F-ing with The Franchise

Off the top, can we ask if you were really surprised when the first reports came out yesterday that Bari Weiss, the Editor-In-Chief of whatever-the-hell-is-left-at CBS News, had conducted her long-awaited strafing of the staff at the network’s final news franchise, the venerable “60 Minutes”?

By the end of the business day, the list of departures would include not only the inevitable “no new contract” for correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who had been the most visible in tangling with Weiss since “L’affaire du CECOT” last fall, but also her fellow female correspondent, Cecilia Vega. The youngest correspondent on “60 Minutes,” Vega is hopefully headed to a better job—perhaps somewhere behind an anchor desk. (We always had her pegged to be David Muir’s ultimate successor back when she was still over at ABC News.)

The behind-the-scenes bloodbath went deeper. Executive Producer Tanya Simon’s long ties to the network couldn’t save her job (she is the daughter of legendary CBS News correspondent Bob Simon). Simon was joined in the HR exit interview line by uber-respected Executive Editor Draggan Mihailovich and Senior Producer Matthew Polevoy. With the departure of correspondents Alfonsi and Vega, it stands to reason that others on the producing staff might be reassigned, shown the door, or depart on their own accord. The fate of the remaining staffers, including those whose faces are seen at the beginning of each episode, is still to be learned.

Make no mistake, those departing are all extraordinarily talented journalists who have helped make the most successful television news program for years, if not decades. Oliver Darcy, reporting on Status, detailed the scene inside the “60 Minutes” offices on Thursday as word of the departures spread.

But you see, they had to be moved aside to make way for Ms. Weiss’s remaking of the program. That plan included announcing her handpicked candidate to lead “the franchise” (a position that was never posted anywhere we saw). Certainly, the person selected to take on such a successful program and lead it into the future would have strong credentials in broadcast journalism, right?

Meet the new Executive Producer of “60 Minutes.” His name is Nick Bilton. Like his new boss, he was once a writer at The New York Times. (A technology columnist, so he’s definitely a future-thinking kind of guy.) Also, just like his new boss, Ms. Weiss, he has never worked in a broadcast television newsroom. He has “directed and produced” documentaries for HBO and Netflix. He alluded to his bona fides as he was interviewed by The New York Times about his new role (alongside Ms. Weiss), by name-checking the man who started the broadcast:

“Look at Don Hewitt and how he came up with the idea for this,” Mr. Bilton said, referring to the program’s creator. “He loved documentaries, but he did not have the patience to watch two-hour-long versions of them. So he came up with ‘60 Minutes,’ which was a series of short documentaries.”

If you were perhaps wondering, as we were, what kind of ego Mr. Bilton brings to the job, consider this response when he was asked by The Times what the end result of the changes he might bring to what he called “the most important news brand in American life.”

”Quite frankly, phenomenal.”

Bilton’s name sounded familiar to us when we first read it, and then we realized that in his writing career, he had penned the 2013 book, “Hatching Twitter.” It chronicled the early years at the social media start-up that changed how everyone thought about what could be conveyed in 140 characters. We found the book a decent read. Lachlan Cartwright, writing in his “Breaker” newsletter last night, (sorry, it’s behind a paywall) reports that Nick Bilton’s career history is “colorful.”

Cartwright detailed how, as a tech writer, Bilton was “known for being MIA when big tech stories broke, generally lazy, and filing infrequently. Within the broader tech journalism world, Bilton is reviled for trying to claim credit for breaking open Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes’ fraud (that title goes to former Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou).”

Well, those are exactly the qualities you’d be looking for in a leader for a franchise that he calls “the most important news brand in American life.”

We won’t be shocked if there are more departures from the legendary program’s offices. And we’d rather not think about whether the iconic stopwatch that opens and closes each edition of “60 Minutes” might finally run out of time.

A high school student journalist may have delivered the best warning on that unthinkable fate during last Wednesday night’s News Emmy awards presentation. Santiago Campos correctly called out the situation (while accepting a scholarship named in Mike Wallace’s honor). It’s worth your time to read what he said — and the reaction he got. (Click here to link to Variety’s story.)

Also of note at this week’s end:

Our friend and chief chronicler of the moves of television news executives, the esteemed Rick Gevers, reports that former CBS News and Stations President Adrienne Roark has been defenestrated from her most recent gig as Senior VP and Chief Content Officer at TEGNA. Her departure comes just 15 months into the job and one full day after the appointment of new TEGNA CEO Pat Paolini to lead the Nexstar-owned but not operated subsidiary, as that whole legal mess plays itself out over the next months or years, as the case may be.

Later on Thursday, The Wrap reported on additional departures from TEGNA's C-suite. No word on a group of TV news execs that Roark quickly installed as regional VPs of Content, early in her brief tenure at TEGNA. We’d imagine those folks are now feeling about as much job security as the remaining staff at “60 Minutes” is heading into the summer months ahead.

Interestingly enough, Roark was replaced in the President’s office at CBS News by ABC veteran Tom Cibrowski. At least somebody in the Broadcast Center has some, you know, broadcasting experience. But his portfolio these days seems mostly about playing “I-gore” to Weiss’s “Dr. Frederick Franken-shteen” in the worst possible remake of one of our favorite comedy films.

Look, we get it. Change is the only constant in life. So we’ll close here by quoting the legendary sign-off of Linda Ellerbee from her days anchoring “NBC News Overnight” (1982-1983). It seems even more appropriate on this final Friday in May.

“And so it goes.”

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