Good morning, everyone. Tom Jones is off today, but the team at Poynter is keeping tabs on the latest media news and analysis. Here’s what you need to know.

For CBS News, Wendy McMahon’s resignation marks more than just a leadership change

Today’s newsletter opens with two sharp looks at a leadership shakeup at CBS — and the political and business pressures that may have pushed it. Stick around for a fascinating conversation with the creator of ‘Hyphenación,’ a new podcast from San Francisco’s KQED that features conversations with “hyphenated Latinos” about the personal choices that shape their lives.

Let’s get right to it.

CBS News top exec resigns amid $20 billion lawsuit from Trump

By Angela Fu, media business reporter

CBS News top executive Wendy McMahon announced she would resign Monday as the network and its parent company Paramount fend off scrutiny from President Donald Trump and his administration.

McMahon, the president and CEO of CBS News and Stations as well as CBS Media Ventures, told staff in a memo that the past few months have been “challenging.”

“It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” McMahon wrote. “It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.”

McMahon’s resignation comes as CBS faces a $20 billion lawsuit from Trump over its editing of a “60 Minutes” interview last October with then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Trump has alleged that the editing was an attempt to sway voters towards the Democratic Party and amounted to “news distortion.” Separately, the Federal Communications Commission under Trump has opened an investigation into CBS over the same interview and alleged bias.

Though many legal experts have called the lawsuit meritless, Paramount is considering settling. The company is currently waiting for the FCC to approve its merger with Skydance Media, and it has already ended several initiatives surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion to conform with Trump administration policy.

McMahon has been vocal in her defense of “60 Minutes.” Last month, when longtime former executive producer Bill Owens left the show, alleging that he had lost the ability to run it the way he saw fit amid “corporate conflicts and legal threats” from Trump, he said that McMahon had “always had (the show’s) back.”

McMahon told staff at the time, “Standing behind what (Owens) stood for was an easy decision for me, and I never took for granted that he did the same for me.”

A memo to staff from Paramount co-CEO and CBS president and CEO George Cheeks did not announce a direct replacement for McMahon, who will stay on for a few weeks “to support the transition,” according to Deadline. McMahon has held her role since 2021 and told staff it has been “one of the most meaningful chapters” in her career.

“Championing and supporting the journalism produced by the most amazing stations and bureaus in the world, celebrating the successes of our shows and our brands, elevating our stories and our people. … It has been a privilege and joy,” McMahon wrote.

Here is the full memo that McMahon sent to staff:

Hi everyone,

Today, I am stepping down from my position as president and CEO of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures.

This has been one of the most meaningful chapters in my career. Leading this extraordinary organization has been the honor of a lifetime because I got to work alongside all of you. Your commitment to truth, fairness and the highest standards is unassailable.

Championing and supporting the journalism produced by the most amazing stations and bureaus in the world, celebrating the successes of our shows and our brands, elevating our stories and our people … It has been a privilege and joy.

At the same time, the past few months have been challenging. It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward. It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.

I have spent the last few months shoring up our businesses and making sure the right leaders are in place; and I have no doubt they will continue to set the standard.

You are in incredibly good hands with Tom, Jennifer, John, Matt and Robert. They are phenomenal leaders and people who will continue to protect and celebrate your work. I am sure of it.

To George: Thank you for this opportunity.

To our viewers: Thank you for your trust. You hold us accountable, and you remind us why this work matters.

To the CBS News and Stations and CMV teams: Thank you for your passion, your professionalism and your partnership. It has been a privilege to walk this path with you.

Wendy

Trump’s vendetta against CBS News has precedents that date back to Nixon

By Rick Edmonds, media business analyst

Wendy McMahon’s resignation Monday as president and CEO of CBS News probably means just what it seems to. She didn’t get support from her boss, Shari Redstone, owner of the network’s parent company, as President Donald Trump pursues an unlikely lawsuit against “60 Minutes.”

But I’d like to round up some context and a couple of precedents.

• The New York Times reports that McMahon’s resignation was forced. She was on shaky grounds, the Times suggests, for other problems — notably a so-far unsuccessful change of formats and anchors for the “CBS Evening News.” Maybe the disagreement on contesting the lawsuit was more a last straw than the sole cause?
• Is the news division a sacrificial lamb? Television is the largest division of Paramount Global — 7.5 times as big as filmed entertainment, according to the company’s most recent quarterly financial report. News revenue is not broken out, but estimates I found put it at a modest share of the TV total at the entertainment-dominated company. The stakes of the merger with Skydance Media that Redstone hopes to bring off if federal regulators approve would be a bigger priority monetarily, and money talks in the boardroom.
• The “60 Minutes” libel suit is the latest of three Trump has filed against the big three networks. He got ABC to settle for a $15 million donation to his presidential library foundation late last year. ABC had made a one-word error, but it was a big one, saying inaccurately that a civil judgment against him in the E. Jean Carroll case found that she was “raped.” In April 2020, he sued a Wisconsin affiliate of NBC for running an ad (with edited audio) claiming that his administration had called COVID-19 a hoax. That was ultimately dropped. The “60 Minutes” suit, alleging that routine editing of an interview with Kamala Harris was in fact malicious, seems far-fetched. But leaving it pending unsettled is not frivolous to the prospects of Skydance’s merger approval.
• Trump’s “Art of the Deal” uses lawsuits as a bludgeon for extortionate demands — in his long business career and now in his shorter governing one. God may be on your side — but can you afford ancillary damage and huge legal fees? And lotsa luck getting Trump’s side to pay your lawyers if courts toss the action, especially while he is sitting president.
• Those with very long memories may recall a parallel from Richard Nixon’s administration. Peeved by The Washington Post’s publication of the Pentagon Papers and much more peeved after its Watergate reporting, Nixon tried to lash back by taking away the license of its parent company’s Jacksonville, Florida, TV station. Groups of his friends formed to contest what would otherwise have been a routine renewal.
• There’s a second parallel to the current locking of horns. The Washington Post Co., like Paramount, was publicly traded but family-controlled by the Graham family. Local TV operated at even higher profit margins than newspapers, so losing the station would have been no small business hit. CEO Katherine Graham did not waver in support of her journalists. The Nixon offensive became moot when he resigned as president in August 1974. The Jacksonville license was renewed in 1975.

Still to be determined is whether Redstone follows Graham’s lead and puts editorial integrity first. Right now, the prospects are not looking good.

A MESSAGE FROM POYNTER

Q&A: Xorje Olivares talks ‘conversation and cultura’ in new KQED podcast, ‘Hyphenación’

By Amaris Castillo, staff writer

My ears perked up when I first heard the term “hyphenación.” At first, it sounded like a mish-mash, but my brain quickly put together that it’s a blend of two words — “hyphen” and “nación,” Spanish for nation.

“Hyphenación” is the name of a new video podcast series from San Francisco’s KQED. Host Xorje Olivares, a self-proclaimed border kid from South Texas, admits it’s a made-up word.

“I knew that I wanted something that felt true to my identity,” Olivares told me. “It’s very Spanglish.”

That identity — and others like it — is what the series, which premiered last month, is all about. Olivares hosts conversations with what he calls “hyphenated Latinos” about the personal choices that shape their lives: family, careers and everything in between.

I wanted to learn more about KQED’s new podcast, so I called up Olivares last week. Check out our Q&A below (edited for clarity and brevity).

Amaris Castillo: Can you describe the genesis of the “Hyphenación” podcast?

Xorje Olivares: I grew up on the border and my entire family is there, so I feel like everything I’ve done is very Latino-coded. That’s why I feel so at home in the Bay Area, because there’s so many Latinos there. So I was excited to do something that’s maybe Latino-forward.

That also aligned with where KQED was going; they wanted to create some new things that were geared towards the Latino community, because there is such a high proportion of Latinos living here. Some research said that Latinos were excited about features content, soft news content, and that they were most likely going to be found on YouTube. They much preferred using YouTube and streaming. So we took all of this feedback and this research information and we said, “How can we make a show out of this?”

We piloted this show for several months. We wanted to get it right. If I was a listener of this show, I wanted to know that it was done with a lot of love and care. And we definitely put a lot of love and care into it. And then as we kept going, we realized what resonates the most with folks — internally and externally — was when we talked about real-life stuff. Talking about creating boundaries with your family. What is it like when you’re dating somebody, and that impacts your friendships? These big life questions that I thought I should have the answers to as an older millennial. I don’t. And it turns out a lot of people don’t have the answers.

Castillo: Your show plays into the idea that U.S. Latinos live in a hyphenated space. What does that space look like for you?

Olivares: My hometown is, no joke, 99% Mexican. Everybody looks like me. Everybody’s last name is Gonzalez, Rodriguez, Gomez, Sanchez. That is all I knew. But at the same time, I am a predominantly English speaker. Yes, I understand Spanish and I speak Spanish somewhat comfortably with the people that I’m close with, but a lot of my navigation in the world is in English. I also have a very Latino name; it’s spelled with an X. Every which way I turn, there’s like an American side to me and a Mexican side to me. They go hand in hand.

That led to what we were thinking about with the name of the show, because I knew that I wanted something that felt true to my identity. It’s very Spanglish. I say my first language is Spanglish more so than English, because it was just everywhere that I turned. So we created a show where there are some episodes where there’s more Spanglish than not, but if you wanted to speak Spanglish, you could speak Spanglish.

We created an identity for this show that’s built in this duality, where it’s neither English or Spanish. It’s this beautiful blend of both because I feel like that’s kind of where we all stand. We ride that line. We ride that hyphen between one or another. We’re introducing folks to a new type of identification.

Castillo: I would love to have listened in on your first brainstorming session on which topics to cover. What was that like?

Olivares: We tried to be smart about it. Even though we’d been planning this show for months — probably at this point at least a year-and-a-half — we had no idea what kind of world we were going to be living in. Once we realized that we were going to be in production, we saw that we were going to be a new show during the second Trump administration. We took that responsibility to heart. We knew that there were members of our community that might have felt a particular way about where the political world was going and where society was going in terms of conversations about Latinos.

We felt like, if we’re going to create a space for Latinos, let’s do what felt authentic. We have a conversation about citizenship, which might feel a little on the nose for some people, but it’s a conversation that’s being had right now by our community. With the different immigration policies that are being proposed by the administration, we felt like we had to talk about it. And so we tried to think about some things that felt right in the moment.

Castillo: What do you hope listeners take away from your podcast?

Olivares: We don’t have to be relegated to a Latinx vertical on a website where we’re not seen as being worthy of front-page coverage. We’re talking about stuff that anybody could find relatable. Recently, my Vietnamese-American friend texted me about the caretaking episode, and then I had another friend who is not Latino-identified who messaged me about the monogamy episode. There’s some aspect of this that is universal, which is what I love about the show.

We are only featuring hyphenated Latino voices on this show. I don’t know where else that exists — where you could have three people talking about stuff that isn’t necessarily gossip-coded.

One of the taglines of our show is “Where conversation and cultura meet,” because I feel like that’s very much what’s taking place. It’s about having easy conversations about hard things. I think so long as we allow somebody to leave the episode like, “Huh, I never thought of it that way,” or “Ooh, I’d love to talk about this with my friends” — that is when we realize it’s a success.

Media tidbits and links

• TheWrap’s Brian Lowry writes, “For CBS and ’60 Minutes,’ It’s a Slow-Motion Saturday Night Massacre.”
• Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton with “Free speech groups write an open letter to American institutions to battle Trump’s ‘multi-front assault.’”
• MediaWise director and Poynter faculty member Alex Mahadevan writes about how fact-checking experts Alexios Mantzarlis and Craig Silverman have launched a new news site. Indicator aims to demystify this moment of great disinformation and help readers investigate the things they see online themselves.
• The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin with “Former ‘Jeopardy!’ Exec Mike Richards to Join Ben Shapiro at The Daily Wire as President.” 
• Semafor’s Reed Albergotti writes, “Microsoft helped kick off the AI boom. It needs humans more than ever, its CEO says.”
• Politico’s Jessica Piper and Holly Otterbein probe an interesting question in media and politics: “Why has Elon Musk disappeared from the spotlight?”
• Sunday night’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” took on a topic that readers of this newsletter might be interested in: President Donald Trump’s relationship with the press. Watch the (lengthy) segment here.

More resources for journalists

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].

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