{"id":27182,"date":"2026-08-04T10:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T05:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27182"},"modified":"2026-08-04T10:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T05:42:20","slug":"60-minutes-exec-producer-scolds-about-leaks-in-stern-memo-which-gets-leaked-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27182","title":{"rendered":"60 Minutes Exec Producer Scolds About Leaks in \u2018Stern\u2019 Memo \u2014 Which Gets Leaked: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5747958\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5747958\" class=\"wp-image-5747958 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/08\/556879738-1157741486221233-1005850074310314261-n-e1785813790633-1200x641.jpg\" alt=\"60 Minutes\" width=\"1200\" height=\"641\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5747958\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot via 60 Minutes on Facebook.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Nick Bilton<\/strong>, the executive producer of<em> 60 Minutes<\/em> who took the reins of CBS News&#8217; television newsmagazine in May, sent a &#8220;stern&#8221; memo to his entire staff, scolding them about &#8220;the steady stream of leaks&#8221; to the press, reported <strong>Oliver Darcy<\/strong> at Status &#8212; after the memo was itself leaked to him.<\/p>\n<p>Bilton&#8217;s tenure <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/read-new-60-minutes-showrunners-opening-message-to-staff\/\">kicked off<\/a> during a remarkably tumultuous period for <em>60 Minutes<\/em>, as <strong>Bari Weiss<\/strong>, the editor-in-chief handpicked by Paramount Skydance CEO <strong>David Ellison<\/strong>, faced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/paramount-considering-yanking-some-control-from-bari-weiss-to-give-to-more-experienced-executive-report\/\">intense criticism<\/a> for her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/60-minutes-social-media-posts-get-ratioed-into-oblivion-over-bari-weiss-pulling-segment\/\">meddling<\/a> in stories, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/just-in-major-shakeup-brewing-at-60-minutes-as-bari-weiss-fires-ep-tanya-simon\/\">staff shakeups<\/a>, the departure of longtime on-air personalities like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/bari-weiss-was-furious-and-blindsided-by-anderson-coopers-60-minutes-swan-song-report\/\"><strong>Anderson Cooper<\/strong><\/a>, and other issues.<\/p>\n<p>Right out of the gate, Bilton <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/scott-pelley-absolutely-hammers-new-60-minutes-ep-to-his-face-new-reports-reveal-youll-never-be-welcomed-here\/\">clashed<\/a> with veteran anchor <strong>Scott Pelley <\/strong>during a &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/they-dont-understand-new-details-emerge-from-stunning-closed-door-60-minutes-skirmish\/\">highly contentious<\/a>&#8221; staff meeting. Pelley was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/scott-pelley-speaks-out-after-60-minutes-firing\/\">fired<\/a> soon thereafter, and Bilton sent out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/hell-of-a-first-week-new-60-minutes-ep-commits-to-journalistic-independence-in-staff-email-meant-to-calm-the-waters\/\">an all-staff email<\/a> that pledged to honor <em>60 Minutes&#8217;<\/em> &#8220;journalistic independence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been a hell of a first week,&#8221; Bilton quipped at the end of that email, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/hell-of-a-first-week-new-60-minutes-ep-commits-to-journalistic-independence-in-staff-email-meant-to-calm-the-waters\/\">leaked<\/a> to the media.<\/p>\n<p>Monday evening, Darcy&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.status.news\/p\/60-minutes-nick-bilton-leaks-cbs-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">latest issue<\/a> of his Status newsletter noted that Bilton is still plagued by leaks, reporting that the exec had &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The memo, reported Darcy, was 734 words to his whole staff, starting by thanking them for their recent work but then going into &#8221; a few housekeeping notes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Some of these were minor. Bilton announced he had switched to a smaller office to allow the old executive producer&#8217;s digs to be converted to a conference room, replaced a dry-erase story board with a digital one, plus some new hires.<\/p>\n<p>After that, Darcy wrote, &#8220;Bilton arrived at a much more sensitive subject: the steady stream of leaks about &#8217;60 Minutes.&#8217;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bilton&#8217;s memo &#8220;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\u2014and while he didn&#8217;t mention this publication in particular, one imagines he isn&#8217;t especially thrilled when we end up informing his own staff about developments regarding their own program,&#8221; Darcy noted his own role in the saga.<\/p>\n<p>Darcy&#8217;s reporting did not mention any explicit threat to fire leakers, but Bilton implied consequences by declaring the end of his &#8220;patience&#8221; with leaks:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Since I started here there has been roughly a rumor a day,&#8221; Bilton wrote. &#8220;About me, about you, about what&#8217;s coming next\u201495 percent of them are fabrications and blatantly incorrect.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bilton continued, effectively putting his staffers on notice: &#8220;I no longer have the time or the patience for them, and I&#8217;d rather we spend that energy on the stories.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you hear something and it matters to you, come ask me and I&#8217;ll tell you what I know,&#8221; Bilton added. \u201cOtherwise I&#8217;d like this place to be talked about for what we put on television.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Bilton&#8217;s claim that &#8220;95 percent&#8221; of the leaks were lies or &#8220;blatantly incorrect&#8221; was questioned by Darcy, who wrote &#8220;the vast majority of reporting about &#8217;60 Minutes&#8217; appears to have been accurate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>These kind of leaks, Darcy argued &#8220;are often a symptom of deeper dysfunction inside an organization,&#8221; and are &#8220;rarely solve through stern notes,&#8221; as employees who are disclosing internal company information to the press do so &#8220;when they believe leadership is not receptive to their concerns, is veering from an institution&#8217;s longstanding values, or is failing to communicate transparently about where the organization is headed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As any good reporter knows, memos complaining about leaks almost always end up leaking themselves\u2014as this one naturally has to us,&#8221; he observed.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/tv\/60-minutes-exec-producer-scolds-about-leaks-in-stern-memo-which-gets-leaked-report\/\">60 Minutes Exec Producer Scolds About Leaks in \u2018Stern\u2019 Memo \u2014 Which Gets Leaked: Report<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\">Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Screenshot via 60 Minutes on Facebook. Nick Bilton, the executive producer of 60 Minutes who took the reins of CBS News&#8217; television newsmagazine in May, sent a &#8220;stern&#8221; memo to his entire staff, scolding them about &#8220;the steady stream of leaks&#8221; to the press, reported Oliver Darcy at Status &#8212; after the memo was itself&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/08\/556879738-1157741486221233-1005850074310314261-n-e1785813790633-1200x641.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}