Wendy McMahon, president and co-head of CBS News and Stations.
Michele Crowe | CBS | Getty images
The CEO of CBS News, Wendy McMahon, announced on Monday that it resigns, the last touch of a growing Battle of Testaments between the division of news of the company and the shareholder of Paramount Global Control Shari Redstone.
According to people familiar with McMahon, the CO-PDG of Paramount Global George Cheeks had a discussion with McMahon and asked for his resignation. McMahon agreed to resign, and the World Council of Paramount held a meeting on Sunday during which the members were informed of the decision, according to these people, who spoke of the state of anonymity to discuss internal issues.
McMahon spokesperson, Paramount Global and CBS News refused to comment.
“The last months have been difficult. It has become clear that the company and I do not agree on the way to follow. It is time for me to move on and for this organization to advance with a new leadership,” McMahon wrote in his letter of resignation to employees.
In recent weeks, the board of directors of Paramount Global had expressed growing pressure on the cheeks and McMahon to find out specific details on the programming “60 minutes” before its date of plane in a divergence of the way the program worked in the past, according to people familiar with the problem. The executive producer of the veteran “60 minutes”, Bill Owens, resigned last month, citing a meticulous examination of Paramount Global on his journalistic independence.
“Our parent company Paramount is trying to finish a merger,” said the correspondent “60 minutes”, Scott Pelley, at the end of an episode last month after Owens' resignation. “The Trump administration must approve it. Paramount began to supervise our contents of new ways. None of our stories was blocked, but Bill said he had lost the independence that honest journalism needs.”
“60 minutes” broadcast his last episode of the season on Sunday. He will no longer have live episodes before September. McMahon estimated that she had to fight to get “60 minutes” to broadcast in recent weeks, given the preference of the board of directors that certain stories do not take place, according to people familiar with her thought.
McMahon was appointed CEO in August 2023.
There have also been several points of tension between McMahon and Redstone in recent months, including CBS coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a potential “60-minute” settlement with the Trump administration on the modification of an interview of October with the candidate at the time and former American vice-president Kamala Harris. In private, Redstone criticized McMahon for the problems of “equity and balance”, according to people familiar with the thought of Redstone.
Redstone was also unhappy with the leadership of McMahon and the performance of CBS News from the point of view of companies, according to people familiar with the thought of Redstone.
Fusion with Skydance
Paramount Global is trying to obtain government approval to merge with Skydance Media, managed by David Ellison. The agreement would pay more than $ 1.5 billion for its part of the company. It would have no role in the entity merged in the future.
This merger is retained by the Federal Communications Commission while the negotiations between Paramount Global and the Government continue the maintenance “60 minutes”.
Another discord between the Federal Agency and the Company is the business diversity initiatives, reported the Wall Street Journal last month. The President of the FCC, Brendan Carr, publicly urged media companies to slow down diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
In February, Paramount said that he would end his dei policies, citing a decree by President Donald Trump who prohibited practices.
In October, she publicly criticized McMahon's decision to reprimand the anchor of CBS News Morning Tony Dokoupil for an interview with the author Ta-Nehisi Coates. CBS News said that Dokoupil had violated editorial standards when the host pushed Coates on the reasons why he did not include more of Israel on Palestine during the interview. Redstone said CBS News had made a “bad mistake”.
“I think Tony did a great job with this interview,” said Redstone in October during a panel of New York advertising.