CBS News Lost Its Way Under Wendy McMahon

Paramount Global pushed Wendy McMahon out as president of CBS News on Monday, several people with direct knowledge told the New York Times.

Tensions between McMahon and Paramount revolve, in part, around the network's coverage of Donald Trump, with whom Paramount is in talks to settle a $20 billion lawsuit after seemingly deceptively editing an interview last year with his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.

"Many legal experts have called the suit baseless, but Paramount’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, has said she favors settling the case," the Times reports. "She is seeking the Trump administration’s approval for a multibillion-dollar sale of her company to a Hollywood studio, Skydance."

McMahon was also reportedly a supporter of Bill Owens, who resigned last month as executive producer of "60 Minutes." Owens claimed he could no longer run the show as he chose, due to ongoing interference from Paramount.

But as outlets like the New York Times frame Paramount as siding with Trump and against journalistic independence, CBS's parent company has good reason to want a chance at the top of its news division. 

Once a respected news agency, CBS News' editorial direction was under constant scrutiny during McMahon's tenure.

In addition to the controversially edited interview with Harris, Redstone openly criticized McMahon’s handling of an October incident when "CBS Mornings" anchor Tony Dokoupil challenged author Ta-Nehisi Coates’ depiction of Israel in his book "The Message," in which he compares the country's treatment of Palestinians to the Jim Crow South.

McMahon also faced internal criticism from Redstone over a "60 Minutes" segment in January during which host Lesley Stahl asked Hamas hostage survivor Keith Siegel if the terrorist group starved him on purpose.

"They were beating me and starving me," Siegel explained. 

"Do you think they starved you because or they just didn’t have food?" Stahl asked.

Siegel denied that his torturers didn’t have enough food, recounting, "No, I think they starved me, and they would often eat in front of me and not offer me food."

The former hostage and his wife were kidnapped from their kibbutz during Hamas’ terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Siegel spent 484 days in "unimaginable conditions" in Hamas captivity. Yet Stahl wondered aloud whether the terrorists were just a bit short on supply.

McMahon also oversaw the network during its fawn session over new censorship laws in Germany, which allow police to raid homes of individuals suspected of "insulting" people in person or online.

In February, CBS anchor Margaret Brennan blamed free speech for the rise of the Holocaust. 

"Well, [JD Vance] was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide," Brennan told Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Vance's criticism of Germany's crackdown on free speech during the Munich Security Conference. 

"He met with the head of a political party that has far-right views and some historic ties to extreme groups. The context of that was changing the tone of it. And you know that."

In actuality, that is simply inaccurate.

McMahon and minions like Bill Owens fractured a respected brand. Paramount needed to make a move, regardless of its legal battle with Trump. The new division became a shell of itself.

We empathize that CBS News is not supposed to mirror MSNBC or Slate Magazine. CBS News brands itself as a moderate, fact-based news operation. Under Wendy McMahon, it was hardly that.