Veteran 60 Minutes journalist Lesley Stahl is reportedly reevaluating her role at CBS News after being passed over for an exclusive interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week.
According to insiders who spoke with Status, Stahl, 84, was caught off guard by Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss’s decision. Instead of Stahl, CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett conducted the high-profile interview.
This decision not only upset Stahl but also stirred discontent among the staff at the newsmagazine, as reported by Status. Employees felt that Weiss, 42, had circumvented Stahl, who had been tirelessly working to secure an interview with Netanyahu for months without success.
Sources revealed that Weiss arranged the interview independently. She had previously selected Garrett for a March sit-down with Pete Hegseth, a decision that reportedly caused enough internal friction that Executive Producer Tanya Simon had to intervene.
This latest development saw resistance from Simon regarding the replacement of Stahl with someone outside of the 60 Minutes team, as noted in Status’s report.
The network even considered hosting the interview on a different program, according to reports.
Weiss ultimately went with Garrett, however, and Stahl is now under the impression her boss ‘went behind her back,’ said sources.
The latter is now weighing whether to return to the show next season, according to the report. The final episode of 60 Minutes’ 58th season airs on Sunday. Stahl has been a correspondent there for 34 years.
Longtime 60 Minutes star Lesley Stahl, 84, is furious after being passed over for a high-profile interview that aired on the program Sunday
CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett ultimately oversaw the interview
Moreover, her contract expires this year, Status reported.
A CBS News spokesperson said it was not strange for Weiss to elect for an outside party for the high-profile interview.
‘It’s the editor in chief’s job to make decisions about bookings and interviews,’ they said.
‘Major is a world-class journalist and did a tough, fair, and newsmaking interview.’
Five people familiar with the matter spoke to Status for the report.
The saga comes following years of 60 Minutes team enjoying a large degree of autonomy, with program execs usually making such calls.
CBS is in the midst of an ongoing overhaul from Weiss, who took the reins in October.
Weiss was tapped to head CBS News by a then-new Paramount CEO David Ellison.
Stahl was one of several correspondents to demand the company promptly name their pick for the show’s next executive producer a few months before, after the exit of longtime lead Bill Owens in April of last year, Status reported at the time.
CBS News Editor-in-chief Bari Weiss made the call, five people familiar with the matter told Status
Stahl’s contract expires this week. She was one of several correspondents to pen a letter demanding CBS name the show’s next EP after the exit of Bill Owens last year. Sharyn Alfonsi, Jon Wertheim, Bill Whitaker, Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega and Anderson Cooper signed as well
Owens – as well as former CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon – left in protest of Paramount’s then-ongoing bid to settle a suit from Donald Trump. The lawsuit surrounded an October 60 Minutes interview the president said was ‘deceptively edited.’
After the suit was settled, a long-in-limbo merger between Paramount and Ellison’s Skydance quickly received federal approval.
Ellison, 43, assumed the top spot at the newly formed company in process. His father, billionaire Larry Ellison, has close ties to Donald Trump.
The younger Ellison quickly hired Weiss and paid her $150 million for the publication she created, The Free Press, as his first moves.
Other actions from Weiss have frustrated staff, including her last-minute decision to shelve a segment on the ‘brutal and tortuous conditions’ at a prison in El Salvador where the US notoriously deported illegal immigrants in December.
Weiss is a supporter of the war in Iran and has also accused the media at large of fostering an anti-Israel bias.
Former Paramount heiress Shari Redstone, the daughter of late Viacom billionaire Sumner Redstone, previously told New York Times in August that she was put off by a then-recent 60 Minutes episode about the Israel-Hamas conflict she felt was too slanted in favor of the Palestinian cause.
‘Once that happened, I wanted out. I wanted to support Israel, and address issues around antisemitism and racism.’
Shortly after, Ellison contacted her asking if she’d sell to Skydance, the production company he’d set up with help from his father.
Redstone closed the sale for $8billion in August. She took home an estimated $2.8billion.
