Steve Kroft on Barry Weiss’ ‘disastrous’ 60 Minutes change: ‘This is journalistic meddling, it makes absolutely no business sense’

former 60 minutes Reporter Steve Croft examines the big shake-up at the leading news magazine.

In an interview Wednesday with Jeff Bennett of PBS News, Croft was asked for his thoughts on recent events, including the firing of Scott Pelley, the firing of EP Tanya Simon, and the firing of reporters Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi.

He replied: “I think it was disastrous for the show and for the audience, which is not insignificant.” “It’s been going on for a long time. It actually started with an interview that Bill Whitaker did with Kamala Harris, and CBS got sued for $17 million by the Trump administration for what they called ‘illegal editing.’ The suit had no merit at all, but CBS, Paramount decided to settle the case for $17 million. And from then on, it’s just kind of been one thing after another.”

Bennett also noted that recent shifts have occurred as Paramount seeks Trump-backed FCC approval for its massive merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. “I think Paramount just decided that this was the only thing that was going to matter, and they were going to try to block anything that might get in the way of that,” Croft said of getting FCC approval.

the previous 60 minutes The reporter noted that Bailey said he asked Barry Weiss why EP Tanya Simon was fired, “and she refused to answer questions, which leaves you with what the president and his staff and the FCC chairman said, that they don’t like the way CBS operates. They don’t like the fact that[[60 minutes]on the air, and they’d like to see it taken off the air, and they’ve said it multiple times, they’d like to see people get taken off the air, and that’s what’s happening.

Bailey was fired on Tuesday after an intense meeting with… 60 minutesNew executive producer, Nick Bilton, announced Monday. At that meeting, Bailey said the editor-in-chief of CBS News Vice was “committing murder 60 minutes. She doesn’t like this place; She was brought in to kill her and she does just that.

Bennett asked Croft where the line was between business decisions and journalistic intervention in this case, and Croft said he believed comprehensive reform was the latter.

“I think this is journalistic interference. This makes no business sense at all.[[60 minutes]It still works very well; “It is the highest-rated news program on television, and has been for more than 50 years. “Viewership is up nine percent in the past year. Why would you mess with that?

Croft, who spent 30 seasons in 60 minutesHe recently spoke about his time working at the news magazine, admitting that he “hated” the job.

“60 minutes It was really appealing, and I thought I wasn’t really sure I’d ever get there. I didn’t think seriously about it. He said of his experience working on the show: “When I did it, there were a lot of things, first of all, it was only a 24-hour-a-day job. I mean you might get a few hours of bad sleep. Alarms go off, you get on planes, you go here and there, everything, and then you come back and spend, you know, three or four days writing the script, and then you go to the shows and then you start all over again.”