Paramount under fire for meddling in Gaza coverage after '60 Minutes' producer resigns
Paramount has come under fire following the resignation of veteran 60 Minutes producer Bill Owens, who reportedly quit the CBS news show last week after the parent company, Paramount, began to interfere with its coverage of Israel's war on Gaza and the Trump administration.
On Sunday night's episode of 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley read a statement about the departure of the executive producer, who was with the show for over 25 years.
'Stories we have covered for the last 57 years are often controversial, lately the Israeli-Gaza war and the Trump administration. Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways. None of our stories have been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism required.'
'He did it for us and for you,' he said.
CBS' 60 Minutes discussed the resignation of executive producer Bill Owens last week.
Owens reportedly quit amid increasing monitoring by CBS' parent company Paramount over coverage of the war on Gaza and the Trump administration as it sought White House approval for a merger. pic.twitter.com/vrzIybMmNv — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) April 28, 2025
Pelly added that Paramount was attempting to complete a merger that requires approval from the Trump administration.
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Last week, US President Donald Trump attacked 60 Minutes, saying it aired two inaccurate stories about him, and he has pressed the Federal Communications Commission to take action.
This comes after Trump sued the show in late 2024 for 'partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference', following an interview with his presidential candidate opponent, Kamala Harris. The lawsuit is still ongoing.
'Falling into fascism'
Paramount has been receiving an onslaught of criticism this week from people on social media who say the corporation is conceding to Trump's demands.
"Congratulations to Bill Owens and Scott Pelley of CBS for standing up for the Constitution and the First Amendment," US Senator Bernie Sanders posted on X.
"Trump, and his lawsuits against CBS and other media, must be strongly resisted. Paramount (which owns CBS) must not give in to Trump's authoritarianism."
It hasn't been mentioned much that the legendary Executive Producer of 60 Minutes named Bill Owens was forced to resign because he refused to bow to the orange felon seeing as its parent company Paramount needs the orange felon to approve a merger. Fascism 101. — Ricky Davila (@TheRickyDavila) April 28, 2025
"Bill Owens, executive producer of '60 Minutes', resigns: 'I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it, to make independent decisions based on what was right for '60 Minutes', right for the audience'," one social media user posted on X. "We're falling into fascism. - Deeper and deeper."
Many online this week have also been highlighting the potential role of Shari Redstone, the current controlling shareholder of Paramount, in censoring 60 Minutes and its news coverage.
Redstone defended the controversial CBS Mornings interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, when a host suggested that the author espoused "extremist" views in his writing about Palestinians.
"Buried in the @nytimes article about the resignation of 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens is that Paramount's controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, complained about a segment on Israel's war on Gaza," journalist Laila Al-Rian posted on X.
Apparently this is was the 60 Minutes story on "The Gaza Policy" that contributed to Bill Owens leaving rather than compromise his independence.
Link below. https://t.co/yBuTV7gmwp pic.twitter.com/eLO7LFAFY5 — Adil Haque (@AdHaque110) April 28, 2025
In addition to 60 Minutes' public condemnation of their parent company on Sunday, comedian Nathan Fielder also criticised the company's streaming platform, Paramount+, for erasing one of his episodes of the hit show, Nathan for You, due to potential 'sensitivities' around antisemitism.
In his latest episode, Fielder, who is Jewish, depicted the streamer as Nazi Germany.
In the narration of the episode, Fielder says: "The email said, in late 2023, a decision was made by Paramount+ Germany to remove the episode in their region after they became uncomfortable with what they called 'anything that touches on antisemitism in the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas attacks.'"
"'On the Paramount app, there are 50 results for 'Nazi', 10 for 'Hitler,' and zero for 'Judaism,'. We've been erased."
Many online joked about the amount of criticism that Paramount received in one day, with one post on X reading, "between this and nathan fielder depicting them like nazis on the rehearsal, paramount's uhhh having one hell of a night!
So Nathan Fielder was absolutely accurate in his portrayal of Paramount in the Rehearsal https://t.co/fcrgRtyLIR — Lip (@LipjustLip) April 28, 2025
"60 minutes AND nathan fielder both blasting Redstone for her paramount plus moves means they have both ends of the age demographic getting mad," a social media user posted on X. "Good luck shari".
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