“Everything she’s touched has turned to s---. Everything she’s touched has gone colossally wrong,” one said.

Former *60 Minutes *staffers lash out, slam Bari Weiss’ changes: ‘Facelift with a f---ing machete’

"Everything she's touched has turned to s---. Everything she's touched has gone colossally wrong," one said.

Joey Nolfi

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul’s Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

EW's editorial guidelines

June 11, 2026 3:08 p.m. ET

Bari Weiss for CBS News. Credit:

Michele Crowe/CBS

- Bari Weiss' reign over *60 Minutes* has incensed former staffers.

- Several spoke out against her in a new series of interviews.

- The controversy stemmed over reported editorial changes and firings in recent months.

CBS News head Bari Weiss' alleged actions while overseeing the famed newsmagazine program *60 Minutes* have continued to make headlines of their own.

After months of controversial reports about Weiss' direction over the legendary show — and a series of high-profile firings of longtime professionals involved with the program — several former staffers have lashed out at the* Free Press *founder whose lack of broadcast journalism and sustained investigative reporting experience previously drew ire from critics when it was announced that she'd take over the storied news organization.

“We have to acknowledge that *60 Minutes *needed a bit of a facelift, and there were potentially positive ways to improve the program, but it’s the way they have gone about it," an anonymous ex-*60 Minutes *staffer told *Variety* in a new piece highlighting the controversy surrounding CBS News. "You don’t give a facelift with a f---ing machete."

The remark came amid the head-scratching dismissal of *60 Minutes* reporter Scott Pelley, which came on June 1, days after Weiss fired correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, executive producer Tanya Simon, and executive editor Draggan Mihailovich in May. Alfonsi accused Weiss of making politically motivated decisions about the program, with Vega alleging that she witnessed an attempt by senior leadership to "insert political bias into our stories" on *60 Minutes*, which debuted in 1968 from Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard.

Joe Pugliese/CBS

Following the exodus, Rome Hartman, a former producer who worked with the show for 25 years, told the publication he was stunned by Weiss' alleged actions.

"I know the place inside and out, and I care about it deeply,” he said. “This last week has been, for me, like watching an arsonist burn down my professional home and not really having the means to do anything about it."

Betsy West, who served as a senior vice president with CBS News from 1998 to 2005, said in a separate conversation with *Variety* that she was concerned about internal shifts after seeing so many "respected *60 minutes* journalists saying that Bari or her lieutenants have tried to insert misstatements" into their reporting.

“She pulled a factual and legally vetted story about the conditions in Venezuela prisons just because the administration wouldn’t give a comment, essentially giving them veto power by not talking," West observed, referencing an allegation that, in December, Weiss spiked a story about the reported abuse of deported Venezuelan migrants inside an El Salvador prison because, per former employees, members of the Donald Trump administration wouldn't comment.

'The View' shocker: JD Vance to appear on talk show amid FCC drama, White House criticism

Scott Pelley gets emotional in first interview since '60 Minutes' firing: 'It's like your spouse being murdered'

Added West, "It feels like she and the people she reports to are trying to check the independence of *60 Minutes* and ultimately undermine the free press that undergirds our democracy."**

Weiss' appointment to her current post was one of many controversies that stemmed from a reported $8 billion merger deal between David Ellison's Skydance Media and CBS parent company Paramount, which required approval from the Federal Communications Commission — headed by vocal Trump supporter Brendan Carr.

After *60 Minutes* lightly edited an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election cycle, Carr and members of the Trump administration probed the program over the interview, which also reportedly drew the ire of Trump directly.

Anderson Cooper on '60 Minutes'.

Since, CBS has courted further controversy over its handling of longtime Trump critic Stephen Colbert's *The Late Show* talk series*, *which was canceled after three decades on the air (Colbert hosted beginning in 2015) over what many believed was an attempt to sweeten the pending merger deal in the eyes of FCC officials. (The network maintained that it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.")****

After Ellison acquired Weiss' *Free Press* and absorbed it into CBS News (and appointed her to her current position), Weiss brought on tech reporter Nick Bilton to lead *60 Minutes* in Simon's place. Pelley's aforementioned firing reportedly stemmed from a clash between the pair over the direction of the series, with former employees praising Pelley's behavior in the meeting and pointing to Weiss and Bilton's reaction as an indicator of alleged ulterior motives.

“Scott wasn’t shouting at him or physically intimidating the guy — he was doing exactly what he should’ve done in the best tradition of the best *60 Minutes* correspondents,” Hartman told *Variety*. “And if Nick Bilton is such a snowflake that he can’t possibly tolerate a voice of challenge — and if Bari Weiss has to hide behind his skirts — that does not speak well of how he’s going to run the place or how she’s going to run the place.”

Donald Trump and Lesley Stahl on '60 Minutes' in 2016.

Steve Kroft, a 30-year on-camera correspondent for *60 Minutes* who left the show in 2019, said he doesn't have faith that Weiss will stick around — including as speculation rises that she could exert the same kind of control over CNN's editorial direction if Paramount-Skydance goes through with acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our ******EW Dispatch newsletter*****.**

"I have a feeling that Bari will not be overseeing *60 Minutes* for very much longer. I think once the deal gets done with Warner Bros., people will demand that she be let go or move into another position,” he admitted. “Everything she’s touched has turned to s---. Everything she’s touched has gone colossally wrong. And I don’t think she’s showed any talent for this position. She’s only fulfilling other people’s agendas."

** has reached out to representatives for CBS,* 60 Minutes*, and Weiss for comment.

- Celebrities & Creators

- Celebrity Feuds & Controversies

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Celebrity”