What's happening at "60 Minutes" matters to anyone who cares about protecting free speech

There was a time when “60 Minutes” was all but required Sunday night viewing in American households. This was long ago, when viewing options were limited to what was airing on NBC, ABC and CBS until Fox came on the scene in 1986.

Even then, Sunday night viewing began with “60 Minutes,” followed by everything else.

That's still true for many people now. “60 Minutes” is the third most-watched TV show on broadcast, averaging a weekly viewership of 8.4 million, according to Nielsen’s season-to-date numbers shared by TV Line. That’s an impressive ranking in this massively fragmented media environment, and in a time of high distrust in mainstream news.

But it's content from topical comedy shows like “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” which alloys comedy to the type of long-form journalistic content “60 Minutes” pioneered, that circulates more widely on social media.

In a recent “60 Minutes” interview with correspondent Bill Whitaker, Oliver characterizes “Last Week Tonight” not as news, but as a “rigorously researched comedy show.” Still, Oliver’s work is as essential to his audience’s grasp on current events as “60 Minutes” is to journalism at large.

John Oliver performs onstage during 2023 Night of Too Many Stars benefiting NEXT for AUTISM at Beacon Theatre on December 11, 2023 in New York City. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Night of Too Many Stars)This makes the circumstances surrounding “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens’ resignation headline-worthy.

On Tuesday, The New York Times broke the story that Owens, who has spent 37 years with CBS News, 24 of them with “60 Minutes,” informed his staff that he would be stepping down. “Over the past months, it has . . . become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it. To make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience,” Owens wrote in a staff memo.

“I am stepping aside so the show can move forward," he added. "The show is too important to the country, it has to continue, just not with me as the Executive Producer.”

Owens is only the third executive producer to lead “60 Minutes” following Jeff Fager, who was ousted in 2018 following allegations of sexual misconduct, and its creator, Don Hewitt.

His departure comes after months of legal wrangling between Donald Trump and Paramount Global, CBS’ parent company. In October Trump sued CBS over a “60 Minutes” interview with his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, which was also conducted by Whitaker. The suit, filed before Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Texas, accuses CBS of "unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive and substantial news distortion."

In February, Trump’s lawyers amended the suit, as cited in Variety, adding a claim for “unfair competition” under the federal Lanham Act. In total, Trump is seeking $20 billion in damages.

For those who may have forgotten, “60 Minutes” features interviews with candidates topping each major party’s ticket, coinciding with every presidential election. Trump backed out of his appearance.

Paramount and CBS filed two motions to throw out the suit in March, one for lack of personal jurisdiction and the other on the grounds that consumer fraud laws do not apply to editorial speech, calling the suit an “affront to the First Amendment.”

Other legal experts have opined that Trump’s accusations would not hold up under scrutiny. Indeed, in early April, the corporations filed a motion to compel Trump to produce relevant documentary evidence, as required in discovery.

Meanwhile, in January, Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee and Project 2025 co-author, requested that CBS hand over the unedited tapes and a transcript of the Harris interview.

CBS News complied, explaining in the post containing the links, “In reporting the news, journalists regularly edit interviews for time, space or clarity. In making these edits, 60 Minutes is always guided by the truth and what we believe will be most informative to the viewing public — all while working within the constraints of broadcast television.”

That was not enough to appease Trump, who has repeatedly called for CBS’ license to be revoked. His latest eruption on Truth Social followed a “60 Minutes” interview with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which the Ukrainian president cites the “enormous influence of Russia's information policy on America, on U.S. politics, and U.S. politicians.”

"I believe, sadly, Russian narratives are prevailing in the U.S.,” Zelenskyy says in the April 13 episode after seeing a clip of Trump calling him a dictator. In response, Trump called for Carr to impose maximum fines and punishment “for their unlawful and illegal behavior” on his social media platform.

As for the specifics of what that “behavior” may be, Trump doesn’t specify. That’s probably because expressing an opinion is legal in the United States under the First Amendment. At the moment.

Nevertheless, Paramount is interested in settling with Trump. According to an earlier New York Times report, Paramount Global’s majority shareholder, Shari Redstone, wants the suit to go away so the company’s multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance Media can move forward and make the wealthy Redstone much wealthier. This requires the FCC’s approval, which has stalled before Carr.

Bill Owens (Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile for Collision via Getty Images). In March, Oliver Darcy reported in his Status newsletter that incoming Paramount Global president Jeff Shell communicated with Owens and CBS News president and CEO Wendy McMahon that they needed to get on board with a settlement deal. Both have been adamantly against it.

“[I]t goes without saying that any settlement in which a monetary sum is paid to Trump, and especially one in which a statement of wrongdoing is included, would amount to a public surrender and forever stain the treasured reputation of ‘60 Minutes,’” Darcy added.

And this makes the details of a recording of Owens’ emotional meeting with the “60 Minutes” team obtained by Darcy that much more alarming. “It’s clear that I’ve become the problem,” Owens is heard telling his colleagues. “I am the corporation’s problem.”

Oliver warned his audience that something like this might happen in a 2019 “Last Week Tonight” episode titled “SLAPP Suits.” He didn’t specifically refer to CBS News or any other legacy news organization in that segment. Instead, using his show’s headline-making legal headache as an example, Oliver illustrated why Trump’s penchant for weaponizing the legal system is dangerous to freedom of speech and expression.

We might have missed that larger point at the time, since Trump wasn’t the episode’s star. Oliver took on coal magnate Bob Murray, Trump's pal who sued “Last Week Tonight” and HBO in 2017, threatening to give the network “the fight of its existence.”

There's a reason Murray was so emboldened. “SLAPP Suits” cited Trump’s 2016 campaign rally promise to “open up our libel laws, so when they” – as in, news organizations – “write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.”

Trump has a long history of suing people solely to inflict financial and psychological pain. Such claims, Oliver explains, are characterized as strategic lawsuits against public participation, hence the SLAPP acronym.

“I spent a couple of bucks on legal fees, and they spent a whole lot more,” Trump once bragged in an interview about his 2006 libel claim against a journalist named Tim O’Brien. “I did it to make his life miserable, which I'm happy about.”

Murray gambled he’d enjoy a similar outcome by suing “Last Week Tonight” over its “objectionable” but accurate depiction of him in its 2017 “Coal” episode. But Murray eventually dropped his suit, and HBO prevailed. At the end of "SLAPP Suits," the host celebrates with a massive, Broadway-style victory dance that makes previous punchlines at Murray’s expense look cheap and small.

Clips from that episode appeared in Oliver’s recent “60 Minutes” profile, reminding us of how different times were just a few years ago.

“Last Week Tonight” remains respected and free to continue digging into deadly serious topics. Now it is “60 Minutes,” the newsmagazine that inspired Oliver’s brand of topical satire, that's in jeopardy.

This decisive moment in the legacy of “60 Minutes” follows Disney’s $15 million settlement with Trump, who sued ABC News and "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos. During a March 2024 interview with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., Stephanopoulos referred to a New York civil jury’s determination finding Trump liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll as "rape."

Trump claimed this defamed him, although the trial's presiding judge previously clarified in a memorandum that "as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape’ . . . the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that." Nevertheless, Disney chose to settle instead of going to trial, requiring the network and Stephanopoulos to apologize, which they did on ABC News' website.

Trump is also suing the Des Moines Register, its owner Gannett and pollster J. Ann Selzer for releasing a poll shortly before the Nov. 5 election showing Harris with a 3-percentage-point lead. Trump went on to carry Iowa by 13 points. Nevertheless, the claim accuses the paper and pollster of election interference and violating the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act. Lawyers for Selzer, the Register and Gannett called for the suit’s dismissal in February.

The First Amendment protections shielding journalists and satirists like Oliver have a shared origin in the 1964 Supreme Court decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. That ruling places the onus on the public figures to prove “actual malice" in their libel claims. In other words, they must show that the defendants knowingly published false information or acted with reckless disregard as to the accuracy of a claim.

The Supreme Court decision that made Oliver’s middle-finger musical possible is 1988’s Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, which affirms parody and satire as protected speech and sprang from the Sullivan decision. HBO knew these precedents made a ruling in their favor likely, just as it probably understood that settling with Murray would be a terrible look for the company and Oliver’s show. After all, as Oliver points out, SLAPP suits are designed to bully people into silence.

Since Murray died in 2020, there would be no way to know if HBO would have taken a different course had he sued “Last Week Tonight” while the show’s parent company, WarnerMedia, was negotiating the 2022 merger that created Warner Bros. Discovery.

One hopes not. Although Oliver reported that the suit cost more than $200,000 for HBO to defend and required the show to triple its libel insurance, that’s still less than the reported $15 million budget allotted for each “Game of Thrones” episode in 2019.

Other potential costs are too lasting and steep not to push back. A persuasive factor in Disney’s decision to settle with Trump, according to the Times’ reporting in December, was their lawyers’ concern that the case would land in the Supreme Court, where Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas have signaled an openness to overturning Sullivan.

If Sullivan falls, parody protections will be more vulnerable too.

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Trump’s lawsuit against ABC is different than his allegedly flimsier allegations against CBS. But as Times reporter David Enrich explains in an expansive March 3 feature, presenting a solid case affirming Sullivan's protections may not be enough to sway this court from shooting it down.

However, Redstone’s motivation to “bend the knee,” as CNN's Jake Tapper put it on Tuesday, appears to be less related to concerns over First Amendment protections than securing a payday estimated to be worth billions. The public stands to lose a whole lot more.

“This is not about one man or even about one show,” Tapper said on his broadcast. “It's about an attempt to be rid of criticism.” He then lists the latest insults against the Fourth Estate: The Pentagon reassigned offices previously held by NBC, CNN, Politico and the New York Times to the likes of Breitbart. The White House welcomed podcaster Tim Pool to a recent press conference. Pool is one of six far-right influencers implicated in a Department of Justice indictment to have been paid by Russia to spread Kremlin-friendly talking points. “I like this guy. See?” Trump gushed after Pool tossed him a propaganda softball consisting of lies about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the U.S. government erroneously deported to El Salvador. "This is the kind of reporter we like.”

As for Redstone, at a recent documentary premiere she declined to talk to The Wrap about the chaos she's causing at “60 Minutes,” but shared, “I don’t think there’s ever a time you have to compromise what it is that you say and do, but freedom of the press involves telling both sides of the story, giving the facts, not giving opinions.”

“And I think that’s our responsibility as a media company,” she concluded.

Where preserving the legacy of “60 Minutes” places in Redstone’s tiers of responsibility may be revealed in the tenor of upcoming coverage. The industry is right to be concerned about CBS News' parent company meddling in its coverage decisions.

For the time being, I’m eager to see whether Oliver has something to say about all this, regardless of whether he sets his take to harmonies and a kick line.

The "SLAPP Suits" episode of "Last Week Tonight with Oliver" is available on YouTube. New episodes air at 11 p.m. Sundays on HBO and stream on Max.