Lesley Stahl says 60 Minutes staff discussed quitting en masse after Bill Owens resigned
Stahl opened up in an interview about the pain and heartbreak of 60 Minutes' tumultuous 2025.
Lesley Stahl, Photo: Monica Schipper/Getty Images for HeartShare
It’s been a turbulent and depressing year for 60 Minutes. You can hear that tumult running all through 34-year veteran of the program Lesley Stahl’s voice in a new interview she gave to The New Yorker Radio Hour this week, giving frank answers on topics like pressure from corporate owners to alter stories, Donald Trump’s ridiculous $20 billion lawsuit against CBS News, and—in the interview’s most emotional moment—her reaction to series producer Bill Owens announcing that he was resigning from his role as leader of the show back in April. Calling Owens’ resistance to Paramount’s attempts to control 60 Minutes‘ reporting “heroic,” Stahl said his resignation felt like “a punch in the stomach …. one of those punches where you almost can’t breathe.”