Screenshot via 60 Minutes on Facebook.
Nick Bilton, the executive producer of 60 Minutes who took the reins of CBS News’ television newsmagazine in May, sent a “stern” memo to his entire staff, scolding them about “the steady stream of leaks” to the press, reported Oliver Darcy at Status — after the memo was itself leaked to him.
Bilton’s tenure kicked off during a remarkably tumultuous period for 60 Minutes, as Bari Weiss, the editor-in-chief handpicked by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, faced intense criticism for her meddling in stories, staff shakeups, the departure of longtime on-air personalities like Anderson Cooper, and other issues.
Right out of the gate, Bilton clashed with veteran anchor Scott Pelley during a “highly contentious” staff meeting. Pelley was fired soon thereafter, and Bilton sent out an all-staff email that pledged to honor 60 Minutes’ “journalistic independence.”
“It’s been a hell of a first week,” Bilton quipped at the end of that email, which was leaked to the media.
Monday evening, Darcy’s latest issue of his Status newsletter noted that Bilton is still plagued by leaks, reporting that the exec had “welcomed staff back from their July vacations with a weekend memo in which he delivered a stern message about leaks, a missive that naturally leaked to Status.”
The memo, reported Darcy, was 734 words to his whole staff, starting by thanking them for their recent work but then going into ” a few housekeeping notes.”
Some of these were minor. Bilton announced he had switched to a smaller office to allow the old executive producer’s digs to be converted to a conference room, replaced a dry-erase story board with a digital one, plus some new hires.
After that, Darcy wrote, “Bilton arrived at a much more sensitive subject: the steady stream of leaks about ’60 Minutes.’”
Bilton’s memo “made clear he is frustrated by the unrelenting speculation regarding the show, along with the torrent of unauthorized information making its way into the press—and while he didn’t mention this publication in particular, one imagines he isn’t especially thrilled when we end up informing his own staff about developments regarding their own program,” Darcy noted his own role in the saga.
Darcy’s reporting did not mention any explicit threat to fire leakers, but Bilton implied consequences by declaring the end of his “patience” with leaks:
“Since I started here there has been roughly a rumor a day,” Bilton wrote. “About me, about you, about what’s coming next—95 percent of them are fabrications and blatantly incorrect.”
Bilton continued, effectively putting his staffers on notice: “I no longer have the time or the patience for them, and I’d rather we spend that energy on the stories.”
“If you hear something and it matters to you, come ask me and I’ll tell you what I know,” Bilton added. “Otherwise I’d like this place to be talked about for what we put on television.”
Bilton’s claim that “95 percent” of the leaks were lies or “blatantly incorrect” was questioned by Darcy, who wrote “the vast majority of reporting about ’60 Minutes’ appears to have been accurate.”
These kind of leaks, Darcy argued “are often a symptom of deeper dysfunction inside an organization,” and are “rarely solve through stern notes,” as employees who are disclosing internal company information to the press do so “when they believe leadership is not receptive to their concerns, is veering from an institution’s longstanding values, or is failing to communicate transparently about where the organization is headed.”
“As any good reporter knows, memos complaining about leaks almost always end up leaking themselves—as this one naturally has to us,” he observed.
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