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A few months into its new era, ‘60 Minutes’ still feels like ‘60 Minutes’

On Sunday night’s “60 Minutes,” correspondent Cecilia Vega reported on U.S. farmers who fear losing their farms after China stopped buying soybeans in retaliation for the White House's reciprocal tariffs strategy.

The story reported that struggling American farmers feel betrayed and are outraged by President Donald Trump's $40 billion bailout to Argentina.

Vega reported that nearly 80% of voters in what are called farming-dependent counties voted for Trump in the last election. One farmer told Vega, “I feel like a lot of American farmers, cattle people, it's a lot, a lot of people probably feel let down currently now. Maybe there's a method to the madness, you know, that's still to be seen.”

OK, so that was one story on “60 Minutes.”

Here’s another that aired Sunday night: correspondent Bill Whitaker reported on Trump's battles with elite universities over accusations of liberal bias and antisemitism. He has threatened to cut their federal funding for research. If Trump were to follow through on more of those threats, it could jeopardize research into potentially life-saving advances in medicine and severely limit scientific progress.

Harvard scientist Don Ingber told Whitaker, “We are truly putting the brakes on scientific innovation in this country at a time when our ostensible adversary, China, is going faster and faster and faster.”

What’s notable is that both stories — two-thirds of the program — were completely fair and factual and, this is the important part, painted Trump in a negative light — or at least, questioned his decisions.

This is noteworthy considering recent events — those events being CBS News settling a lawsuit with Trump earlier this year, the sale of CBS’s parent company to David Ellison’s Skydance and Ellison’s hiring of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News.

At least for the moment, fears that CBS News would completely change its editorial stance and genuflect to Trump and the right need to be put on pause.

Again, let me repeat: just for the moment, and just on pause.

We do need to stop and point out that this was just one episode of “60 Minutes.” And who knows how long these stories have been in the works? However, CBS News and “60 Minutes” should be given credit for tackling important issues that draw attention to potential negative impacts of Trump’s policies and leadership.

This comes just a week after CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell interviewed Trump. While O’Donnell was criticized in some circles for not pushing back harder on some of Trump’s answers, I will stick with my original review that she gave a commendable performance and maintained journalistic integrity.

And speaking of that interview, “60 Minutes” followed up Sunday night with viewer responses to the Trump interview. Vega said the program received “hundreds of notes.”

Vega read responses from readers who claimed the interview was more like an “attack” on Trump and that O’Donnell should have shown more respect. Then Vega said, “Others claimed we were too deferential to the president.”

One viewer wrote, “There were no hard questions, no meaningful pushback.”

The feedback from readers again shows that when it comes to Trump, people hear what they want to hear.

As Vega said on air, “The country may be politically divided, but the criticism from viewers was bipartisan.”

Right now, there’s a ton of attention on CBS News. Last week, The Washington Post’s Laura Wagner and Scott Nover wrote, “Bari Weiss’s first month at CBS News unfolds in a newsroom culture clash.”

Wagner and Nover wrote, “One month into her tenure, staffers at the revered TV newsroom known for its pull-no-punches reporting are weathering a flurry of layoffs, shifting resources and a cultural collision with Weiss’s ideas of how to tackle the news. Some newsroom employees say Weiss’s sensibility has begun to shape editorial operations at the network.”

It’s true there is a lot more to CBS News than one Sunday night episode of “60 Minutes.” And it’s also likely that Weiss will have more and more impact as time goes on.

But at least for one Sunday night, “60 Minutes” still looked like “60 Minutes.”

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Not giving him a pass

The big news in Washington at the moment is a potential end to the government shutdown. A small group of Democratic senators broke ranks and sided with Republicans to reopen the government, which has been closed since Oct. 1.

There are still more hurdles to clear, such as a final vote in the Senate and a vote in the House. But Sunday night’s news that eight senators were going to side with the Republicans was huge.

The Associated Press’ Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro wrote, “After weeks of negotiations, the moderate Senate Democrats agreed to reopen the government without a guaranteed extension of health care subsidies, angering many in their caucus who have demanded that Republicans negotiate with them on the Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire Jan. 1. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., promised a mid-December vote on the subsidies, but there was no guarantee of success.”

And that’s what has other Democrats vehemently opposed.

One of the Democrats switching his vote is Virginia’s Tim Kaine, who you might remember was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016. Kaine tried to explain his decision on MSNBC and ended up getting into a bit of a squabble with MSNBC host Katy Tur. Kaine explained his desire is to ensure federal workers can get paid again, including back pay, and to help those who receive SNAP benefits.

But trouble started when Tur asked Kaine about the pushback he was getting from fellow Democrats. She said, “It seems like this is ripping the party apart at a time where it felt like the party was coming back together post-elections.”

Kaine then came back with, “Can I just say, ripping the party apart? I think you're overdramatizing this. I mean, I know the news business is to try to make everything like the biggest crisis since the Cuban missile crisis or something. There's differences of opinion. There's differences of opinion.”

Tur, rightfully so, was not going to let Kaine’s flippant remark pass. And she brought receipts.

She proceeded to quote Kaine’s fellow Democrats on what they thought of all this. California Gov. Gavin Newsom called it “pathetic.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called it “complete BS.” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has criticized it. Sen. Chris Murphy says this only makes Trump stronger.

Tur then told Kaine, “I mean, this is me quoting Democrats. I'm not making things up. It's reading what people are saying and recording it.”

Kaine feebly said, “I know it,” and then continued talking.

The interview didn’t turn nasty, but good for Tur for not allowing Kaine to downplay the disgruntlement in the Democratic Party. Not only did Kaine try to make it sound as if it was no big deal, but for him to blame the media for stirring the pot was not only delusional, but flat-out wrong.

And Kur wasn’t having it.

More pertinent coverage of the shutdown

• The Associated Press’ Stephen Groves with “These 8 Democrats voted with Republicans on the government shutdown deal. Here’s how they explain it.”
• The New York Times’ Reid J. Epstein has a great lead with, “It’s not great when your defiant kid says you are wrong. It’s a little bit worse when you are in the United States Senate and your defiant kid is running for Congress.” His story: “Democrats Are So Angry, One Senator Faces Blowback From Her Daughter.”
• The Washington Post’s Katie Tarrant with “The health care battle fueling the shutdown roils North Carolina politics.”
• The Los Angeles Times’ Michael Wilner, Ana Ceballos and Melody Gutierrez with “Schumer is pressured to step aside as Senate Democratic leader after shutdown vote.”
• Politico’s Lisa Kashinsky with “‘Complete betrayal’: 2026 Democrats slam shutdown deal.”

Trump threatens to sue the BBC

Well, you know this was coming.

One day after two top leaders at BBC News resigned over the editing of the Jan. 6 speech of President Donald Trump for a documentary, Trump is now threatening to sue the BBC for $1 billion.

A week before the 2024 election, the BBC aired a documentary called “Trump: A Second Chance?” It showed Trump’s speech on the day many of his supporters attacked the Capitol, but the speech was edited to show him saying, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol … and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”

There was about a 50-minute gap between the first half of that quote and the second half.

On Sunday, amid growing pressure, BBC director-general Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness announced they would leave the publicly funded national broadcaster.

Now, in a letter from one of his attorneys, Alejandro Brito, Trump is threatening to sue the BBC. Trump wants an apology, a retraction of the story and payments that “appropriately compensate” Trump for the harm caused.

It’s not clear what that harm is. The documentary was seen mostly by Brits, who obviously could not vote in a 2024 election that Trump won anyway. Then again, CBS News settled a lawsuit with Trump even though it likely would’ve prevailed in court over the editing it did with a preelection interview with Trump’s opponent, Kamala Harris.

While Trump and his administration have influence over the business dealings of CBS and its parent company, he has no such influence over the BBC’s business.

Still, the threatening letter, obtained by The New York Times, said if his demands were not met, “President Trump will be left with no alternative but to enforce his legal and equitable rights, all of which are expressly reserved and are not waived, including by filing legal action for no less than $1,000,000,000 (One Billion Dollars) in damages.”

The letter also said, “The BBC is on notice,” and ended with “PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.”

On its website, the BBC wrote, “The BBC has confirmed it has received the letter and will respond in due course.”

Oh, speaking of the BBC, here’s The Guardian’s Mark Sweney with “Who could replace Tim Davie as BBC director general?”

Booooooo

I mentioned in Monday’s newsletter that Trump attended Sunday’s NFL game between the Washington Commanders and Detroit Lions, becoming the first sitting president to attend a regular-season NFL game since Jimmy Carter in 1978. Trump also spent a few minutes in Fox Sports’ broadcast booth.

What I didn’t mention, as many Poynter Report readers reminded me, was that Trump was booed. Some reports said he was “booed heavily,” while others say the reaction was “mixed,” with some booing and some cheering.

The White House pool report technically was correct when it said that the reaction to Trump’s appearance was a “near-deafening roar.”

Media tidbits

• The Washington Post has named a new food critic. It’s Elazar Sontag, who has spent the past three-and-a-half years as the restaurant editor at Bon Appétit. What’s notable is he won’t be anonymous, as many food critics traditionally have been (although that has been changing more recently). In his introductory column, Sontag writes, “Forgoing anonymity gives me the freedom to speak openly with restaurant staff and other diners, to hear these stories and share them with you. The best part of forgoing disguises is that I can talk to you directly. So much of this job revolves around getting to know your taste, and you getting to know mine.”
• Scott Hechinger — a civil rights attorney and the executive director of Zealous, a national coalition supporting local initiatives to harness media and storytelling for justice  — writes for The Nation: “The Shuttering of Teen Vogue and the Silencing of Progressive Voices.”
• For Columbia Journalism Review, Riddhi Setty with “Has the Media Reached the End of Its DEI Era?”
• Variety’s Brian Steinberg with “CNN’s News, Brought to You by T-Mobile in Aggressive Ad Deal.”
• Nieman Lab’s Laura Hazard Owen with “The cute yellow Old Farmer’s Almanac isn’t the one shutting down.”
• For The Atlantic, Erik Adams with “Pay Attention to the First 10 Minutes of ‘SNL.’”
• Media feud! Media feud! Awful Announcing’s Brandon Contes with “Stephen A. Smith appears to respond to Michelle Beadle: ‘That’s how desperate they’ve become.’”

Hot type

• My goodness, it sounds like the Kennedy Center is a real gong show since Trump named himself chairman and put a bunch of his cronies in charge. Check out The New York Times’ Shawn McCreesh with “The Kennedy Center Crackup.”
• Last week, The Washington Post’s Amber Phillips ranked the top Democratic presidential candidates for 2028. This week, she follows up with “Ranking the 2028 Republican presidential contenders.”
• Vanity Fair’s Jane Borden with “Actor, Villain, Victim: In ‘Allison After NXIVM,’ Allison Mack Finally Tells Her Story.”
• My favorite story of the day: The Associated Press’ Thomas Adamson with “Fedora man unmasked: Meet the teen behind the Louvre mystery photo.”

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

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