CBS’ ‘60 Minutes’ ‘Dealing With Tension’ Between Veteran Staffers and New Hires: ‘It’s a Takeover’

CBS’ 60 Minutes has been facing ongoing changes since Bari Weiss was installed as editor-in-chief of CBS News in October, and she named Nick Bilton executive producer of the program in May.

Now, there is a divide between staff, according to the Thursday, July 30 edition of Rob Shuter‘s Naughty But Nice Substack.

“It’s old school versus new school, and they barely acknowledge each other anymore,” one source explained. “Every editorial meeting feels like a fight over what 60 Minutes should be. The tension is thick enough to cut with a knife.”

A second source told Shuter that the younger journalists “think the legacy team is stuck in another era.”

“Behind closed doors, some have even started calling [journalist] Lesley Stahl ‘Grandma,'” the source claimed. “It’s incredibly disrespectful, but it shows just how deep the generational divide has become.”

However, the veteran staffers think the newcomers are not understanding that 60 Minutes became so respected because of how they have operated.

“The old guard believes they’re protecting the soul of the show,” a third source said. “The new crowd thinks they’re tearing down a museum and building something audiences will actually watch.”

Meanwhile, a fourth insider predicted that “The new guard was hired to take control,” noting, “This isn’t a transition — it’s a takeover. The people trying to preserve the past are running out of allies.”

As Globe has previously reported, longtime 60 Minutes host Scott Pelley was fired in June after a clash with Bilton, following a wave of firings.

In a social media statement, Pelley, 68, alleged, “the new owner of our network” is forgoing the show’s incredible legacy “to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.”

“Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly fired without cause,” Pelley wrote in his post. “Good people were silenced because they stood up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.”

Anderson Cooper also exited the show in May. He shared the news in February, telling People he wanted to spend more time with his kids.