(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
President of CBS News resigns after disagreements with parent company Paramount [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-19
Per a story I came across on AVClub, the President of CBS News and Stations, Wendy McMahon, abruptly resigned her job today. She had only been on the job roughly 21 months before making the decision to leave. She at least had the professionalism to thank her staff in her resignation letter.
“Championing and supporting journalism produced by the most amazing stations and bureaus in the world, celebrating the successes of our shows and our brands, elevating our stories and our people… It has been a privilege and a joy,” she wrote in a memo to staff[...]
The most likely culprit of her sudden departure is a reaction to controlling shareholder Shari Redstone’s seeming willingness to capitulate to Trump over a ridiculous $20 billion lawsuit filed for so-called deceptive editing in an interview with Kamala Harris. Of course, the uncut version of that interview shows there was no deception. It was clarification on a question that had been asked.
Parent company Paramount is reportedly in talks to settle the suit via a mediator, in no small part because controlling shareholder Shari Redstone needs Trump’s approval to complete a multibillion-dollar sale of the company to potential buyer Skydance. This state of affairs reportedly led to increased oversight at 60 Minutes, which pushed executive producer Bill Owens to quit in April over what he cited as a loss of journalistic independence.
McMahon was in agreement with Owens when he unexpectedly left as the head of 60 minutes.
McMahon strongly aligned herself with Owens at the time, writing in her own statement that “standing behind what he stood for was an easy decision for me.” McMahon echoed some of Owens’ sentiments in today’s memo, writing, “[T]he past few months have been challenging. It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward. It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.”
This AVClub article I linked above isn’t very long, and I’ve probably hit (or come close to hitting) any sort of fair use, so feel free to follow that link if you want all the detail.
The reason I’m sharing this is to show we still have people in powerful places that respect journalistic integrity, but those same places apparently have other interests that have more respect for money rather than truth. My opinion on this is that CBS should fight this. One, they will win easily and two, while it may cause a headache and cost some money to win the lawsuit, it will not stop if they cave to the world’s dumbest conman.
It would also bring a wave of good will for the network in general, and it would show a path forward to every other large corporation being put in the same frivolous situation.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/19/2323201/-President-of-CBS-News-resigns-after-disagreements-with-parent-company-Paramount?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
