CBS is denying accusations that it photoshopped the 60 Minutes Season 59 cast photo following rampant online speculation.
Acclaimed photographer Mark Seliger captured the Season 59 cast posing in Grand Central Station’s Oyster Bar. In response, online users have pointed out several inconsistencies in the photograph, especially involving reporter Lesley Stahl leaning against what appears to be only air.
“There’s a table behind her,” Jeremy Adler, the SVP of Communications for CBS News, told the Daily Beast.
Stahl’s feet also overlap such that balance would be difficult if not impossible, and her left hand appears to clench something absent. Users have speculated that Stahl was leaning against a surface that CBS photoshopped out, or even that the image itself was AI-generated “slop.”
“Lesley Stahl don’t look right,” one user wrote on X. “Why on Earth would you use a fake photo ever and especially why for this?”
Another asked, “WTF did you do to Leslie’s hand???”; still another wrote, “This photo is as fake as your show.”
And another questioned, “What invisible thing is she leaning on? Your credibility?”
The acclaimed CBS show is about to premiere its first full season under Bari Weiss’ MAGA-curious leadership. Since firing longtime executive producer Tanya Simon in May, Weiss has garnered accusations of censorship and of leveraging the platform to suck up to MAGA officials. CBS announced that the new season’s first big segment will include an interview with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The photoshoot’s location was meant as an homage to CBS veterans like Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and Douglas Edwards, who recorded in Grand Central when the terminal still housed CBS’ studios, from 1939 until 1964. According to CBS, the studio where Murrow recorded See It Now and Person to Person was right above the Oyster Bar. 60 Minutes, however, did not make its debut until 1968.
“Bringing ten people together in one frame can be a challenge, but with this team there was an immediate chemistry and a real sense of connection,” said Seliger, the former chief photographer of Rolling Stone. “You could feel the history of 60 Minutes, but also the energy of where it’s going. That’s what I hoped would come through in the photograph.”
Social media users agree that the photo indicates the direction of 60 Minutes, just not in the way Seliger likely intended.
“AI photo where Lesley Stahl is leaning on air,” someone wrote on X. “This is just a microcosm of how this show has gone to s--t.”
