No one is surprised when the 60 Minutes crew at CBS congratulates itself for being "independent" of the Trump White House. That's unsubtle code for "we hate his guts and want to ruin him." But the I-word sounds ridiculous when you think of 60 Minutes and Democrats.
Let's just focus on Scott Pelley's work just since Trump lost the 2020 election:
CBS's Pelley Butters Up Obama, Bemoans 'Mistake' Being Too Nice to Trump (November 2020)
State-Run TV: 60 Minutes Drools Over Biden in Syrupy Interview (September 2022)
Pelley Touts Merrick Garland's Nonpartisan Moderation, Holocaust Stories (October 2023)
'60 Minutes' Escorts Fumbling Biden, Slams Danger of 'Hard-Right Republicans' (October 2023)
Pelley touted his longtime boss Bill Owens, who quit in a fit of "independence" from the Paramount brass after 26 years at 60 Minutes. That means he was there for every Steve Kroft softball festival with Barack Obama, and Katie Couric's giggly girl-talk interview with Hillary Clinton, while Pelley was badgering President George W. Bush and John McCain. See this and more in our old Special Report titled Syrupy Minutes.
This is Pelley's lecture in full:
Scott Pelley ended @60Minutes by lamenting the resignation of Executive Producer Bill Owens who “did it for us and you.” Pelley ludicrously claimed Owens made sure stories on Israel and the Trump admin “were accurate and fair.” Pelley complained: “Paramount began to supervise our… pic.twitter.com/xQDa4T3MBW
— Brent Baker 🇺🇲🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) April 28, 2025
SCOTT PELLEY: In tonight's Last Minute, a note on Bill Owens, who, until this past week, was executive producer of 60 Minutes. He was our boss. Bill was with CBS News nearly 40 years. 26 years at 60 Minutes. He covered the world, covered combat, the White House. His was a quest to open minds, not close them. If you`ve ever worked hard for a boss because you admired him, then you understand what we`ve enjoyed here.
Bill resigned Tuesday. It was hard on him and hard on us. But he did it for us and you. Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial. Lately, the Israel-Gaza war and the Trump administration. Bill made sure they were accurate and fair. He was tough that way. But 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. None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires. No one here is happy about it. But in resigning, Bill proved one thing. He was the right person to lead 60 Minutes all along.
CBS News defines the term "legends in their own minds." Pelley is clearly thinking of himself as in the line of Edward R. Murrow, "speaking truth to power," as Murrow intoned the fake news that there were no communist spies inside the U.S. government, that was crazy Joe McCarthy talk. Dan Rather thought the same thing, which entitled him to use phony documents against George W. Bush on 60 Minutes II.
The first step to restoring public trust in the media is humility, and Pelley & Co. are taking the exact opposite path.
