Fired 60 Minutes Producer Claims He and Colleagues Were Pressured to Parrot White House Talking Points
Former 60 Minutes senior producer Guy Campanile has broken his silence months after he was fired from the long-running CBS news magazine.
via: EW
Guy Campanile, who worked at CBS News for 34 years, minced no words about his dismissal just days ahead of the newsmagazine’s season 59 premiere on Sunday. “After some time and deep reflection, I am now comfortable and prepared to talk about it,” Campanile wrote in a private Facebook post obtained by the Guardian and other outlets, and confirmed by Entertainment Weekly.
The former managing editor claimed he and his colleagues were axed from 60 Minutes because they “refused to be accomplices in the destruction of the most prestigious news program on American television” under the leadership of new CBS News boss Bari Weiss.
“We would not compromise our principles or reputations by jamming unverifiable notions or White House talking points into our reporting. We objected when told to conduct interviews arranged by the administration,” continued Campanile, who was let go in May alongside correspondents Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi, and Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon, and editor Draggan Mihailovich. (Prior to the firings, Anderson Cooper departed the show after 20 years.)
“We did what reporters worth their salt do — we questioned authority … including our own bosses. That’s how the best newsrooms work,” Campanile wrote. “To be clear: we were told to leave because we insisted on doing our jobs. What has happened recently at 60 Minutes — where I believe editorial independence has become a casualty of corporate priorities and ideological intrusion — was tragic.”
The evolution has inevitably “devalued our most trusted sources of news,” he lamented. “Journalism, especially on television, is now largely an exercise in presentation rather than examination: lead with weather because policy can be complicated. Hype everything to a point where it’s hard to tell what is really important. Protect yourself and keep the public distracted by focusing on the ‘what’ rather than the ‘why.’”
CBS News declined to comment to EW.
The network has previously pushed back against similar claims from other fired 60 Minutes staffers, citing several critical stories about the Trump administration this past season, the first under the editorial guidance of Weiss.
Nick Bilton, the newly appointed executive producer, told The New York Times on Tuesday that Donald Trump is “one thousand percent” fair game for scrutiny on the show, as is “everyone else in Washington, regardless of which side you’re on.”
When 60 Minutes returns on Sept. 13, there will be a number of new correspondents picking up the baton dropped by Pelley, Cooper, Alfonsi, and Vega.
Conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, documentarian and The Perfect Storm author Sebastian Junger, Vice News alum Gianna Toboni, and British broadcaster Trevor Phillips are all joining veterans Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim.
In his Facebook post, Campanile took a thinly veiled jab at the newbies.
Without naming names, he blasted the “self-described influencers and online opinionists who market themselves as ‘journalists.’ Some have been given control of our most precious reporting institutions — including CBS News. Many of these newsroom managers have never been exposed to the depths of poverty, the ravages of war or the heartbreak of disaster. Yet these dilettantes and their enablers make critical programming decisions based on what might trend online over the next few hours.”
Campanile concluded with a call to arms for his former colleagues who remain at 60 Minutes: “Hold the line. Don’t give an inch because they will keep scraping away until there’s nothing left worth a damn.”
With additional reporting by Ryan Coleman.
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