Wendy McMahon, a longtime defender of “60 Minutes,” is leaving her role as president of CBS News and Stations. The departure comes less than 24 hours after Sunday’s season finale of the esteemed news program, which has become a target of the Trump administration.
McMahon said in a memo “it’s become clear the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” according to the New York Times. She also described the tension between herself and CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, as “challenging.”
This is another major development in the ongoing confrontation between CBS’ news division and the Trump administration. It all started with a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. In December of 2024, Trump filed a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS and its parent company Paramount Global, alleging that the network deceptively edited the interview with his political rival. Both CBS and “60 Minutes” have maintained that was not the case and the interview was edited no more or less than other interviews. In January, CBS handed over an unedited transcript and footage of the interview in compliance with the FCC.
The Trump administration’s pressure comes as Paramount Global is looking to sell to Skydance, a multi-billion dollar deal that would require FCC approval.
Newsroom tensions around the “60 Minutes” lawsuit led to Bill Owens, the executive producer of the news program, to resign last month, citing a lack of journalistic independence for his decision. “My ’60 Minutes’ priorities have always been clear. Maybe not smart, but clear. Over the past months, it has also become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it,” Owens said in a memo to staff at the time.
In Owens’ resignation, he emphasized that McMahon “always had our back.” In her own memo to staff, McMahon praised Owens for his “unwavering integrity, curiosity and a deep commitment to the truth” and noted that “standing behind what he stood for was an easy decision for me, and I never took for granted that he did the same for me.”
McMahon first took over CBS News in 2023. Since taking over the position, Paramount Global chairwoman Shari Redstone has criticized the decisions made by CBS News’ upper brass repeatedly. Previously, Redstone complained internally about a “60 Minutes” segment that aired in January about the Israel and Hamas war. Redstone also said that CBS executives made a “bad mistake” when it came to their handling of “CBS Mornings” anchor Tony Dokoupil’s controversial interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates.
This story was originally reported by The New York Times.
