Former CBS News head Wendy McMahon has major concerns about the “dismantling” of 60 Minutes under Bari Weiss.
McMahon, 51, appeared at the Status Summit, where she expressed apprehension about CBS News’ future—including its revamp of 60 Minutes.
“Am I concerned that the DNA of 60 Minutes is being rewritten in real time? Am I concerned that, in the quest to transform, that the problem has been misdiagnosed? And we are potentially changing, dismantling, the very thing we are meant to protect?” she said, according to The Wrap. “Yes. I am absolutely concerned.”
The legendary news show will return for its 59th season on Sunday—the first to follow its major shakeup under Weiss, 42, the MAGA-coded new CBS News Editor-in-Chief installed by Trump-friendly company Skydance when it acquired Paramount last year.
Weiss oversaw the firing of 60 Minutes veteran Scott Pelley and others; was accused of meddling in its reporting to push more Trump-friendly coverage; and hired tech journalist and filmmaker Nick Bilton, 49, as executive producer despite his lack of experience running a TV news program. McMahon finds the changes “deeply concerning.”
“My last year at CBS News, Stations and Syndication was largely spent defending, protecting, standing up for and oftentimes fighting for the editorial independence of 60 Minutes,” she said. “I think it’s deeply concerning to have colleagues I trust, some in the room here today, saying so very directly and so very plainly that they experienced editorial interference firsthand.”
McMahon left her post at CBS News in May 2025 when Paramount Global began negotiating a settlement to Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit against the network over a 60 Minutes interview with his 2024 opponent Kamala Harris. Trump argued that Harris had been edited “selectively” and accused CBS of election interference. McMahon had hoped the company would fight back.
“It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” she wrote in a staff memo obtained by the Daily Beast at the time, as she announced, “It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.”
In March, she told Marie Claire, “As a leader, as a CEO within an organization, when you sense misalignment, when you believe your vision and your values are at odds with how the business is moving—that’s your cue, right?”
McMahon also argued that “opinion journalism” needed institutions to survive—a thinly veiled reference to Weiss’s time as a columnist, as the novice TV news head continued making big changes at CBS News.
“What we can’t have is institutions collapse and, as a result, have newsgathering commitments—to international coverage, to local coverage, to investigative journalism—go away,” she added. “So much of what we see in the opinion space is built off the reporting of institutions. So what happens when that reporting is not there?”
Still, McMahon insisted she would reserve her opinion until she sees “the work” produced. “I will stop short of weighing in on the death of 60 Minutes until I see this next 60 Minutes… I’m always hesitant to assign ill intent or judgment really without truly understanding the motivations or the vision. I can only judge the journalism,” she said.
Bilton told The New York Times in an interview this week, “Over the summer, we’ve made changes to every aspect of the broadcast to make it stronger.” Each of the changes represents “a slight departure from the way it’s been done in the past,” he added, and “will make for a new approach to 60 Minutes in its totality.”
According to Status, it wasn’t easy for Bilton to convince the show’s three remaining stars—Bill Whitaker, Lesley Stahl, and Jon Wertheim—to remain on board for the new season.
