Hey, good morning. Here's my new reporting on fights, fear and resolve inside CBS News, plus the latest on OpenAI, The Daily Wire, Spotify, Google, "Sesame Street," and more... |
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images |
Sometimes the arguments could be heard well down the hall.
The topic was “60 Minutes,” and the tension was audible. CBS News chief Wendy McMahon was clashing with her bosses over upcoming stories on the famed program — in part because President Trump’s legally dubious lawsuit against CBS meant that billions of dollars were at risk.
“Wendy was standing up for us,” a veteran CBS journalist said. “There’s a lot of fear about what happens with her gone now.”
McMahon stepped down yesterday, under pressure from CBS parent Paramount Global, intensifying the impression that CBS News is in distress due to Trump’s political pressure and other business factors.
Getting and keeping “60 Minutes” on the air this spring was a week-by-week challenge, according to people at the network. While some of the internal battles have been previously reported, five sources who spoke with me on condition of anonymity said the fights were much more fraught than the viewing public realizes.
McMahon repeatedly defended the program in conversations with Paramount Global co-CEO George Cheeks, who himself was under pressure from controlling shareholder Shari Redstone.
It wasn't just about tough Trump coverage; Redstone, a strong supporter of Israel and Jewish causes, also lodged objections over what she sensed was biased coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. One of the sources said McMahon played the role of educator, or at least tried to, “explaining the importance of journalistic independence” to Paramount leadership.
It's been an exhausting few months inside CBS. When "60 Minutes" boss Bill Owens stepped down last month, journalists feared that in-the-works "60" segments about Trump could be quashed. Journalists talked with each other about how to preserve the material. According to several sources, McMahon worked behind the scenes to protect the reports. Ultimately, the newsmagazine's reputation has been protected... for now.
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Senators raise 'bribery' concerns |
While CBS journalists are doing their jobs and covering the Trump admin assertively, Paramount lawyers are trying to strike a settlement with Trump, perhaps believing that such a deal will help secure the administration's approval of a pending merger.
In a letter to Redstone, first reported by the WSJ this morning, three Democratic senators questioned whether Paramount is in danger of violating bribery laws. That question has also come up inside CBS News.
At “60 Minutes,” “everyone thinks this lawsuit is an act of extortion, everyone," a network correspondent told me.
But there is also a widespread sense of resignation that the Trump settlement will happen, one way or another. CNN's Jake Tapper, citing a source close to the negotiations, reported that Paramount could pay Trump as much as $30 to 50 million.
McMahon and Owens told colleagues that they would not apologize to Trump as a part of any settlement – McMahon called it a "red line" — so their departures may portend an imminent deal. Paramount has declined to comment on the talks.
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'Despite all her miscalculations...' |
McMahon had detractors in and around CBS, too, and those people have pointed to other reasons for her exit. The news division's recent reformatting of the "CBS Evening News" is widely thought to be a misfire, for instance, and the newscast will likely be retooled — again — once McMahon is out of the picture. But "despite all her miscalculations, she was viewed as the last thing standing between us and Redstone," one of my CBS sources said.
Or maybe not. McMahon's recently named No. 2, CBS News president Tom Cibrowski, will now report directly to Cheeks. Several CBS journalists said they are hopeful that Cibrowski, an award-winning journalist and exec, will act as a heat shield with Paramount — and Skydance, assuming the pending merger is approved. Here's my full story...
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>> The NYT reports that Trump's team recently threatened to file another lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” segment on Trump targeting big law firms.
>> Per CNBC's Alex Sherman, Cheeks had a discussion with McMahon on Saturday and "asked for her resignation."
>> At "60 Minutes," there are real questions about "whether Lesley Stahl and Scott Pelley will return next season," Oliver Darcy reports at Status.
>> Over at TheWrap, Brian Lowry calls the CBS News debacle a "slow-motion Saturday Night Massacre."
>> The New York Post's headline about CBS today: "GONE WITH THE WEND."
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We "send our prayers in his fight against prostate cancer," the aforementioned Jake Tapper said on CNN this morning, as he and co-author Alex Thompson officially launched "Original Sin," one of the most-anticipated political books in years. The diagnosis, while heart-wrenching, doesn't change the reporting – or the reckoning over the Biden era. CNN's
Jeremy Herb is out with a new story about some of the details in the book that haven't been dissected yet... |
Two new books examine OpenAI |
Two complementary books about OpenAI and Sam Altman are coming out today. "The Optimist," by Keach Hagey, is a biography that, while written with Altman's cooperation, is "no hagiography," Tim Wu writes in this NYT review. And "Empire of AI," by Karen Hao, is a broader book about how Altman's company is reshaping the planet. "Together, these two excellent and deeply reported books form a diptych," Wu says.
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📚 Today's other new nonfiction releases |
Barry Diller's "Who Knew," also out today, is a "propulsive memoir," Tina Brown writes in this fantastic review. "In the current era of snowflake office culture," she says, "it's refreshing in an almost transgressive way to read in his memoir about what ingenuity, risk-taking, work ethic, and bullet-train velocity it took to get Barry to the pinnacle of the entertainment world so fast."
>> A new more new releases today: "Aggregated Discontent," an essay collection by Harron Walker; "Is a River Alive?" by Robert Macfarlane; and "Murder in the Dollhouse: The Jennifer Dulos Story" by Rich Cohen...
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More on the 'Bongino backlash' |
Yesterday I highlighted the "Bongino backlash" after FBI officials appeared on Fox and tried to deflate conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein and other narratives that are popular in MAGA media circles. The scope of the problem was showcased at the White House briefing when Liam Cosgrove, a Zero Hedge writer, occupied the "new media" seat and rambled to Karoline Leavitt about the "Clinton body count" conspiracy theory before pressing for more details about Epstein. The Hill has details here.
>> Related reading: Check out Ken Dilanian's story for NBC on "FBI leaders under pressure from MAGA voters to act on their 'weaponization' claims."
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FCC chair celebrates DEI loss |
An appellate court on Monday repealed a 2024 decision by the Biden-era FCC that mandated broadcasters share their diversity statistics. Trump's FCC chair Brendan Carr, who has championed the president's anti-DEI stance, celebrated the ruling on X, calling the previous mandate "an unlawful effort to pressure businesses into discriminating based on race & gender."
>> This morning The Information's Judd Legum is out with a scathing followup to Verizon's decision to end its DEI policies, thereby winning FCC approval for a broadband company acquisition...
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☝️ I'm kidding with that title, but only sort of. "Elon Musk and Donald Trump were the main characters on the internet and across Washington day after day. Then the world's richest man started to fade away," Jessica Piper and Holly Otterbein write for Politico, IDing an important change in DC and beyond. Musk is posting somewhat less often on X. And Trump's top advisors and official White House accounts have "largely stopped posting photos and content that mentions Musk." The story unpacks the many reasons why this "fade" matters...
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>> "How do you report on the weather when data is disappearing?" Cuts to NOAA are worrying the "weather and climate journalists around the country who rely on the weather service's forecasts for their reporting, Neel Dhanesha writes. (NiemanLab)
>> The Daily Wire "has elevated former 'Jeopardy!' executive producer Mike Richards to president" and chief content officer. (Bloomberg)
>> Spotify announced "that Apple approved an update that allows users in the US to see audiobook pricing within the app and buy individual audiobooks outside the App Store." (The Verge)
🔌: I'll see you on CNN's "Inside Politics with Dana Bash" in the noon ET hour today.
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>> It's Google I/O time: The company's annual developer keynote starts at 1 p.m. ET. (The Verge)
>> Telegram "gave authorities the data on 22,777 of its users in the first three months of 2025," a "massive jump from the same period in 2024." (404 Media)
>> "Artificial intelligence can do just as well as humans, if not better, when it comes to persuading others in a debate," Nicola Davis writes. (The Guardian)
>> SAG-AFTRA has filed an labor complaint against Epic Games stemming from the recent introduction "of an AI programmed to sound like James Earl Jones' Darth Vader that can respond to a player’s actions and questions." (The Verge)
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Last night's Cannes premiere of "Highest 2 Lowest," Spike Lee and Denzel Washington's fifth film together, marked Washington's first time as a lead actor at Cannes. "Sensing the occasion," the festival awarded the actor an honorary Palme d'Or, CNN's Thomas Page reports from the Croisette. Read his full dispatch here...
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Netflix arrives on 'Sesame Street' |
Netflix has picked up the exclusive worldwide premiere rights to "Sesame Street," meaning that new seasons of the beloved children's TV show will hit the streaming platform later this year. Netflix has the library rights, too. The news comes after Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN's parent) opted not to renew its contract to stream the series. Lisa Respers France and Liam Reilly have the details here.
>> In other Netflix-for-kids news, the streamer is "betting that 'Peppa Pig' can help it gain a foothold in the fast-growing kids gaming business," THR's Alex Weprin reports.
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