Trump wins again: '60 Minutes' executive producer resigns due to lack of journalistic independence

Barcelona60 minutes (60 minutes, in Catalan) is a classic American television program, broadcast weekly on CBS since 1968. Each episode features three current affairs reports, and throughout its history the program has revealed historic news such as the torture carried out by American troops in the Iraqi prison of Abu Ghraib. Bill Owens, the third executive producer since the program's inception, announced this week that he has stepped down due to a lack of journalistic independence. The executive claimed that he cannot exercise editorial freedom within a political environment that, according to the former producer, influences decision-making regarding the content that reaches the audience.

Owens' departure comes at a time of maximum tension between CBS and Donald Trump, who filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the network over an interview with Kamala Harris in which some of the candidate's answers were edited, allegedly for not making her doubts on the Israeli issue evident. The lawsuit is currently still pending in court. The US president has demanded $10 billion for how CBS doctored the interview. New York Times, the first newspaper to report the former producer's departure, explained that network executives are considering reaching an agreement with Trump to settle the lawsuit without having to go to trial, but Owens and other journalists are against it.

Owens had previously made public his dissatisfaction with the additional layers of oversight CBS executives had implemented over the show in the wake of the incident. "For years the corporation didn't know what would come out. They trusted the 60 minutes "to report stories and schedule broadcasts as the program sees fit," he said, adding that any changes put the program on a "really dangerous slope." "It has become clear over the last few months that I will not be allowed to run the program as I always have, making independent decisions based on what is in the best interest of the program." 60 minutesand its audience," Owens said. The former CEO had also called for no one to resign in protest of the changes, saying, "I think it's time for the corporation to take a critical look at itself and its relationship with us."

The case marks another victory for Trump against MSNBC as the "political arm" of the Democratic Party. The president also signed an order to eliminate USAGM, the parent company of Voice of America, and members of the White House press corps are selected by officials in his administration.