Ousted ‘60 Minutes’ managing editor decries ‘destruction’ of news program

Ousted “60 Minutes” managing editor Guy Campanile on Tuesday accused his former employer, CBS News, of eroding the network’s reputation by bowing to “corporate priorities” and allowing “ideological intrusion.”

Campanile was fired in May after more than three decades at CBS News. He is one of several network veterans who have departed since billionaire David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, which owns CBS News, installed The Free Press’ Bari Weiss to serve as the network’s editor-in-chief last year.

In a private Facebook post first obtained by The Guardian, Campanile said he and other fellow former “60 Minutes” journalists refuse “to be accomplices in the destruction of the most prestigious news program on American television.”

“We would not compromise our principles or reputations by jamming unverifiable notions or White House talking points into our reporting. We objected when told to conduct interviews arranged by the administration,” he said, adding that they “did what reporters worth their salt do – we questioned authority.”

The Wall Street Journal and Zeteo also reviewed the Facebook post, which Campanile published the same day “60 Minutes” shared a photo of its correspondents ahead of its new season, set to premiere on Sept. 13.

CBS News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley, who worked for the show since 2004, was fired in June, shortly after he lambasted Weiss and the show’s newly named executive producer, Nick Bilton, in a staff meeting. Other longtime journalists booted from the company include executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, and producers Matthew Polevoy and Tanya Simon.

After he was fired, Pelley told The New York Times that Weiss injected “falsehoods and bias” into a story about protests against ICE in Minneapolis, specifically involving the police killing of Renee Good.

Alfonsi criticized Weiss for pulling her segment on torture in Salvadoran prisons from the air, and Vega said in July that she was also pressured by Weiss and other executives to include misinformation and political bias in reporting.

Weiss and CBS News have denied allegations of bias or interference.

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