBS both made the material public Wednesday.

CBS said Wednesday the broadcast was "not doctored or deceitful."

On Thursday, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that CBS "defrauded the public" with its edit, calling for the network to lose its broadcast license. "This disreputable 'NEWS' show should be immediately terminated, " he wrote, referencing "60 Minutes."

'An hour-by-hour situation'

Past "60 Minutes" producers Don Hewitt and Jeff Fager embraced the spotlight. Owens, who has been with CBS News since 1988, tries to avoid it.

Now he finds himself defending the editing call and his initial refusal to release the full transcript of the Harris interview -- all while CBS's parent company, Paramount Global, seeks regulatory approval for its proposed merger with Skydance Media.

Paramount's controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, has encouraged settlement talks with Trump in the hopes of avoiding a potentially lengthy, costly and distracting legal battle.

Executives in the company say Owens's position is secure.

Dozens of correspondents, producers and staff from around the country gathered Monday in New York in the large room where "60 Minutes" films its most important interviews, eager to hear Owens provide an update on the situation -- and to voice their own concerns.

Owens said he made it clear to the company that he wouldn't apologize for anything that the show did because it did nothing wrong, according to one of the people in attendance.

Several staff members discussed starting a petition or staging a walkout to protest a potential legal settlement with Trump. Longtime correspondent Scott Pelley counseled against such a move, saying it may embolden Trump.

"This is an hour-by-hour situation," Owens said about the status of efforts to resolve the suit. He urged staff to try to block out the noise.

In an interview after the gathering, veteran correspondent Lesley Stahl described the meeting as "blind people trying to feel their way along, thinking out loud about the situation."

Seven seconds

During the Oct. 5 interview, "60 Minutes" correspondent Bill Whitaker asked Harris if the U.S. has any "sway" with Netanyahu because he often disregarded requests from the Biden administration regarding the conflict with Hamas.

In the roughly 20-second clip given to "Face the Nation," broadcast on Oct. 6, the edited response was, "The work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region."

The answer used in the next day's "60 Minutes" episode was further edited to about seven seconds. Harris said, "We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States, to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end."

After Trump accused CBS of deceitful editing, CBS issued a statement on the edit. "Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response," the network said. "The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment."

Owens, 58 years old, began overseeing the iconic "60 Minutes" news magazine in 2019. Last August, he also gained responsibility for "CBS Evening News." Some current "60 Minutes" staffers have expressed concern that adding the nightly newscast has stretched him too thin.

The Long Island native, who rose to prominence in CBS's Washington bureau, is revered by many colleagues as one of the last links to the glory days of the network's news division and its independence from a powerful corporate parent.

"He has kept the flame alive. The ethos and the value of the place remains. That hasn't been true in many organizations," said Stahl.

Owens often dons a pocket square in his sport coat, a nod to Hewitt, who ran "60 Minutes" from 1968 to 2004 and whose widow gave Owens the legendary producer's pocket-square collection.

Anderson Cooper, who is a "60 Minutes" correspondent as well as a CNN anchor, said Owens "has done a remarkable job" as a protector of the long-running show.

He is known as being unflappable, a steady hand in a stressful role. Still, some on staff say Owens can be intimidating and less approachable than his predecessors.

Redstone's watchful eye

"60 Minutes" has held steady as the top-rated news magazine on television under Owens, though its overall viewership has declined.

Redstone pays close attention to CBS's news coverage. She weighed in with management last month criticizing a "60 Minutes" story about the Biden administration's response to the war in Gaza, which drew complaints from Jewish groups and others for having an anti-Israel bias.

In a move seen by many inside the company as an effort to appease Redstone, CBS recently named longtime producer and former news president Susan Zirinsky to the interim role of executive editor, with oversight over vetting stories and checking for perceived bias.

"It is critical for newsrooms to quickly and effectively deliver balanced, accurate, fair and timely reporting, including highly complex, sensitive issues such as the war in the Middle East," Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks said in a memo to staff at the time.

Write to Joe Flint at Joe.Flint@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 07, 2025 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT)

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